Rossbehy, Feb. 21, 1
The latest eviction at Glenbehy, 1
Trafalgar Square, 1, 2
Father Little, 3
Mr. Frost, 3, 4
Priest and landlord, 3
Savings Banks' deposits at Six-mile Bridge, 5
Drive through Limerick, 5
Population and trade, 5, 6
Boycotting and commerce, 6, 7
Shores of the Atlantic, 7
Tralee, 7
Killorglin, 8
Hostelry in the hills, 8
Facts of the eviction, 9-13
Glenbehy Eviction Fund (see Note G2), 12
A walk on Washington's birthday, 13
A tenant at Glenbehy offers £13 in two instalments
in full for £240 arrears, 13
English and Irish members, 14
"Winn's Folly," 15
Acreage and rental of the Glenbehy estate, 16
Work of eviction begun, 17
Patience of officers, 17
American and Irish evictions contrasted, 17
"Oh, he's quite familiar," 18
A modest Poor Law Guardian, 18, 19
Moonlighters' swords, 20
Father Quilter and the "poor slaves," his people, 21,22
Beauty of Lough Caragh, 23
Difficulty of getting evidence, 25
Effects of terrorism in Kerry, 25
Singular identification of a murderer, 26
Local administration in Tralee, 28
CHAPTER VIII.
Cork, Feb. 23, 30
Press accounts of Glenbehy evictions astonish an eye-witness, 30
Castle Island, 31
Mr. Roche and Mr. Gladstone, 31
Opinions of a railway traveller, 31, 32
Misrepresentations of evictions, 32
Cork, past and present, 34
Mr. Gladstone and the Dean, 35
League Courts in Kerry, 36
Local Law Lords, 36
Mr. Colomb and the Fenian rising in 1867, 37
Remarkable letter of an M.P., 38
Irish Constabulary, _morale_ of the force, 40
The clergy and the Plan of Campaign, 41
Municipal history, 43
Increase of public burdens, 44
Tralee Board of Guardians, 46
Labourers and tenants, 46
Feb. 25, 47
Boycotting, 47-49
Land law and freedom of contract, 49
Rivalry between Limerick and Cork, 50
Henry VIII. and the Irish harp, 50
Municipal Parliamentary franchise, 51
Environs of Cork, 52
Churches and chapels, 53
Attractive home at Belmullet, 54
Lord Carnarvon and the Priest, 55
Feb. 26, 56
Blarney Castle, 56, 57
St. Anne's Hill, 56, 57
An evicted woman on "the Plan," 59
The Ponsonby estate, 59
Feb. 27--A day at Youghal, 60
Father Keller, 61-76
On emigration and migration, 66
Protestants and Catholics (see Note G3), 68
Meath as a field for peasant proprietors, 69
Ghost of British protection, 70
A farmer evicted from a tenancy of 200 years, 71
Sir Walter Raleigh's house and garden, 71-73
Churches of St. Mary of Youghal and St. Nicholas of Galway, 73
Monument and churchyard, 73, 74
An Elizabethan candidate for canonisation, 75
Drive to Lismore, 76
Driver's opinions on the Ponsonby estates, 77
Dromaneen Castle and the Countess of Desmond, 78
Trappist Monastery at Cappoquin, 78
Lismore, 78, 79
Castle grounds and cathedral, 79, 80
CHAPTER IX.
Feb. 28, 82
Portumna, Galway, 82
Run through Cork, Limerick, Tipperary,
Queen's and King's County to Parsonstown, 82
A Canadian priest on the situation, 83
His reply to M. de Mandat Grancey, 83
Relations of priests with the League, 83-85
Parsonstown and Lord Rosse, 86
Drive to Portumna, 87
An abandoned railway, 88
American storms, grain, and beasts, 88, 89
Portumna Castle, 90, 91
Lord Clanricarde's estate, 92
Mr. Tener, 92-128
Plan of Campaign, 94-99
Ability of tenants to pay their rents, 95
Mr. Dillon in 1886, 96
Mr. Parnell in 1885, 97
Tenants in greater danger than landlords and agents, 100
Feb. 29, 100
Conference between evicted tenants and agent, 100-106
Castle and park, 107
The League shopkeeper and tenant, 108
Under police escort, 109
Cost of 'knocking' a man, 109
What constitutes a group, 110
Favourite spots for administering a League oath, 110
Disbursing treasurers, 111
Change of venue, 111
Bishop of Clonfert, 112-115
Bector of Portumna, 115
Father Coen, 116
Coercion on the part of the League, 118-121
Deposits in banks, 120
Should landlords and shopkeepers be placed on one footing? 121
New Castle of Portumna, 122
Portumna Union, 123, 124
Troubles of resident landlords, 125-127
Effects of the agitation on the people, 124
War against property and private rights, 127
Mr. Tener's experiences in Cavan, 127-130
Similar cases in Leitrim, 130-132
Sale of rents and value of tenant-right, 133, 134
CHAPTER X.
Dublin, March 1, 135
Portumna to Woodford, 135
Evictions of October 1887, 135
Capture of Cloondadauv Castle, 137-141
A tenant and a priest, 141-144
Workmen's wages in Massachusetts compared with
the profits of a tenant farmer in Ireland, 146
Loughrea, 148, 149
Murder of Finlay, 150, 151
The chrysoprase Lake of Loughrea, 154
Lord Clanricarde's estate office, acreage, and rental, 155
Woodford acreage and rental, 155,156
Drive from Loughrea to Woodlawn, 156-160
A Galway "jarvey" on the situation, 156-159
Woodlawn and the Ashtown property, 160
CHAPTER XI.
Borris, March 2, 161
Mr. Kavanagh, 161-163
Borris House, 163-167
A living Banshee, 165, 166
Land Corporation--its mode of working, 167
Meeting in Dublin, 1885, 168
Rev. Mr. Cantwell, 168
Lord Lansdowne's property at Luggacurren, 169
Mr. Kavanagh's career, 170
Books and papers at Borris, 171
Strongbow, 172
"The five bloods," 172, 173
Genealogy of M'Morroghs and Kavanaghs, 173
March 4, 174
Protestant service read every morning, 174
A Catholic gentleman's views, 175
Relation of tenants to village despots, 176
Would America make a State of Ireland? 177
Land Acts since 1870, 178
The O'Grady of Kilballyowen and his rental, 179
Dispute with his tenants: its cause and effect, 180
His circular to his tenantry, 181-186
CHAPTER XII.
Grenane House, March 5, 187
Visit to Mr. Seigne, 187
Beautiful situation of Grenane, 189
A lady of the country, 189
Mr. Seigne's experience of the tenants, 191-194
The beauty of Woodstock, 194-198
The watch of Waterloo, 197-200
Curious discovery of stolen property, 200
Dublin, March 6, 200
State of deposits in the Savings Banks, 200-201
Interest on "Plan of Campaign" funds, 202
CHAPTER XIII.
Dublin, March 8, 203
Inch and the Coolgreany evictions, 203
Sweet vale of Avoca, 204
Dr. Dillon of Arklow, 204
Fathers O'Neill and Dunphy, 205, 206
Mr. Davitt watching the evictions, 207
Lazy and thriftless tenants better off than before, 209
A self-made committee, 211
The Brooke estate, 212
Sir Thomas Esmonde's house, 213
An Arklow dinner, 214
Dr. Dillon in his study, 215-217
Visit to Glenart Castle, 217
CHAPTER XIV.
Dublin, March 9, 219
Athy, 219
A political jarvey, 220-225
"Who is Mr. Gilhooly?" 221
Lord Lansdowne's offer refused through pressure of the League, 226
Mr. Kilbride, M.P., and Mr. Dunne, 226-228
Lord Lansdowne's estate in Kerry, 228-231
Plan of Campaign at Luggacurren, 231-236
Interview with Father Maher, 236-239
A "jarvey" on a J.P., 240
"Railway amenities," 241
Dublin, March 10, 242
Mr. Brooke, 242-248
Unreasonable tenants, 243, 244
Size and rental of estate, 246
Sub-commissioner's reduction reversed, 246, 247
CHAPTER XV.
Maryborough, 249
Archbishop Croke, 249
Interviews with labourers, 251-253
Views of a successful country teacher, 254, 255
A veteran of the '48, 256-260
Amount of wages to men, 261
The farmers and labourers and lawyers, 264, 265
Dublin, June 23, 268
Mr. Hamilton Stubber and Mr. Robert Staples, 268-270
From Attanagh to Ballyragget, 270
Case of "a little-good-for tenant," 271, 272
Mr. Kough and his tenants, 273-277
Mr. Richardson of Castle Comer, 277
Position of the tenants, 282
£70 a year for whisky, 282
Kilkenny Castle, 282
Mr. Rolleston of Delgany, 283-292
John O'Leary, 285-292
Boycotting private opinion, 292
The League as now conducted, 295
Poems and Ballads of "Young Ireland," 296
Law Courts and Trinity College, 297
American Civil War, 299-302
Dublin, June 24, 302
A dinner with officials, 303-306
A priest earns over £20,000, 305, 306
"Crowner's Quest Law," 309-311
CHAPTER XVI.
Belfast, June 25, 313
Ulster in Irish history, 313
Moira, 315
Views of an Ulsterman, 315, 316
Beauty of Belfast, 317, 318
Its buildings, 319-321
Dr. Hanna, 322-324
Dr. Kane, 325
June 26, 326
Sir John Preston, 326-328
Mr. Cameron, of Royal Irish Constabulary, 328
Police parade, 328
Belfast steamers, 329
Scotland and America at work on Ireland, 330
EPILOGUE, p. 333-349
APPENDIX.
NOTES--
F. The Moonlighters and Home Rule (pp. 10, 38), 351
G. The Ponsonby Property (pp. 59-66), 353
G2 The Glenbehy Eviction Fund (p. 12), 360
G3 Home Rule and Protestantism (p. 68), 362
H. Tully and the Woodford Evictions (p. 149), 364
H2. Boycotting the Dead (p. 151), 370
I. The Savings Banks (P.O.) (vol. i. p. 39, vol. ii. pp. 5 and 200), 371
K. The Coolgreany Evictions (p. 216), 372
L. A Ducal Supper in 1711 (p. 283), 374
M. Letter from Mr. O'Leary (p. 291), 375
N. Boycotting Private Opinion (p. 293), 377
O. Boycotting by Crowner's Quest Law (p. 312), 382
CHAPTER VII.
ROSSBEHY,[1] _Feb. 21._--We are here on the eve of battle! An "eviction"
is to be made to-morrow on the Glenbehy[1] estate of Mr. Winn, an uncle
of Lord Headley, so upon the invitation of Colonel Turner, who has come
to see that all is done decently and in order, I left Ennis with him at
7.40 A.M. for Limerick; the "city of the Liberator" for "the city of the
Broken Treaty." There we breakfasted at the Artillery Barracks.
The officers showed us there the new twelve-pounder gun with its
elaborately scientific machinery, its Scotch sight, and its four-mile
range. I compared notes about the Trafalgar Square riots of February
1886 with an Irish officer who happened to have been on the opposite
side of Pall Mall from me at the moment when the mob, getting out of the
hand of my socialistic friend Mr. Hyndman, and advancing towards St.
James' Street and Piccadilly was broken by a skilful and very spirited
charge of the police. He gave a most humorous account of his own
sensations when he first came into contact with the multitude after
emerging from St. Paul's, where, as he put it, he had left the people
"all singing away like devils." But I found he quite agreed with me in
thinking that there was a visible nucleus of something like military
organisation in the mob of that day, which was overborne and, as it
were, smothered by the mere mob element before it came to trying
conclusions with the police.
On our way to Limerick, Colonel Turner caught sight, at a station, of
Father Little, the parish priest of Six Mile Bridge, in County Clare,
and jumping out of the carriage invited him to get in and pursue his
journey with us, which he very politely did. Father Little is a tall
fine-looking man of a Saxon rather than a Celtic type, and I daresay
comes of the Cromwellian stock. He is a staunch and outspoken
Nationalist, and has been made rather prominent of late by his
championship of certain of his parishioners in their contest with their
landlord, Mr. H.V. D'Esterre, who lives chiefly at Bournemouth in
England, but owns 2833 acres in County Clare at Rosmanagher, valued at
£1625 a year. More than a year ago one of Father Little's parishioners,
Mr. Frost, successfully resisted a large force of the constabulary bent
on executing a process of ejectment against him obtained by Mr.
D'Esterre.
Frost's holding was of 33 Irish, or, in round numbers, about 50 English,
acres, at a rental of £117, 10s., on which he had asked but had not
obtained an abatement. The Poor-Law valuation of the holding was £78,
and Frost estimated the value of his and his father's improvements,
including the homestead and the offices, or in other words his
tenant-right, at £400. The authorities sent a stronger body of
constables and ejected Frost. But as soon as they had left the place
Frost came back with his family, on the 28th Jan. 1887, and reoccupied
it. Of course proceedings were taken against him immediately, and a
small war was waged over the Frost farm until the 5th of September last,
when an expedition was sent against it, and it was finally captured, and
Frost evicted with his family. Upon this last occasion Father Little
(who gave me a very temperate but vigorous account of the whole affair)
distinguished himself by a most ingenious and original attempt to "hold
the fort." He chained himself to the main doorway, and stretching the
chains right and left secured them to two other doors. It was of this
refreshing touch of humour that I heard the other day at Abbeyleix as
happening not in Clare but in Kerry.
Since his eviction Frost has been living, Father Little tells me, in a
wooden hut put up for him on the lands of a kinsman of the same name,
who is also a tenant of Mr. D'Esterre, and who has since been served by
his landlord with a notice of ejectment for arrears, although he had
paid up six months' dues two months only before the service. Father
Little charged the landlord in this case with prevarication and other
evasive proceedings in the course of his negotiations with the tenants;
and Colonel Turner did not contest the statements made by him in support
of his contention that the Rosmanagher difficulty might have been
avoided had the tenants been more fairly and more considerately dealt
with. It is strong presumptive evidence against the landlord that a
kinsman, Mr. Robert D'Esterre, is one of the subscribers to a fund
raised by Father Little in aid of the evicted man Frost. On the other
hand, as illustrating the condition of the tenants, it is noteworthy
that the Post-Office Savings Bank's deposits at Six-Mile Bridge rose
from £382, 17s. 10d. in 1880 to £934, 13s. 4d. in 1887.
After breakfast we took a car and drove rapidly about the city for an
hour. With its noble river flowing through the very heart of the place,
and broadening soon into an estuary of the Atlantic, Limerick ought long
ago to have taken its place in the front rank of British ports dealing
with the New World. In the seventeenth century it was the fourth city of
Ireland, Boate putting it then next after Dublin, Galway, and Waterford.
Belfast at that time, he describes as a place hardly comparable "to a
small market-town in England." To-day Limerick has a population of some
forty thousand, and Belfast a population of more than two hundred
thousand souls. This change cannot be attributed solely, if at all, to
the "Protestant ascendency," nor yet to the alleged superiority of the
Northern over the Southern Irish in energy and thrift, For in the
seventeenth century Limerick was more important than Cork, whereas it
had so far fallen behind its Southern competitor in the eighteenth
century that it contained in 1781 but 3859 houses, while Cork contained
5295. To-day its population is about half as large as that of Cork. It
is a very well built city, its main thoroughfare, George Street, being
at least a mile in length, and a picturesque city also, thanks to the
island site of its most ancient quarter, the English Town, and to the
hills of Clare and Killaloe, which close the prospect of the surrounding
country. But the streets, though many of them are handsome, have a
neglected look, as have also the quays and bridges. One of my
companions, to whom I spoke of this, replied, "if they look neglected,
it's because they are neglected. Politics are the death of the place,
and the life of its publics."[2]
As we approached the shores of the Atlantic from Limerick, the scenery
became very grand and beautiful. On the right of the railway the country
rolled and undulated away towards the Stacks, amid the spurs and slopes
of which, in the wood of Clonlish, Sanders, the Nuncio sent over to
organise Catholic Ireland against Elizabeth, miserably perished of want
and disease six years before the advent of the great Armada. To the
south-west rose the grand outlines of the Macgillicuddy's Reeks, the
highest points, I believe, in the South of Ireland. We established
ourselves at the County Kerry Club on our arrival in Tralee, which I
found to be a brisk prosperous-looking town, and quite well built. A
Nationalist member once gave me a gloomy notion of Tralee, by telling
me, when I asked him whether he looked forward with longing to a seat in
the Parliament of Ireland, that "when he was in Dublin now he always
thought of London, just as when he used to be in Tralee he always
thought of Dublin." But he did less than justice to the town upon the
Lee. We left it at half-past four in the train for Killorglin. The
little station there was full of policemen and soldiers, and knots of
country people stood about the platform discussing the morrow. There had
been some notion that the car-drivers at Killorglin might "boycott" the
authorities. But they were only anxious to turn an honest penny by
bringing us on to this lonely but extremely neat and comfortable
hostelry in the hills.
We left the Sheriff and the escort to find their way as best they could
after us.
Mrs. Shee, the landlady here, ushered us into a very pretty room hung
with little landscapes of the country, and made cheery by a roaring
fire. Two or three officers of the soldiers sent on here to prevent any
serious uproar to-morrow dined with us.
The constabulary are in force, but in great good humour. They have no
belief that there will be any trouble, though all sorts of wild tales
were flying about Tralee before we left, of English members of
Parliament coming down to denounce the "Coercion" law, and of risings in
the hills, and I know not what besides. The agent of the Winn property,
or of Mr. Head of Reigate in Surrey, the mortgagee of the estate, who
holds a power of attorney from Mr. Winn, is here, a quiet, intelligent
young man, who has given me the case in a nut-shell.
The tenant to be evicted, James Griffin, is the son and heir of one Mrs.
Griffin, who on the 5th of April 1854 took a lease of the lands known as
West Lettur from the then Lord Headley and the Hon. R. Winn, at the
annual rent of £32, 10s. This rent has since been reduced by a judicial
process to £26. In 1883 James Griffin, who was then, as he is now, an
active member of the local branch of the National League, and who was
imprisoned under Mr. Gladstone's Act of 1881 as a "suspect," was
evicted, being then several years in arrears. He re-entered unlawfully
immediately afterwards, and has remained in West Lettur unlawfully ever
since, actively deterring and discouraging other tenants from paying
their rents. He took a great part in promoting the refusal to pay which
led to the famous evictions of last year. As to these, it seems the
tenants had agreed, in 1886, to accept a proposition from Mr. Head,
remitting four-fifths of all their arrears upon payment of one year's
rent and costs. Mr. Sheehan, M.P., a hotel-keeper in Killarney,
intervened, advising the tenants that the Dublin Parliament would soon
be established, and would abolish "landlordism," whereupon they refused
to keep their agreement.[3] Sir Redvers Buller, who then filled the post
now held by Sir West Ridgway, seeing this alarming deadlock, urged Mr.
Head to go further, and offer to take a half-year's rent and costs. If
the tenants refused this Sir Redvers advised Mr. Head to destroy all
houses occupied by mere trespassers, such as Griffin, who, if they could
hold a place for twelve years, would acquire a title under the Statute
of Limitations. A negotiation conducted by Sir Redvers and Father
Quilter, P.P., followed, and Father Quilter, for the tenants, finally,
in writing, accepted Mr. Head's offer, under which, by the payment of
£865, they would be rid of a legal liability for £6177. The League again
intervened with bribes and threats, and Father Quilter found himself
obliged to write to Colonel Turner a letter in which he said, "Only
seventeen of the seventy tenants have sent on their rents to Mr. Roe
(the agent). Though promising that they would accept the terms, they
have withdrawn at the last moment from fulfilment.... I shall never
again during my time in Glenbehy interfere between a landlord and his
tenants. I have poor slaves who will not keep their word. Now let Mr.
Roe or any other agent in future deal with Glenbeighans as he likes."
The farms lie at a distance even from this inn, and very far therefore
from Killorglin, and the agent, knowing that the tenants would be
encouraged by Griffin and by Mr. Harrington, M.P., and others, to come
back into their holdings as soon as the officers withdrew, ordered the
woodwork of several cottages to be burned in order to prevent this. This
burning of the cottages, which were the lawful property of the
mortgagee, made a great figure in the newspaper reports, and
"scandalised the civilised world." The present agent thinks it was
impolitic on that account, but he has no doubt it was a good thing
financially for the evicted tenants. "You will see the shells of the
cottages to-morrow," he said, "and you will judge for yourself what they
were worth." But the sympathy excited by the illustrations of the cruel
conflagration and the heartrending descriptions of the reporters,
resulted in a very handsome subscription for the benefit of the tenants
of Glenbehy. General Sir William Butler, whose name came so prominently
before the public in connection with his failure to appear and give
evidence in a recent _cause célèbre_, and whose brother is a Resident
Magistrate in Kerry, was one of the subscribers. The fund thus raised
has been since administered by two trustees, Father Quilter, P.P., and
Mr. Shee, a son of our brisk little landlady here, who maintain out of
it very comfortably the evicted tenants. Not long ago a man in Tralee
tried to bribe the agent into having him evicted, that he might make a
claim on this fund! At Killorglin the Post-Office Savings Bank deposits,
which stood at £282, 15s. 9d. in 1880, rose in 1887 to £1299, 2s. 6d.
James Griffin, despite, or because, of the two evictions through which
he has passed, is very well off. He owns a very good horse and cart, and
seven or eight head of cattle. His arrears now amount to about £240, and
on being urged yesterday to make a proposition which might avoid an
eviction, he gravely offered to pay £8 of the current half-year's rent
in cash, and the remaining £5 in June, the landlord taking on himself
all the costs and giving him a clean receipt! This liberal proposition
was declined. The zeal of her son in behalf of the evicted tenants does
not seem to affect the amiable anxiety of our trim and energetic hostess
to make things agreeable here to the minions of the alien despotism. The
officers both of the police and of the military appear to be on the best
of terms with the whole household, and everything is going as merrily as
marriage bells on this eve of an eviction.
TRALEE, _Wednesday evening, Feb. 22._--We rose early at Mrs. Shee's,
made a good breakfast, and set out for the scene of the day's work. It
was a glorious morning for Washington's birthday, and I could not help
imagining the amazement with which that stern old Virginian landlord
would have regarded the elaborate preparations thought necessary here in
Ireland in the year of our Lord 1888, to eject a tenant who owes two
hundred and forty pounds of arrears on a holding at twenty-six pounds a
year, and offers to settle the little unpleasantness by paying thirteen
pounds in two instalments!
We had a five miles' march of it through a singularly wild and
picturesque region, the hills which lead up to the Macgillicuddy's Reeks
on our left, and on the right the lower hills trending to the salt water
of Dingle Bay. Our start had been delayed by the non-appearance of the
Sheriff, in aid of whom all this parade of power was made; but it turned
out afterwards that he had gone on without stopping to let Colonel
Turner know it.
The air was so bracing and the scenery so fine that we walked most of
the way. Two or three cars drove past us, the police and the troops
making way for them very civilly, though some of the officers thought
they were taking some Nationalist leaders and some English
"sympathisers" to Glenbehy. One of the officers, when I commented upon
this, told me they never had much trouble with the Irish members. "Some
of them," he said, "talk more than is necessary, and flourish about; but
they have sense enough to let us go about our work without foolishly
trying to bother us. The English are not always like that." And he then
told me a story of a scene in which an English M.P., we will call Mr.
Gargoyle, was a conspicuous actor. Mr. Gargoyle being present either at
an eviction or a prohibited meeting, I didn't note which, with two or
three Irish members, all of them were politely requested to step on one
side and let the police march past. The Irish members touched their hats
in return to the salute of the officer, and drew to one side of the
road. But Mr. Gargoyle defiantly planted himself in the middle of the
road. The police, marching four abreast, hesitated for a moment, and
then suddenly dividing into two columns marched on. The right-hand man
of the first double file, as he went by, just touched the M.P. with his
shoulder, and thereby sent him up against the left-hand man of the
corresponding double file, who promptly returned the attention. And in
this manner the distinguished visitor went gyrating through the whole
length of the column, to emerge at the end of it breathless, hatless,
and bewildered, to the intense and ill-suppressed delight of his Irish
colleagues.
Our hostess's son, the trustee of the Eviction Fund, was on one of the
cars which passed us, with two or three companions, who proved to be
"gentlemen of the Press." We passed a number of cottages and some larger
houses on the way, the inmates of which seemed to be minding their own
business and taking but a slight interest in the great event of the day.
We made a little detour at one of the finest points on the road to visit
"Winn's Folly," a modern mediæval castle of considerable size, upon a
most enchanting site, with noble views on every side, quite impossible
to be seen through its narrow loopholed and latticed windows. The castle
is extremely well built, of a fine stone from the neighbourhood, and
with a very small expenditure might be made immediately habitable. But
no one has ever lived in it. It has only been occupied as a temporary
barrack by the police when sent here, and the largest rooms are now
littered with straw for the use of the force. At the beginning of the
century, and for many years afterwards, Lord and Lady Headley lived on
the estate, and kept a liberal house. Their residence was on a fine
point running out into the bay, but, I am told, the sea has now invaded
it, and eaten it away. In 1809 the acreage of this Glenbehy property was
8915 Irish acres or 14,442 English acres, set down under Bath's
valuation at £2299, 17s. 6d. Between 1830 and 1860 the rental averaged
£5000 a year, and between these years £17,898, 14s. 5d. were expended by
the landlord in improvements upon the property. This castle, which we
visited, must have involved since then an outlay of at least £10,000 in
the place.
The present Lord Headley, only a year or two ago, went through the
Bankruptcy Court, and the Hon. Rowland Winn, his uncle, the titular
owner of Glenbehy, is set down among the Irish landlords as owning
13,932 Irish acres at a rental of £1382.
After we passed the castle we began to hear the blowing of rude horns
from time to time on the distant hills. These were signals to the people
of our approach, and gave quite the air of an invasion to our
expedition. We passed the burned cottages of last year just before
reaching Mr. Griffin's house at West Lettur. They were certainly not
large cottages, and I saw but three of them. We found the Sheriff at
West Lettur. The police and the soldiers drew a cordon around the place,
within which no admittance was to be had except on business; and the
myrmidons of the law going into the house with the agent held a final
conference with the tenant, of which nothing came but a renewal of his
previous offer. Then the work of eviction began. There was no attempt at
a resistance, and but for the martial aspect of the forces, and an
occasional blast of a horn from the hills, or the curious noises made
from time to time by a small concourse of people, chiefly women,
assembled on the slope of an adjoining tenancy, the proceedings were as
dull as a parish meeting. What most struck me about the affair was the
patience and good-nature of the officers. In the two hours and a half
which we spent at West Lettur a New York Sheriff's deputies would have
put fifty tenants with all their bags and baggage out of as many houses
into the street. In fact it is very likely that at least that number of
New York tenants were actually so ousted from their houses during this
very time.
The evicted Mr. Griffin was a stout, stalwart man of middle age,
comfortably dressed, with the air rather of a citizen than of a farmer,
who took the whole thing most coolly, as did also his women-kind. All of
them were well dressed, and they superintended the removal and piling up
of their household goods as composedly as if they were simply moving out
of one house into another. The house itself was a large comfortable
house of the country, and it was amply furnished.
I commented on Griffin's indifference to the bailiff, a quiet,
good-natured man.
"Oh, he's quite familiar," was the reply; "it's the third time he's been
evicted! I believe's going to America."
"Oh! he will do very well," said a gentleman who had joined the
expedition like myself to see the scene. "He is a shrewd chap, and not
troubled by bashfulness. He sat on a Board of Guardians with a man I
knew four years ago, and one day he read out his own name, 'James
Griffin,' among a list of applicants for relief at Cahirciveen. The
chairman looked up, and said, 'Surely that is not your name you are
reading, is it?' 'It is, indeed,' replied Griffin, 'and I am as much in
need of relief as any one!' Perhaps you'll be surprised to hear he
didn't get it. This is a good holding he had, and he used to do pretty
well with it--not in his mother's time only of the flush prices, but in
his own. It was the going to Kilmainham that spoiled him."
"How did that spoil him?"
"Oh, it made a great man of him, being locked up. He was too well
treated there. He got a liking for sherry and bitters, and he's never
been able to make his dinner since without a nip of them. Mrs. Shee
knows that well."
To make an eviction complete and legal here, everything belonging to the
tenant, and every live creature must be taken out of the house. A cat
may save a house as a cat may save a derelict ship. Then the Sheriff
must "walk" over the whole holding. All this takes time. There was an
unobtrusive search for arms too going on all the time. Three ramrods
were found hidden in a straw-bed--two of which showed signs of recent
use. But the guns had vanished. An officer told me that not long ago two
revolvers were found in a corner of the thatch of a house; but the
cartridges for them were only some time afterwards discovered neatly
packed away in the top of a bedroom wall. It is not the ownership of
these arms, it is the careful concealment of them which indicates
sinister intent. One of the constables brought out three "Moonlighters'
swords" found hidden away in the house. One of these Colonel Turner
showed me. It was a reversal of the Scriptural injunction, being a
ploughshare beaten into a weapon, and a very nasty weapon of offence,
one end of it sharpened for an ugly thrust, the other fashioned into
quite a fair grip. While I was examining this trophy there was a stir,
and presently two of the gentlemen who had passed us on Mr. Shee's car
came rather suddenly out of the house in company with two or three
constables.
They were representatives, they said, of the Press, and as such desired
to be allowed to remain. Colonel Turner replied that this could not be,
and, in fact, no one had been suffered to enter the house except the
law-officers, the agent, and the constables. So the representatives of
the Press were obliged to pass outside of the lines, one of the
constables declaring that they had got into the house through a hole in
the back wall!
Shortly after this incident there arose a considerable noise of groaning
and shouting from the hill-side beyond the highway, and presently a
number of people, women and children predominating, appeared coming down
towards the precincts of the house. They were following a person in a
clerical dress, who proved to be Father Quilter, the parish priest, who
had denounced his people to Colonel Turner as "poor slaves" of the
League! A colloquy followed between Father Quilter and the policemen of
the cordon. This was brought to a close by Mr. Roche, the resident
magistrate, who went forward, and finding that Father Quilter wished to
pass the cordon, politely but firmly informed him that this could not be
done. "Not if I am the bearer of a telegram for the lawyer?" asked
Father Quilter, in a loud and not entirely amiable tone. "Not on any
terms whatever," responded the magistrate. Father Quilter still
maintaining his ground, the women crowded in around and behind him, the
men bringing up the rear at a respectable distance, and the small boys
shouting loudly. For a moment faint hopes arose within me that I was
about to witness one of the .exciting scenes of which I have more than
once read. But only for a moment. The magistrate ordered the police to
advance. As they drew near the wall with an evident intention of going
over it into the highway, Father Quilter and the women fell back, the
boys and men retreated up the opposite hill, and the brief battle of
Glenbehy was over.
A small messenger bearing a telegram then emerged from the crowd, and
showing his telegram, was permitted to pass. Father Quilter, in a loud
voice, commented upon this, crying out, "See now your consistency! You
said no one should pass, and you let the messenger come in!" To this
sally no reply was returned. After a little the priest, followed by most
of the people, went up the hill to the holding of another tenant, and
there, as the police came in and reported, held a meeting. From time to
time cries were heard in the distance, and ever and anon the blast of a
horn came from some outlying hill.
But no notice was taken of these things by the police, and when the
tedious formalities of the law had all been gone through with, a squad
of men were put in charge of the house and the holding, the rest of the
army re-formed for the march back, our cars came up, and we left West
Lettur. Seeing a number of men come down the hill, as the column
prepared to move, Mr. Roche, making his voice tremendous, after the
fashion of a Greek chorus, commanded the police to arrest and handcuff
any riotous person making provocative noises. This had the desired
effect, and the march back began in silence. When the column was fairly
in the road, "boos" and groans went up from knots of men higher up the
hill, but no heed was taken of these, and no further incident occurred.
I shall be curious to see whether the story of this affair can possibly
be worked up into a thrilling narrative.
We lunched at Mrs. Shee's, where no sort of curiosity was manifested
about the proceedings at West Lettur, and I came back here with Colonel
Turner by another road, which led us past one of the loveliest lakes I
have ever seen--Lough Caragh. Less known to fame than the much larger
Lake of Killarney, it is in its way quite worthy of comparison with any
of the lesser lakes of Europe. It is not indeed set in a coronal of
mountains like Orta, but its shores are well wooded, picturesque, and
enlivened by charming seats--now, for the most part, alas!--abandoned by
their owners. We had a pleasant club dinner here this evening, after
which came in to see me Mr. Hussey, to whom I had sent a letter from Mr.
Froude. Few men, I imagine, know this whole region better than Mr.
Hussey. Some gentlemen of the country joined in the conversation, and
curious stories were told of the difficulty of getting evidence in
criminal cases. What Froude says of the effect of the prohibitive and
protection policy in Ireland upon the morals of the people as to
smuggling must be said, I fear, of the effect of the Penal Laws against
Catholics upon their morals as to perjury. It is not surprising that the
peasants should have been educated into the state of mind of the
Irishman in the old American story, who, being solicited to promise his
vote when he landed in New York, asked whether the party which sought it
was for the Government or against it. Against it, he was told, "Then
begorra you shall have my vote, for I'm agin the Government whatever it
is." One shocking case was told of a notorious and terrible murder here
in Kerry. An old man and his son, so poor that they lay naked in their
beds, were taken out and shot by a party of Moonlighters for breaking a
boycott. They were left for dead, and their bodies thrown upon a
dunghill. The boy, however, was still alive when they were found, and it
was thought he might recover. The magistrates questioned him as to his
knowledge of the murderers. The boy's mother stood behind the
magistrate, and when the question was put, held up her finger in a
warning manner at the poor lad. She didn't wish him to "peach," as, if
he lived, the friends of the murderers would make it impossible for them
to keep their holding and live on it. The lad lied, and died with the
lie on his lips. Who shall sit in judgment on that wretched mother and
her son? But what rule can possibly be too stern to crush out the
terrorism which makes such things possible?
And what right have Englishmen to expect their dominion to stand in
Ireland when their party leaders for party ends shake hands with men who
wink at and use this terrorism? It has so wrought upon the population
here, that in another case, in which the truth needed by justice and the
fears of a poor family trembling for their substance and their lives
came thus into collision, an Irish Judge did not hesitate to warn the
jury against allowing themselves to be influenced by "the usual family
lie"!
A magistrate told us a curious story, which recalls a case noted by Sir
Walter Scott, about the detection of a murderer, who lay long in wait
for a certain police sergeant, obnoxious to the "Moonlighters," and
finally shot him dead in the public street of Loughrea, after dark on a
rainy night, as he was returning from the Post-Office on one side of the
street to the Police Barracks on the other. The town and the
neighbouring country were all agog about the matter, but no trace could
be got until the Dublin detectives came down three days after the
murder. It had rained more or less every one of these days, and the
pools of water were still standing in the street, as on the night of the
murder. One of the Dublin officers closely examining the highway saw a
heavy footprint in the coarse mud at the bottom of one of these pools.
He had the water drawn off, and made out clearly, from the print in the
mud, that the brogan worn by the foot which made it had a broken
sole-piece turned over under the foot. By this the murderer was
eventually traced, captured, tried, and found guilty.
Mr. Morphy, I find, is coming down from Dublin to conduct the
prosecution in the case of the Crown against the murderers of
Fitzmaurice, the old man, so brutally slain the other day near Lixnaw,
in the presence of his daughter, for taking and farming a farm given up
by his thriftless brother. "He will find," said one of the company,
"the mischief done in this instance also by prematurely pressing for
evidence. The girl Honora, who saw her father murdered, never ought to
have been subjected to any inquiry at first by any one, least of all by
the local priest. Her first thought inevitably was that if she intimated
who the men were, they would be screened, and she would suffer. Now she
is recovering her self-possession and coming round, and she will tell
the truth."
"Meanwhile," said a magistrate, "the girl and her family are all
'boycotted,' and that, mark you, by the priest, as well as by the
people. The girl's life would be in peril were not these scoundrels
cowards as well as bullies. Two staunch policemen--Irishmen and
Catholics both of them--are in constant attendance, with orders to
prevent any one from trying to intimidate or to tamper with her. A
police hut is putting up close to the Fitzmaurice house. The Nationalist
papers haven't a word to say for this poor girl or her murdered father.
But they are always putting in some sly word in behalf of Moriarty and
Hayes, the men accused of the murder."
"Furthermore," said another guest, "these two men are regularly supplied
while in prison with special meals by Mrs. Tangney. Who foots the bills?
That is what she won't tell, nor has the Head-Constable so far been able
accurately to ascertain. All we know is that the friends of the
prisoners haven't the money to do it."
Late in the evening came in a tall fine-looking Kerry squire, who told
us, _à propos_ of the Fitzmaurice murder, that only a day or two ago a
very decent tenant of his, who had taken over a holding from a
disreputable kinsman, intending to manage it for the benefit of this
kinsman's family, came to him and said he must give it up, as the
Moonlighters had threatened him if he continued to hold it.
A man of substance in Tralee gave me some startling facts as to the
local administration here. In Tralee Union, he said, there were in 1879
eighty-seven persons receiving outdoor relief, at a cost to the Union of
£30, 17s. 11d., being an average per head of 7s. 1d., and 1879 was a
very bad year, the worst since the great famine year, 1847. A
Nationalist Board was elected in 1880, and a Nationalist chairman in
1884. 1884 was a very good year, but in that year no fewer than 3434
persons received outdoor relief, at a cost of £2534, 13s. 10d., making
an average per head of 14s. 9d.! And at the present time £5000 nominal
worth of dishonoured cheques of the authorities were flying all over the
county!
"On whom," I asked, "does the burden fall of these levies and
extravagances?"
"On the landlords, not on the tenants," he promptly replied. "The
landlord pays the whole of the rates on all holdings of less than £4 a
year, and on all land which is either really or technically in his own
possession. He also pays one-half of the rates on all the rest of his
property."
"Then, in a case like that of Griffin's, evicted at Glenbehy, with
arrears going back to 1883, who would pay the rates?"
"The landlord of course!"[4]