Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (2 of 2) (1888) by William Henry Hurlbert

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NOTE G2.

THE GLENBEHY EVICTION FUND.

(Vol. ii. p. 12.)

In the _London Times_ of September 15 appears the following letter from
the Land Agent whom I saw at Glenbehy, setting forth the effect of this
"Glenbehy Eviction Fund" upon the morals of the tenants and the peace of
the place:--

_To the Editor of the Times._

"Sir,--Although nearly eighteen months have elapsed since the
evictions on the Glenbehy estate, after which the above-named fund
was started and largely subscribed to by the sympathetic British
public, I think it only fair to throw a little light on the manner
in which this fund has been expended, and the effects which are
still felt in consequence of the money not yet being exhausted.

"It was generally supposed that the tenants then evicted were in
such poor circumstances as to be unable to settle, whereas, as a
matter of fact, they were, and are, with a few exceptions, the most
well-to-do on the estate, having, for the most part, from five to
fifteen head of cattle, in addition to sheep, pigs, etc.

"Among the tenants evicted at that time many had not paid rents
since 1879, and had been in illegal occupation since 1884, from
which latter date the landlord was responsible for taxes, provided
it is proved that sufficient distress cannot be made of the lands.
These tenants were offered a clear receipt to May 1, 1886, if they
paid half a year's rent, which would scarcely have paid the cost of
proceedings, and the landlord would therefore have been put to
actual loss. These people, though well able to settle, are given to
understand that as soon as they do so their participation in the
eviction fund will cease, and thus it will be seen that a direct
premium is being paid to dishonesty.

"In one case a widow woman was summoned for being on the farm from
which she was at that time evicted. Finding out that one of her
children was ill, I applied to the magistrate at the hearing of the
case only to impose a nominal fine. In consequence she was fined
one penny, but sooner than pay this she went to gaol, though she
had several head of cattle and, prior to her eviction, a very nice
farm. The case of this woman fairly illustrates the combination
which has existed to avoid the fulfilment of obligations.

"The amount of fines paid for similar offences comes, in several
instances, to nearly what I require to effect a settlement. Some of
the tenants actually wrote to the late agent on this estate begging
him to evict them in order that they might come in for a share of
the money raised for the relief of distress, and this clearly shows
beyond dispute that the well-meaning subscribers to the fund will
be more or less responsible for any further evictions to which it
may be necessary to resort. I may mention that the parish priest is
one of the trustees for the money which is thus being used for the
purpose of preventing settlements and keeping the place in a
continual state of turmoil.

"Judge Currane, at the January sessions held at Killarney this
year, ruled in about fifty ejectment cases on this estate that
tenants owing one and a half to nine years' rent should pay half a
year's rent and costs within a week, a quarter of a year's rent by
June 1, and a quarter of a year's rent by October 1; arrears to be
cancelled. Some of these, owing to non-compliance with the Judge's
ruling, may have to be evicted, and their eviction will be what is
termed the unrooting of peasants' houses and the ejectment of
overburdened tenants for not paying impossible rents.

"I confess I am at a loss to understand how Mr. Parnell's Arrears
Act would have improved matters or have averted what one of your
contemporaries calls a "painful scandal."--I am, Sirs, yours, &c.,

"D. TODD-THORNTON, J.P., Land Agent.

"Glenbehy, Killarney."

NOTE G.

HOME RULE AND PROTESTANTISM.

(Vol. ii. p. 68.)

I fear that all the "Nationalist" clergy in Ireland are not as careful
as Father Keller to avoid giving occasion for this impression that Irish
autonomy would be followed by a persecution of the Protestants. But a
little more than three years ago, for example, the following circular
was issued by the Bishop of Ossory, and affixed to the door of the
churches in his diocese. Who can wonder that it should have been
regarded by Protestants in that diocese as a direct stirring up of
bitter religious animosities against them? Or that, emanating directly
as it did from a bishop of the Church, it should be represented as
emanating indirectly from the Head of the Church himself at Rome?

"_Kilkenny, April 16th, 1885._

"REV. DEAR SIR,--May I ask you to read the following circular for
the people at each of the Masses on Sunday, 19th April?

"The course to be adopted for the future by the Priest of the Parish
to whom notice of a Mixed Marriage is given by the Minister, or the
Registrar, is as follows:--he makes the following entry on the book
of Parochial announcements, and reads it three consecutive Sundays
from the Altar:--

"'The Priests of the Parish have received the following notice of a
marriage to be celebrated between a Catholic and a Protestant. [Here
read Registrar's notice in full.] We have now to inform you that the
law of the Catholic Church regarding such marriages is: that the
Catholic party contracting marriage before a Registrar or other
unauthorised person is, by the very fact of so doing,
Excommunicated; and the witnesses to such marriage are also
Excommunicated.'

"I should be very much obliged if, as occasion may require, you
would explain the effects of this Excommunication from the Altar.

"You will please take notice that the Registrar or Minister is bound
legally to send the notice of marriage referred to above, and also,
that in reading it out _in the form, and with the accompanying
remarks above_, you incur no legal penalty.

"I feel sure that with your accustomed zeal you will do everything
in your power to prevent abuses in regard to the Sacrament of
Matrimony, which is great in Christ and the Church, and to induce
the faithful to prepare for receiving it by Prayer, by works of
Charity, and by approaching the Sacrament of Penance to purify their
souls.--Yours faithfully in Christ,

[Image: Cross] A. BROWNRIGG."

"MY DEAR BRETHREN,--We have been very much pained to learn, within
the past month, that marriages between Catholics and non-Catholics
have increased very much in this city of Kilkenny. Many
_evil-disposed_ persons, utterly unmindful of the prohibitions of
the Church, and regardless of the dreadful consequences they bring
on themselves, have not hesitated to enter into those _unholy
matrimonial alliances_ called "Mixed Marriages," which the Catholic
Church has always _hated and detested_. Those misguided Catholics,
who do not deserve the name, have not blushed to go, in some
instances, before the Protestant Minister, in other instances,
before the Public Registrar, to ask them to assist at their marriage
with a Protestant. By contracting marriage in this way, they run a
great risk of bringing on themselves and on their children, should
they have any, the _maledictions_ of Heaven instead of the blessings
of religion. In order to put a stop to this growing abuse, and to
prevent it from spreading like a contagion to other parts of the
Diocese, we beg to remind the faithful of certain regulations which,
for the future, shall have force in the Diocese of Ossory in
reference to the Catholics, who so far forget themselves as to
contract such marriages.

"1. In the first place, any one who contracts a "Mixed Marriage"
without a dispensation from the Holy See and before a Protestant
Minister or a Registrar is, by the very fact, guilty of a most
grievous mortal sin by violating a solemn law of the Church in a
most grave matter.

"2. The Catholic who assists as witness at such marriage also
commits a most grievous sin by co-operating in an unlawful act.

"3. Both the Catholic party contracting the marriage and the
Catholic witnesses to it cannot be absolved by any priest in the
Diocese of Ossory, unless by the Bishop or by those to whom he
grants special faculties.

"4. In order more effectually to deter people from entering into
_those detestable marriages_, the penalty of _Excommunication_
is hereby attached to that sin both for the Catholic _contracting_
party as also for the Catholic _witnesses_ to such marriage.

"5. The notice which the Protestant Rector or the Registrar is
legally bound in such cases to send to the Parish Priest of the
Catholic party, will be read from the Altar for three consecutive
Sundays, and thus the _crime_ of the offending party brought out
into open light before his or her fellow-parishioners.

"6. For the rest, we hope the sense of decency and religion of the
Catholic people and their Pastors shall be no more hurt by any
Catholic entering into those marriages, so full of, misery and evil
of every kind for themselves, their children, and society at
large.--Yours faithfully in Christ,

[Image: Cross] ABRAHAM, Bishop of Ossory.

NOTE H.

TULLY AND THE WOODFORD EVICTIONS.

(Vol. ii. p. 149.)

Since the first edition of this book was published certain "evictions"
mentioned in it as impending on the Clanricarde estates have been
carried out. I have no reason to suppose that there was more or less
reason for carrying out these evictions than there usually is, not in
Ireland only, but all over the civilised world, for a resort by the
legal owners of property to legal means of recovering the possession of
it from persons who fail to comply with the terms on which it was put
into their keeping. Whether this failure results from dishonesty or from
misfortune is a consideration not often allowed, I think, to affect the
right of the legal owner of the property concerned to his legal remedy
in any other country but Ireland, nor even in Ireland in the case of any
property other than property in land. But as what I learned on the spot
touching the general condition of the Clanricarde tenants, and touching
the conduct and character of Lord Clanricarde's agent, Mr. Tener, led me
to take a special interest in these evictions, I asked him to send me
some account of them. In reply he gave me a number of interesting
details.

The only serious attempt at resisting the execution of the law was made
by "Dr." Tully, one of the leading local "agitators," to the tendency of
whose harangues judicial reference was made during the investigation
into the case of Mr. Wilfrid Blunt. Tully had a holding of seventeen
acres at a rent of L2, 10s., the Government valuation being L4. He
earned a good livelihood as a boat-builder, and he had put up a slated
house on his holding. But in November 1884 he chose to stop paying the
very low rent at which he held his place, and he has paid no rent since
that time. As is stated in a footnote on page 153, vol. ii. of this
book, a decree was granted against Tully by Judge Henn for three years'
rent due in May 1887, and his equity of redemption having expired July
9, 1888, this recourse was had to the law against him.

As the leading spirit of the agitation, Tully had put a garrison into
his house of twelve men and two women. He had dug a ditch around it,
taken out the window-sashes, filled up the casements and the doorways
with stones and trunks of trees. Portholes had been pierced under the
roof, through which the defenders might thrust red-hot pikes,
pitchforks, and other weapons, and empty pails of boiling water upon the
assailants. A brief parley took place. Tully refused to make any offer
of a settlement unless the agent would agree to reinstate all the
evicted tenants, to which Mr. Tener replied that he would recognise no
"combination," but was ready to deal with every tenant fairly and
individually. Finally the Sheriff ordered his men to take the place.
Ladders were planted, and while some of the constables, under the
protection of a shield covered with zinc, a sort of Roman _testudo_,
worked at removing the earthern ramparts, others nimbly climbed to the
roof and began to break in from above. In their excitement the garrison
helped this forward by breaking holes through the roof themselves to get
at the attacking party, and in about twenty minutes the fortress was
captured, and the inmates were prisoners. Two constables were burned by
the red-hot pikes, the gun of another was broken to pieces by a huge
stone, and a fourth was slightly wounded by a fork. One of the defenders
got a sword-cut; and Tully was brought forth as one too severely wounded
to walk. Upon investigation, however, the surgeon refused to certify
that he was unable to undergo the ordinary imprisonment in such cases
made and provided.

The collapse of the resistance at this central point was followed by a
general surrender.

After the capture of Tully's house, Mr. Tener writes to me, "I found it
being gutted by his family, who would have carried it away piecemeal.
They had already taken away the flooring of one of the rooms." Thereupon
Mr. Tener had the house pulled down, with the result of seeing a
statement made in a leading Nationalist paper that he was "evicting the
tenants and pulling down their houses."

"Yesterday," Mr. Tener writes to me on the 9th of September, "I walked
twenty-five miles, visiting thirty farms about Portumna. Except in two
or three cases, the tenants have ample means, and part of the live stock
alone on the farms, exclusive of the crops, would suffice to pay all the
rents I had demanded. On the farms recently 'evicted,' I found treble
the amount of the rent due in live stock alone."

As to one case of these recent evictions, I found it stated in an Irish
journal that a young man, who had been ill of consumption for two years,
the son of a tenant, was removed from the house, the local physician
refusing to certify that he was unfit for removal, and that he died a
few days afterwards. The implication was obvious, and I asked Mr. Tener
for the facts.

He replied, "This young man, John Fahey, was in consumption, but did not
appear to be in any danger. Dr. Carte, an Army surgeon, examined him,
and said there was no immediate danger. The day was fine and he walked
about wrapped in a comfortable coat, and talked with me and others. His
father, a respectable man, made no attempt to defend his house; and at
his request, after the crowd had gone away, my man in charge permitted
the invalid and the family to reoccupy the house temporarily because of
his illness. There was no inquest, and no need of any, after his death.
His father, Patrick Fahey, had means to pay, but told me he 'could not,'
which meant he 'dared not.' I went to him personally twice, and sent him
many messages. But the terror of the League was upon the poor man.

"An interesting case is that of Michael Fahey, of Dooras. In 1883 his
rent was judicially reduced about 5 per cent., from L33 to L31, 5s. His
house and all about it is substantial and comfortable. His father, about
thirty years ago, fought for a whole night and bravely beat off a party
of 'Terry-Alts,' the 'Moonlighters' of that day. For his courage the
Government presented him with a gun, of which the son is very proud.
Pity he did not inherit the pluck with the gun of his parent!

"I had been privately told that this tenant would pay; but that he would
first produce a doctor's certificate that his old mother could not be
moved. He did give the Sheriff a carefully worded document to show this,
but it was so vague that I objected to its being received by the
Sheriff. Upon this (not before! mark the craft of even a well-disposed
Irish tenant in those evil days), I was asked to go into the house. I
went in and entered the parlour. There the tenant told me he would pay
the year's rent and the costs, amounting to L50. He had risen from his
seat to fetch the money, when, lo! Father Egan (the priest upon whose
head the widow of the murdered Finlay called down the curse of God in
the open street of Woodford) appeared in the doorway. He had come in on
a pretence of seeing the old mother of the tenant, who had (for that
occasion) taken to her bed. The bedroom lay beyond the parlour, and was
entered from it. The tenant actually shook with fear as Father Egan
passed through, and I thought all hope of a settlement gone, when
suddenly the officer of the police came in, passed into the bedroom, and
told Father Egan he must withdraw. This Father Egan refused to do,
whereupon the officer said very quietly, 'I shall remove you forthwith
if you do not go out quietly.' Upon this Father Egan hastily left. The
tenant then went into the bedroom and soon reappeared with the L50 in
bank-notes, which he paid me. All this was dramatic enough. But the
comedy was next performed in front of the house, where all could see it,
of handing to the Sheriff the alleged doctor's certificate, and of my
saying aloud that 'in the circumstances' I had no objection to his
receiving it! After this all the forces proceeded to take their luncheon
on the green bank sloping down to the Shannon in front of the
farm-house. There is a fine orchard on the place, and it recalled to me
some of the farms I saw in Virginia.

"I had gone into the house again, and was standing near the fire in the
kitchen, where some of my escort were taking their luncheon. It is a
large kitchen, and perhaps a dozen people were in it, when in came
Father Egan again and called to the tenant Fahey, 'Put out those
policemen, and do not suffer one of them to remain.'

"The sergeant instantly said, 'We are here on duty, Father Egan, and if
you dare to try to intimidate this tenant, I shall either put you out or
arrest you.'

"'Yes,' I interposed, looking at the sergeant, 'you are certainly here
on duty, and in the name of the law, and it is sad to see a clergyman
here in the interest of an illegal, criminal, and rebellious movement,
and of the immoral Plan of Campaign.'

"'Oh!' exclaimed Father Egan, 'the opinion of the agent of the Marquis
of Clanricarde is valuable, truly!'

"'I give you,' I said, 'not my opinion, but the opinion of Dr. Healy and
Dr. O'Dwyer, bishops of your Church, and men worthy of all respect and
reverence. And I am sorry to know that some ecclesiastics deserve no
respect, but that at their doors lies the main responsibility for the
misery and the crime which afflict our unhappy country. I feel sure a
just God will punish them in due time.'

"Father Egan made no reply, but paused a moment, and then walked out of
the house.

"At the next house, that of Dennis Fahey, we found a still better
dwelling. Here we had another mock certificate, but we received the rent
with the costs."

NOTE H2.

BOYCOTTING THE DEAD.

(Vol. ii. p. 151.)

The following official account sent to me (July 24) of an affair in
Donegal, the result of the gospel of "Boycotting" taught in that region,
needs and will bear no comment.

Patrick Cavanagh came to reside at Clonmany, County Donegal, about two
months ago, as caretaker on some evicted farms. He died on Wednesday
evening, June 20th, having received the full rites of the Roman Catholic
Church. The people had displayed no ill-will towards him during his
brief residence at Clonmany, and on the evening of his death his body
was washed and laid out by some women. On Thursday two townsmen dug his
grave, where pointed out by Father Doherty, P.P.

The first symptom of change of feeling was that on Thursday every
carpenter applied to had some excuse for not making a coffin for the
body of deceased. On Friday morning the grave was found to be filled
with stones, and a deputation waited on Father Doherty to protest
against Cavanagh's burial in the chapel graveyard. He told them to go
home and mind their business. About 10.30 A.M. on Friday the chapel bell
was rung--not tolled or rung as for service, but faster. The local
sergeant of police went to the cemetery; when he arrived there the
tolling ceased. He then went to Father Doherty, who told those present
that their conduct was such as to render them unfit for residence
anywhere but in a savage country. He told them to go to their homes, and
advised them to allow the corpse to be buried in the grave he had marked
out. After Father Doherty had left, the people condemned his
interference, and said they would not allow any stranger to be buried in
the graveyard. When Constable Brady put it to those present that their
real objection did not lie in the fact that Cavanagh had been a
stranger, he was not contradicted.

The body was ultimately buried at Carndonagh on Saturday, several people
remaining in the graveyard at Clonmany all through the night (Friday)
till the body was taken to Carndonagh for burial.

At Carndonagh Petty Sessions, on the 18th July 1888, Con. Doherty and
Owen Doherty, with five others, were prosecuted for unlawful assembly on
the occasion above referred to. The first two named, who were the
ringleaders, were convicted, and sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment
each with hard labour; the charges against the remainder were dismissed.

NOTE I.

POST-OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS.

(Vol. i. p. 117; vol. ii. pp. 5, 12, 66, 95, 200, 248.)

As the Post-Office Savings Banks represent the smaller depositors, and
command special confidence among them even in the disturbed districts, I
print here an official statement showing the balances due to depositors
in the undermentioned offices, situated in certain of the most disturbed
regions I visited, on the 31st December of the years 1880 and 1887
respectively:--

+-----------------+-----------------+---------------+
| OFFICE. | 1880. | 1887. |
+-----------------+-----------------+---------------+
| | L s. d. | L s. d. |
| Bunbeg, | 1,270 6 7 | 1,206 18 2 |
| Falcarragh, | 62 15 10 | 494 10 8 |
| Gorey, | 3,690 14 4 | 5,099 5 7 |
| Inch, |[A] 8 11 0 | 209 7 5 |
| Killorglin, | 282 15 9 | 1,299 2 6 |
| Loughrea, | 5,500 19 9 | 6,311 4 11 |
| Mitchelstown, | 1,387 13 2 | 2,846 9 3 |
| Portumna, | 2,539 10 11 | 3,376 5 4 |
| Sixmilebridge, | 382 17 10 | 934 13 4 |
| Stradbally, | 1,812 14 8 | 2,178 18 2 |
| Woodford, | 259 14 6 | 1,350 17 11 |
| Youghal, | 3,031 0 7 | 7,038 7 2 |
+-----------------+-----------------+---------------+
[A] This Office was not opened for Savings Bank
business until the year 1881, the amount shown
being balance due on the 31st December 1882.

It appears from this table that the deposits in these Savings Banks
increased in the aggregate from L20,329, 15s. 11d. in 1880 to L32,347,
9s. 7d. in 1887, or almost 60 per cent, in seven years. They fell off in
only one case, at Bunbeg, and there only to a nominal amount. At Youghal
they much more than doubled, increasing about 133 per cent. Yet in all
these places the Plan of Campaign has been invoked "because the people
were penniless and could not pay their debts!"

NOTE K.

THE COOLGREANY EVICTIONS.

(Vol. ii. p. 216.)

Captain Hamilton sends me the following graphic account of this affair
at Coolgreany:--

In the _Freeman's Journal_ of the 16th December 1886, it is reported
that a meeting of the Brooke tenantry, the Rev. P. O'Neill in the chair,
was held at Coolgreany on the Sunday previous to the 15th December 1886,
the date on which the "Plan of Campaign" was adopted on the estate, at
which it was resolved that if I refused the terms offered they would
join the "Plan."

I had no conference at Freeman's house or anywhere else at any time with
two parish priests. On the 15th December 1886, when seated in Freeman's
house waiting to receive the rents, four priests, a reporter of the
_Freeman's Journal_, some local reporters, and four of the tenants
rushed into the room; and the priests in the rudest possible manner (the
Rev. P. Farrelly, one of them, calling me "Francy Hyne's hangman," and
other terms of abuse) informed me that unless I re-instated a former
Roman Catholic tenant in a farm which he had previously held, and which
was then let to a Protestant, and gave an abatement of 30 per cent., no
rent would be paid _me_ that day. Dr. Dillon, C.C., was not present on
this occasion, or, if so, I do not remember seeing him.

On my asking if I had no alternative but to concede to their demand, the
Rev. Mr. Dunphy, parish priest, replied, "None other; do not think, sir,
we have come here to-day to do honour to you."

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