Disturbed Ireland : $b being the letters written during the winter of 1880-81Becker, Bernard H. (Bernard Henry)
History
Disturbed Ireland : $b being the letters written during the winter of 1880-81
Becker, Bernard H. (Bernard Henry)
Ireland -- Social conditions; Working class -- Ireland
On Monday morning Mr. Law stood aghast at the sight of a farm of a
thousand acres with nobody to work it; but he soon recovered himself,
and with the help of his own work, that of a couple of labourers left,
and the co-operation of the master's son and daughter, matters went on
despite the strike. Mr. Law is, of course, as a good Scotch bailiff
should be, greatly distressed at the state of his cow-houses,
feeding-stalls, and stockyard, now ankle-deep in "muck"; but the fine
shorthorned bull seems none the worse, and the pigs have taken kindly
to the new and disorderly condition of affairs. But things are not
brought to a deadlock yet. Of the animals "Boycotted" in Dublin the
sheep have since been shipped, and it is thought here that at the
moment of writing the cattle will be on their way to Sir Thomas Dyke
Acland, to whom they are consigned.
Byron wrote that "nought so much the spirit calms as rum and true
religion;" but this dictum is hardly confirmed in the case of Mr.
Bence Jones's assailants, who number among them a minister of
religion, as well as the irrepressible grogshop-keeper. I am informed
that last Sunday the mutinous labourers--or, perhaps, it would be more
correct to say the labourers who have been coerced by threats into
mutiny--were addressed in the vestry by Father Mulcahy, and that
either he or some other person assured them that they would receive
their wages as if they were still employed. However this may be, the
unfortunate families, about thirty in number, who have struck at the
bidding of the anti-landlord party, are making a sorry bargain; for
many of the men are getting on in years, and will have to seek work
and house-room elsewhere when they are turned out of their cottages to
make room for the strange hands who are coming to do the work they
refuse to do. The neat little dwellings of stone and slate that I
observed to-day on the Lisselan estate are not let to the labourers,
but are, with as much potato land as they can manure, thrown in with
their wages, 11s. per week. They must now make way for people who will
work, and are not afraid of "Rory of the Hills." Offers of help pour
in upon Mr. Bence Jones, and the first detachment of labourers is
expected forthwith. One friend offers a phalanx of English navvies;
but temperate counsels prevail, and it is thought better to get the
really small number of men required brought in quietly. With police
everywhere at Lisselan and Ballinascarthy, and cavalry patrols always
at hand, it is hardly likely that violence will be attempted towards
the newcomers or the present slender garrison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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