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
Another gentleman of these parts is being severely "Boycotted," to wit
Mr. T. Sanders, of Sanders Park, Charleville, county Cork, just over
the border from county Limerick; the Mr. Sanders, in fact, whom I saw
the Palladians roaring and yelling at on the occasion of my first
visit to the classic battlefield of the "three and four year olds." On
that occasion he had been vainly trying to get in rents for the
charitable bequest known as Erasmus Smith's Schools, and Pallas was
full of noisy and more or less drunken Palladians, who dealt with Mr.
Sanders in such wise that the police were obliged to see him into a
railway carriage, and stand by the door till the train moved on. I
would fain have called upon Mr. Sanders as I drove to Charleville, but
the civil and obliging landlord of Lincoln's Hotel at that place, who
supplied me with an excellent carriage and horses, politely apologised
for his inability to drive me thither. He could not possibly enter
Sanders Park, nor would any of his men go near that abhorred spot. No
orders concerning Spa-hill had been issued by the "Real Government" in
the absence of the hated head of the house, and I might be driven
there and welcome; but Sanders Park was another matter. I might walk
out of the town, and across the park if I liked, and my informant
would ensure that I went and returned in safety, as for that matter I
knew very well; but not being fond of walking against time through the
mud, I preferred going whither I could be driven in comfort. Moreover,
the novelty of the thing is wearing off, and "Boycotting" is now only
interesting when ingeniously evaded or boldly defied.
So long as a railway station is near him, the "Boycottee," if he have
only two or three servants to stand firm, can practically bring the
Boycotters to their wits' end. The railway companies being, I take it,
common carriers, dare not refuse, like the cowardly shippers of Cork,
to take the "Boycottee's" beef and plum pudding, wine and whisky, to
the most convenient railway station, whence he, if well-armed and
provided with an escort of constabulary, can bring in his supplies
under the very nose of the infuriated peasants who stand scowling
around the station gate and roar and "boo" their disgust at being
foiled. There is not the slightest fear of the "Boycotters" running
their heads against Winchester rifles and army revolvers, and the
convoy need apprehend nothing hotter or harder than curses and groans,
which, "like the idle wind, hurt not the mariner ashore."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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