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
My long car-drives from Letterfrack and Clifden were directed mainly
towards the spots mentioned in a former letter as of specially evil
reputation for agrarian crime, and as being heavily amerced by the
grand jury. A very slight acquaintance with them excites amazement
that cess, rent, or anything else can be extracted from the utterly
wretched cabins looking on the broad Atlantic. A large number of these
are built on the slope of a lofty peninsula rising to 1,172 feet from
the sea-level, and marked on the maps as Rinvyle Mountain. It is
better known to the natives as Lettermore Hill, and forms part of the
Rinvyle estate, one of the encumbered properties alluded to in my last
letter. The hill-folk, who appear, on the best evidence procurable, to
have had hard measure dealt to them by the Mr. Graham who bought part
of the old Lynch property, declaim against the "new man," as others
ascribe every evil to the middleman; but others again hold that the
old proprietors, who remain on the land, fighting against
encumbrances, are the "hardest of all," and that the whips of cupidity
cannot compare with the scorpions of poverty. Be this as it may, the
present holder of Rinvyle is by no means personally unpopular, and has
helped the district lately in getting subscriptions and a Government
grant for building a pier, extremely useful both as a protection to
fisher-folk, and as providing labour for the still poorer people. It
is also only fair to state that much of the local congestion of
inhabitants at Rinvyle is due to the kelp-manufacture. The kelp-trade
was at one time very prosperous, and employed a large number of people
in collecting, drying, and burning seaweed. At that period it was the
object of proprietors on the seaboard to attract population to their
domains, on account of the royalty levied on kelp, which exceeded by
far the rent asked for a little holding. While some proprietors were
wiping off the map great villages, containing hundreds of families,
like that of Aughadrinagh, near Castlebar, the holders of the
sea-coast encouraged people to settle on their estates. No reasonable
person can blame them for doing so. The proprietor was poor, and saw
that a large accession to his means might be secured by attracting
kelp-burners. He made a good thing of it. The people paid about 3l. or
a little more a year for their cottage and little, very little,
paddock, not bigger than a garden; about 11s. a year for the "right to
gather seaweed," and one-third of the proceeds of the kelp they made
as "royalty" to the landlord. It should be added that the owners of
Rinvyle were not themselves dealers in kelp, like some middlemen along
the coast, and that their "people,"--save the mark!--could sell to
whom they pleased, but the lords of the seashore took their third of
the proceeds. Within comparatively recent times kelp has been worth
6l. and 7l. per ton. Putting the "royalty" at 2l. per ton, and the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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