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
The hour of starting was late, by reason of everybody being tired with
the hard, dull, wet work of yesterday, unrelieved by the slightest
approach to a breach of the peace. Fatigue and disappointment had done
their work, and only a few of the more ardent and sanguine spirits
looked cheerfully forward to the march to Lough Mask House. The
Orangemen, however, had not lost all hope, and one stalwart fellow,
who told me he was a steward, and not an agricultural labourer,
rejoiced in carrying a perfect arsenal, including a double-barrelled
gun of his own, a "repeater" of Mr. Maxwell's, and several full-sized
revolvers. This honest fellow confessed that digging potatoes and
pulling mangolds were not his regular occupations, but that he had
come "for the fun of the thing," and to show them there were still
"loyal men left in Ireland." This is hardly the place in which to
discuss the loyalty which goes on an amateur potato-digging excursion
armed with Remington rifles and navy revolvers and escorted by an army
of horse, foot, and police.
The quality of loyalty, like that of mercy, is not strained, but it
has fallen upon Mayo unlike the "gentle dew from heaven." The people
here are undoubtedly cowed by the overwhelming display of military
force, but they vow revenge for the affront put upon the soil of the
county by the Northern invaders. Against the soldiers no animosity is
felt, but the hatred against the cause of their presence is bitter and
profound. Mayo has its back up, and only waits for an opportunity of
vengeance.
At eleven o'clock the march from the barracks to Lough Mask commenced.
First came a strong detachment of constabulary, then a squadron of the
19th Hussars, commanded by Captain Webster, and next two hundred men
of the 84th and 76th Regiments, who completely surrounded and enclosed
the so-called "workmen" and their leaders, Mr. Somerset Maxwell, who
contested Cavan at the last election in the Conservative interest,
and Mr. Goddard, a solicitor of Monaghan, who led the men of that
county, with whom was the Mr. Manning to whose letters in the _Daily
Express_, a Dublin newspaper, the Orange movement is attributed in
this part of the country. In the rear came the men and waggons of the
Army Service Corps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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