Ireland as it is, and as it would be under Home RuleBuckley, Robert John
History
Ireland as it is, and as it would be under Home Rule
Buckley, Robert John
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Irish question
"Look at the Galway Bag Factory. I'm towld that's shutting up now.
What'll the people do at all, at all, that was employed in it? An' the
English Parlimint ordhers it to be closed because it turns out bags
chaper than they can make thim in England, an' betther, and the
English maker couldn't compate. Ye know betther? I wouldn't
conthradict yer honour's glory, ye mane well; but I have it from them
that knows. Look at the Galway marble quarries. There's two sorts o'
marble in one quarry, an' tis grand stone it is, an' the quarries
would give no ind iv imploymint to the poor men that's willin' to
work. God help thim, but they're not allowed to cut a lump of stone in
their own counthry. What stops them? Sure 'tis the English Government,
an' what would it be else? A gintleman isn't allowed to cut a stone on
his own land. All must come from England. Ye make us buy it off ye,
an' us wid millions of pounds' worth of stone. Ah, now, don't tell me
'tis all rubbish. Sure, I have it sthraight from mimbers of Parlimint.
Didn't the English Governmint send out soldiers an' policemen, wid
guns an' swords, an' stop the men that wint to cut the stone in the
marble quarries I was afther mintionin' to yer honour? Yes, 'twas the
Land League that ruined this place, but 'twas the Governmint that made
the Land League by dhriving the people into it. No, I wouldn't trust
Gladstone or any other Englishman. They'll take care of thimselves,
the English. We'll get no more than they can help. What we got out o'
Gladstone we bate out o' him. We get nothing but what we conquered.
Small thanks we owe, an' small thanks we'll give."
A small farmer said, "The rints isn't low enough. The judicial rints
is twice too much, an' the price of stock what it is. We must have a
sliding scale, an' pay rint according to the price of produce. We must
have the land for half what we pay now. I wouldn't say anythin' agin'
the English. I have two brothers there an' they come over here
sometimes, an' from what they tell me I believe the English manes
well. An' the English law isn't bad at all. 'Tis the administhration
of the law that's bad. We have the law, but 'tis no use to us because
the landlords administhers it. Divil a bit o' compinsation can we get.
An' if we want a pump, or a fence, or a bit o' repairs, we may wait
for seven years, till our hearts break wid worryin' afther it. Thin
we've our business to mind, an' we've not the time nor the money to go
to law, even whin the law is with us an we have a clear case. The
landlord has his agint, that has nothin' else to do but to circumvint
us, so that the land laws don't do us the good that ye think over in
England. Ye have grand laws, says you, an' 'tis thrue for you; but who
works the laws? says I. That's where the trouble comes in. Who works
the laws? says I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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