Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)Hurlbert, William Henry
History
Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)
Hurlbert, William Henry
Ireland -- Description and travel; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901
_A_. I believe not; and I may as well say at once that I suppose he has
taken for gospel all the stories which any of the tenants under the
terrorism which has been established on the place think it best to pour
into his listening ear. As I have said, he is quite a new man at
Youghal, and when he first came there he was a quiet and not at all
revolutionary priest. You saw him, and saw how good his manners are, and
that he is a well-educated man. But on Sunday, November 7, 1886, a great
meeting was held at Youghal. It was a queer meeting for a Sunday, being
openly a political meeting, with banners and bands, to hear speeches
from Mr. Lane, M.P., Mr. Flynn, M.P., and others. The Rev. Mr. Keller
presided, and a priest from America, Father Hayes of Georgetown, Iowa,
in the United States, was present. It was ostensibly a Home Rule
meeting, but the burden of the speeches was agrarian. Mr. Lane, M.P.,
made a bitter personal attack on another Nationalist member, Sir Joseph
M'Kenna of Killeagh, calling him a "heartless and inhuman landlord;" and
my property was also attended to by Mr. Lane, who advised my tenants
openly not to accept my offer of 20 per cent. reduction, but to demand
40 per cent. Father Hayes in his speech bade "every man stand to his
guns," and wound up by declaring that if England and the landlords
behaved in America as they behaved in Ireland, the Americans "would pelt
them not only with dynamite, but with the lightnings of Heaven and the
fires of hell, till every British bull-dog, whelp, and cur would be
pulverised and made top-dressing for the soil." Canon Keller afterwards
expressed disapproval of this speech of Hayes, and this coming to the
knowledge of Hayes in America, Hayes denounced Keller for not daring to
do this at the time in his presence. Since then Canon Keller has been
much more violent in tone.
_Q_. I don't want to carry you through a long examination, Mr. Ponsonby,
but I see typical cases here, about which I should like to ask a
question or two. Here, is Callaghan Flavin, for instance, described by
Canon Keller as one of eight tenants who "had to retreat before the
crowbar brigade," and who "deserved a better fate." Canon Keller says he
is assured by a competent judge that Flavin's improvements, "full value
for £341, 10s.," are now "the landlord's property." What are the facts
about Mr. Flavin?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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