Paddy at Home ("Chez Paddy")Mandat-Grancey, E. (Edmond), baron de
History
Paddy at Home ("Chez Paddy")
Mandat-Grancey, E. (Edmond), baron de
Ireland -- Description and travel
All the “fôôôrmes” were therefore duly observed on either side, and,
on the whole, the affair passed off quietly. But it was scarcely
ended, when an incident occurred which produced a deep impression.
Lord Cloncurry’s representative was about to retire with the police,
when a personage, whom no one had noticed until then, approached him,
and intimated, in the name of the Land League, that all the land on
the estate was boycotted, and that, in order to secure obedience to
the orders of the League, the tenants would be installed, by its
precautions, at the doors of their old houses, in such a way, that no
interference would be possible. At the same time, the crowd opened,
and he saw a number of carts filled with materials. Every one at once
set to work; and before the day ended, fifty or sixty wooden huts, for
which the frames had been sent all ready, were put up on the side of
the road, and each evicted family was comfortably installed in one of
them the same evening.
We may judge of the effect produced by this unexpected scene that the
League had organised to give a new proof of its power. The arrangement
has now lasted for two years; the seventy evicted families are
supported at the expense of the League; the land on which these huts
are built belongs to farms in the neighbourhood; they are regularly
let to the tenants who occupy them. Some landlords wished to protest;
but they were threatened with Lord Cloncurry’s fate, and so their
opposition subsided.
At the same time, Lord Cloncurry has not yielded one inch. He put some
cows into the boycotted fields, and curiously enough, their tails
have not been cut off--an immunity that they probably owe to the fact
that, on its side the authorities have stationed two or three bodies
of police in the empty farms, and that the fields are patrolled by
well-armed constables every night.
At Dublin, Mr. Harrington had told me about this business, recommending
me to go and visit the Land League huts. It appears that the
Association has profited so much by their action on this occasion, that
in spite of the great expense entailed, it has built other huts under
similar circumstances in other parts of Ireland. It is certain that
the seventy men whom the League has supported in idleness during the
last two years must be invaluable agents, and the whole proceeding also
serves as a very fine advertisement for the League.
After a few minutes’ walk, we reached a place by the roadside where
two of these huts are built. I wished to visit them, in spite of
the Colonel’s advice, for he warned me that having been seen with
him, I might expect a very cold reception, and might even be most
unceremoniously turned out. “For,” said he, “these men are the most
desperate fellows in the country!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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