The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through IrelandNorah
History
The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland
Norah
Ireland -- Description and travel
I was taken to see a paralytic schoolmaster who had dared to build a
room next to the school-house out of which he was helped into school
every morning, for he could teach, though he had lost the use of his
limbs. No sooner did Lord Leitrim know this than he had the paralytic
carried out and laid on the road, and the room which he had built with
his earnings and the help of his neighbors, was pulled down--not one
stone was left upon another. He then lost his situation which was his
living. I can hardly bear to describe this man's dwelling in which I
found himself, his wife, four children and the cow. The winds of the
mountain and the rains of heaven equally found their way in. His wife
teaches sewing in the school at a salary of L8 per annum. This, with
other help from the Rev. Mr. Martin, formerly Episcopal Rector of
Kilmacrennan, who got the wife the post of schoolmistress, has kept
these people alive. The father has not seen the sky since he was evicted
in 1870. At present there is a writ of ejectment on the house for L9 of
back rent, and he is sued for seed, got in the time of scarcity.
The house is horrible--there are boards with some straw on them over the
beds. The children are very pretty, and as hardy as mountain goats. The
father was quite an educated man, to judge from his speech. I, who was
well clothed, shivered at the hearth, but want and nakedness stayed
there constantly. If this poor man were put in the poor-house, he would
have to part from the faithful wife and sweet children; but that is the
doom that stares him in the face.
The longer I stayed among the hills the more I became convinced that the
people had strained every nerve to pay what they considered unjust and
extortionate rents. They worked hard; they farmed hard; they wore poor
clothing; they left their hill and went over to Scotland or England, at
harvest time, to earn money to pay the rent. "And we were not considered
as kindly, or as much respected, as their hogs or dogs," said a farmer
to me. There was nothing left after the rent for comfort, or to use in
case of sickness; they always lived on the brink of starvation.
"Why did you not refuse to pay these increased rents when they were put
upon you first? You should have refused in a body, and stood out," I
said to one man. "Some could do that, my lady, but most could not. At
first I had the old people depending on me, and I could not see them on
the hillside; now I have little children, and the wife is weakly. And
there were many like me, or even worse."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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