The Reminiscences of an Irish Land AgentHussey, Samuel Murray
History
The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent
Hussey, Samuel Murray
Country life -- Ireland; Hussey, Samuel Murray, 1824-; Ireland -- History -- 1837-1901
Reverting to matters with which I had more personal connection, an
interesting episode occurred in June 1881, when The O'Donoghue moved the
adjournment of the House of Commons to force a debate upon the subject
of Lord Kenmare's estate, and I wrote a letter in the _Times_ in reply,
from which may be condensed the following facts:--
On the Cork estate, from 1878 to 1881, the evictions did not average one
for each year for every two hundred tenants.
On the Limerick estate for five years there have been no evictions.
On the Kerry estate, since he succeeded (in 1871), Lord Kenmare has
expended L67,115 on drainage, road-making, and building cottages. The
evictions have been about one in five hundred in every half year. The
abatements, allowances, and expenditure in 1878, '79, '80, and '81,
exclusive of what was spent on the house and demesne, were, L33,645, and
I am under the mark when I say that, altogether, for these years of
distress, Lord Kenmare spent more on his Kerry estates than he received
out of it; yet for this, Land League meetings were held on his estate,
and he was denounced in Parliament. The week that the Land League
compelled Lord Kenmare to discontinue his employment to labourers, the
weekly labour bill was L460.
There is no need to trouble readers with any further correspondence on a
topic on which no one could answer me except by abuse, which is no
argument; nor will I inflict any of the letters in which Mr. Sexton was
clearly proved in the wrong when he misrepresented the case of Pat
Murphy of Rath.
As an example of the state of affairs, in Millstreet--a mere
village--there were thirty cases of nocturnal raid in the month of
August 1881, even while it was engaging the attention of Mr. T.O.
Plunkett, R.M., Mr. French, chief of the detective department, two
sub-inspectors, thirty-five constabulary, and fifty men of the 80th
Regiment.
In the _Daily Telegraph_, with reference to the murder of Gallivan, near
Castleisland, this remark appeared in a leader:--
'Horror-stricken humanity demands that an example be speedily made of
the truculent and merciless ruffian who perpetrated this outrage.'
I quoted this in a letter the editor published, adding:--
'A few weeks after that occasion an old man named Flynn was shot within
two miles of the place, because he paid his rent. His leg has since been
amputated.'
Then I gave the following horrible case:--
On Sunday night the Land League police went to the house of a man named
Dan Dooling, who lived within a mile of Gallivan's house, and within one
mile of Castleisland, and because he paid his rent on getting a
reduction of thirty per cent., he was taken out and shot in the thigh.
His wife, who was only three days after her confinement, pleaded for
mercy on this account, but these lynch law authorities were deaf to the
appeal for mercy, and she did not recover the shock of the entry of
these 'moonlight' Thugs. This man could have identified his assailants,
but he did not dare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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