"We will enter it, and look round with English eyes. We will do
so, too, in connection with the remembrance of an humble dwelling
in England. There we find at least a table, but here there is
none. There we find some chairs, but here there are none. There
we find a cupboard, but here there is none. There we find some
crockery and earthenware, but here there is none. There we find
a clock, but here there is none. There we find a bed, bedstead,
and coverings, but here there are none. There is a brick, or
stone, or boarded floor, but here there is none. What a descent
would an English agricultural labourer have to make if he changed
situations with poor Pat Brennan, who is better off than most
of the tenants of Derrynane Beg, and it may be in the best
condition of them all! Brennan's cabin has one room, in which he
and his family live, of course with the fowls and pigs. One end
is partitioned off in the manner of a loft, the loft being the
potato store. The space underneath, where the fire is kindled,
has side spaces for seats. In some instances, the turf-bed is
on one side and the seats on the other. The other contents of
the dwelling are—a milk-pail, a pot, a wooden bowl or two, a
platter, and a broken ladder. A gaudy picture of the Virgin Mary
may sometimes be seen in such cabins."
The eviction of the wretched peasantry has caused an immense amount of
misery, and crowds of the evicted ones have perished from starvation.
The tillers of the soil are mere tenants at will, and may ejected
from their homes without a moment's notice. A whim of the landlord,
the failure of the potato crop, or of the ordinary resources of the
labourers, by which they are rendered unable to pay their rent for a
short time, usually results in an edict of levelling and extermination.
A recent correspondent of the London Illustrated News, thus describes
the desolation of an Irish village:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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