THE LAND LEAGUE AND EVICTIONS
The first important “Irish National Land League” meeting in the
Queen’s County was held on the Market Square of Maryborough on October
5th 1879. The Freeman’s Journal estimated the numbers present for the
occasion at 20,000. Among the many eminent speakers to address the
assembly on the Autumn day were Mr. Bigger, M.P., Rev. Canon O’Keeffe,
Mr. RA Meehan, Dr. McGee, Mr. Richard Lalor, Mr. John Dillon, but to
name a few.
Mr. Dillon said “that we are compelled by force to obey laws made by
strangers, we will never cease to deny the right and protest against the
injustice of any assembly of men, save the Irish Parliament, having the
power to make laws to bind the Irish people”. He said the great thing
was to draw a line between the landlords who did not take an unfair
advantage of them and those who did. He knew that in the County Mayo, a
county of which he had some knowledge, there was land for which the rent
had doubled in six years. Now, what was to be done with a landlord of
that class? (A voice - “shoot him”) Mr. Dillon - "No!". The first thing was
to make him go back to half his rental. His suggestion was not to shoot
the landlords. His advice was to abstain from outrages because outrages
were not necessary. Let each parish from a league and meet every Sunday
after Mass; and when a hardship arose, call a meeting to denounce the
landlord, publish the case in the Dublin Freeman and if that did not
succeed, call a Monster meeting and invite Mr. Parnell to attend. Let
those that have the money pay the rents in November; let those that have
to high rents ask the landlord to reduce them by 50 or 60 per cent, and
if he refuses, pay him no rent. If a man is evicted and another takes
his land, let no one speak to him or have any transaction with him. In
such a crisis every man should stand by his neighbour's. Such was the
small farmers plight at this time.
Land League Meetings addressed by Thomas Brennan, Sexton, and on
occasions by Michael Davitt, now became a regular occurrence. Leagues
were established in Knocker, Maryborough, Ballyroan, Crettyard,
Arles,
Ballylinan, Raheen, Stradbally Mountmellick, Rathdowney, Cullahill (Cullohill) and
Durrow. By the following year almost every parish in the county had
organised a branch. Needless to say, the power exerted by the landlord
over his tenants wasn’t easily shaken and those reluctant or unable to
pay their rents were evicted. By tradition, ten families were thrown out
of their houses on Knockanoran during this period. John Phelan of
Patrick street was evicted from his farm on the Cork Road and tenants on Tinvier suffered the same fate.
However I feel obliged to point out that my research has failed to
produce evidence of these evictions.
The agricultural communities were now adamant on their resolve to pay
rents only in accordance with Griffith’s valuation which was carried out
during the early 1850s and set rates on property nationwide for the
first time. This grievance, together with oppressive legislation against
tenants in general, fuelled the fires of yet another insurrection and
made the country almost ungovernable by the fall of 1880.
Small farmers, supported now by a national organisation, were only
too willing to fight for land reform and solidarity was to achieving
that goal. A report in the Leinster Express of Saturday, December 11th
1880, illustrates clearly the camaraderie, which existed among tenants
in Ballykealy when a neighbour there was threatened with eviction.
“The Land League in the Queen’s county is already bringing forth much
fruit. At Middlemount a tenant farmer named Philip Dunphy, holding some
land there under the Rev. Mr. Eyre, tendered Mr. Robert Owen, J.P. the
agent over the property, some weeks ago - in accordance with a
fundamental principal of the Land League - Griffith’s valuation of his
farm which is considerably below the actual rent. Mr. Owen refused to
accept the offer and intimated his firm resolve to put Dunphy into
Bankruptcy Court.”
THE LEINSTER EXPRESS - (Author
unknown)