Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Miseries and Beauties of Ireland (Author: Jonathan Binns)

chapter 1

Examination in the Barony of Kilconnel — Deterioration of marriage-feasts — Premature marriages — The Terrys — Dreadful case of revenge — Sufferings from hunger — Priests' dues — Substitutes for candles — Potatoes, the chief food of the labourers — The cabins of the poorest classes — Improvements at Crith Bog — Inequality of Grand-jury cess — Cattle of the district — Ahascragh Loan Society — Junction of farms — Farms of ten acres — Advice to both landlord and tenant — Meaning of the term "absentee" — Contempt for leases.

It was stated to the Assistant Commissioners, in their examination in the barony of Kilconnel (situated 18 miles to the eastward of the town of Galway, on the road to Ballinasloe) that the barony, exclusive of bog, contains 26,185 Irish acres, and that few labourers can obtain work for more than


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200 days in the year; one hundred at 6d. and the other at 8d. per day; amounting altogether to £5. 16s. 8d. This sum is but nominally gained, as, where land is set above the fair value, on condition of giving labour for rent, the tenant is a loser in proportion. An old man cannot get employed at all. Many of the labourers declared they were fully sensible they did not work so well as those who were better fed.

The regular expenses of marriage are confined to £1. 1s., and 5s. to the Bishop for a dispensation, and 10d. to the clerk. The feast which succeeds the ceremony is always at the cost of the parents of the bride; and on these occasions it is nothing uncommon for a labourer to spend three or four pounds, the savings of years, in the purchase of bread, meat, tobacco, spirits, and lights, to celebrate the marriage of his daughter. During the feast, a collection is made for the benefit of the priest who officiated at the marriage, and all present are anxious to give what they can afford, from a shilling upwards. It is, indeed, a matter of pride to see who will give the most. At christenings,


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the priest receives 2s. 6d., the clerk 3d. The wake and funeral of an ordinary labourer are attended by most of those who had been his neighbours or friends. "Now a day," said Ginnessy, one of the witnesses, "there is nothing given out but pipes and tobacco; those who are rich give whiskey, and those who can't afford to give any, are as much ashamed as if they had done something wrong. All that any one gets is a pipe, and may be he smokes it on the side of the road, if the cabin be small. The coffin will cost 7s.; a few gross of pipes will be 10s. more; then there will be six or seven shillings' worth of tobacco and lights, and the winding-sheet will be eight or ten shillings more. Most frequently the priest gets nothing."

Here, as elsewhere, premature marriages are the rule amongst the labouring classes, and not the exception. A very large portion are married before the age of 21, some even as early as 18; and very few turn their attention to making any provision before they contract the important obligation. "What," said Neal, a labourer,


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what can a girl or a boy lay by against marriage, except the seed of a rood of potatoes — After I had paid the priest myself, I had nothing to begin housekeeping with but 10s., and may be, if I was young, I should do the same again." The most comfortable, it was stated by Mr. Lynch, are always the least inclined to marriage. On this subject several of the witnesses remarked to the following effect, and indeed in the following words respectively: "Nearly all the cottier tenants are married men, and yet, if they looked in upon themselves, they would be fools to marry. They are then bound to poverty for life, and the latter end of them is to beg." "If I had a blanket to cover her," said Connor, "I would marry the woman I liked, and if I could get potatoes enough to put into my children's mouths, I would be as happy and content as any man, and think myself as happy off as Lord Dunlo." Others declared that if they were turned out that moment to beg, they would marry. "They often say — 'worse than we are we cannot be;' and it's that makes men disturbed and unlawful, when they see themselves

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and those that are about them, turned adrift on the world. It's that brings Terrys into the country. They may as well take my life when they take my land; for what's an existence without a place — About three years ago, a man who had a farm, offered the same rent as the man who was put in his place; the Terrys came — they would come from Clare for revenge — and swore the new comer to give up the land. He did not keep his oath, and in a week's time a man came at twelve in the day, and sent into the house for Flanagan. When he came out to him where three or four of his own labourers were standing, the stranger drew out a pistol and shot him. No attempt was made to take the fellow; the fear of the Terrys was too great." Another witnessed observed, "These things never did the people any good in the end; but what could you look for, where one gentleman could turn out 108 families, every one of them from five to seven persons in a family, and pull down their cabins, as I know to have been done in this country not a great while ago. He (the proprietor) was obliged to leave the country; he

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died a short time since, and they brought him to his own place and buried him; but the people came at night, and dug up his grave, and put a gallows over it. Men grow careless about themselves and their houses, when they feel that they cannot be worse off than they are. Many a man must lie in bed to have his shirt washed, and some cannot afford to buy soap."

In the parish of Aughrim, the Rev. William Martin stated "that no material alteration had taken place regarding wages;" and added, "I am afraid you would find plenty of men ready to work at 6d. a day all the year round." Mr. Wade said that he gave 5d. a day in winter and summer; and a witness of the name of Lloyd said that he had known labourers to be so hungry as to "give up" two or three times in the course of the day; not having tasted food since their supper the night before. Mr. Bermingham, Lord Clonbrock's agent, stated that the poor people suffer almost more than human nature could be supposed capable of enduring, and that, notwithstanding, they scarcely ever repine. From the great competition


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or wages, the lowest amount offered is taken; indeed, the labourers will engage themselves for any sum, however low, which is sufficient to support them; and "by support," said a man of the name of Perry, "I mean merely keeping the breath in them, having very few clothes, and of course being utterly unable to lay out anything. That is what we mean by support." Fivepence a day is the general amount of wages. "Lord Clonbrock," it was stated, "seeks to encourage self-employment or task-work, on the principle that it is better for the people. He gives to his labourers 8d. per day in summer, and 6d. in winter, without diet in either season. A single man, who works for his food only, is better off than the married man who gets 5d; for the 5d. is eaten before the family go to bed, and none of them can say they had anything to spare."

The better sort of farmers, it appeared, usually give their priest from one shilling to two-and-sixpence at Christmas and Easter: and by such as can get to confession, a shilling is given. The poor people are never required to pay any of these items.


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In lieu of candles, which are very rarely seen, rushes, dipped in butter melted, are used. Others make use of splinters of bog fir, which contains a large portion of turpentine, and blazes very freely.

In periods of particular distress, the labourers obtain potatoes on credit, at a great sacrifice. This, indeed, is their only resource; and if a man happens to have no credit, he cannot get them at all. In all cases, they pay high for the accommodation — sometimes as much as 200 per cent. After Garlic Sunday (the first Sunday in August), the potatoes most in use, namely lumpers, acquire an unwholesome quality; those, accordingly, who can afford to do so, cease to live altogether upon them, and substitute oatmeal in some degree, giving their old potatoes to the pigs. But there are many cottiers who have no alternative but to eat the unwholesome food, which, in part at least, accounts for the prevalence of disease towards the close of summer. About the latter end of August (Mr. Hughes, P. P., stated), a large proportion of the new potatoes are fit for consumption; but those which have not been planted, in


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consequence of the inability of the labourers to buy seed, until July, are not fit to dig until Michaelmas. Notwithstanding this, it is by no means uncommon to see the poor digging their crops, not only before their full growth, but when they are absolutely as unwholesome as when too old. Potatoes, if they be of a good kind, may be preserved till October. On being asked if they preferred potatoes to meal and bread, some of the witnesses exclaimed — "Arrah there, Sir, why should we prefer what we feed our pigs on, to better food — Don't you like it better yourself; and why shouldn't we — Never believe them that want to make you think that we'd eat but lumpers, if we could get good bread."

The cabins inhabited by the very poorest, are frequently without windows. Some of the hovels are truly miserable, consisting of walls of loose stones, thatched with thistles and potato stalks. These are inhabited by mendicants or dispossessed tenants from other parts of the country, and are for the most part placed in the hollow of a wide ditch; the tenants paying no rent to the middlemen


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on whose ground they stand. One of the tenants, Patrick Flagherty, stated "that the hovel occupied by him, cost him 15s. building."

The cottages recently erected on the estates of Lord Clonbrock, and the other large proprietors, are superior to the generality. Those built on Lord Clonbrock's property are thirty feet long. His lordship provides timber, eave-stones, and iron window-frames, which move on central pivots. The panes of glass cost but 1d. each.

One of the gentlemen present stated "that in some cases landlords have located their cottiers on the verge of bogs, at high rents; and that when these lands have been reclaimed by the exertions of the cottiers, the latter have been further removed into the unreclaimed moor, still at a high rent; and thus the landlord has reaped all the benefit of the poor man's industry."

The improvements at Crith Bog, carried on by Lord Clonbrock, under the care of his benevolent and enterprising agent, Mr. Bermingham, are said by the Rev. Charles Clarke, one of the Assistant Commissioners, to be of great importance.


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The expense of draining was stated by Mr. Bermingham not to exceed £2, and the cost of digging and harrowing to be £1. 15s. per acre; the gravelling costs 2s. per ton: two tons at a time being drawn by a horse upon a moveable railroad. The capital expended in forming the main roads and laying the temporary rail, Mr. Bermingham calculates will vary from £600 to £1000. This outlay will allow of 200 Irish acres per annum being reclaimed.

It was stated by one witness, that on forty Irish acres of tillage, allowing a fair quantity of horse power, twenty men would be "constantly employed throughout the year;" by another, that "twelve men, working 200 days each, would be sufficient." A third person thought, "that on a farm of 100 acres, half in tillage and half in grass, fifteen labourers, employed 200 days in the year, and four horses, or two horses and two bullocks, would answer the purpose." On a farm of 90 acres, of which 12 were in oats, 3 in potatoes, and 5 in wheat, one pair of good horses were kept; and the amount paid for labour, at


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6d. per day the year round, did not exceed £40, although the cost of cutting turf was included.

The grand-jury cess is a little more than 2s. per Irish acre. Every acre, good or bad, which is assessed, pays the same rate. The uncertainty of the amount, the manner in which it is assessed, and the period at which it is levied, are causes of considerable distress and dissatisfaction to the small landholder: Mr. Seymour, who is appointed to make the assessment for tithe, thinks that when made, it will not exceed 6 1/2d. per acre. Where the Composition Act has been acted on, tithe is assessed much more equally than the county rate.

This district contains no dairy-farms, no more cows being kept than are absolutely necessary to supply the family. Sheep are common; the breed in general use is the Irish, with a considerable cross of the new Leicester. Mr. Taafe, of Roscommon, and another breeder of sheep, frequently procured them from Dishley; and by this cross the breed has been somewhat diminished in size, whatever other good qualities may have been


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obtained. If the prevailing predilection for the old mutton could be overcome, further improvement might still arise by getting nearer to the Leicester blood, because it would be accompanied by a quicker return of capital. Every one, holding only a small quantity of land, keeps a few sheep, for the purpose of using the wool in making his clothing; and a considerable portion of the land in this barony is particularly adapted to sheep-farming. The usual breed of cattle is the native Irish, improved by the Leicester; perhaps no breed can be better suited to the present state of the agriculture of the district, than the first cross between the Durham and the Irish. The value of a good bull of the Irish breed is £15; of a cow, from eight to £10. Large grazing farms let at from twenty to thirty shillings per Irish acre.

The small farmers and labourers are so completely destitute of money, that it is utterly impossible for them to commence improvements, or even to do anything to obtain it.

As a proof of the proper application of money advanced to the poor, and their honourable repayment,


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I may mention the Ahascragh Loan Society, at a weekly meeting of which the Assistant Commissioners were present. The funds amounted to £720, part borrowed from the county of Galway Trustees, at one per cent, and part from individuals, at six per cent. The sum was disposed of amongst 400 borrowers, and in the two years during which the society had been established, no loss had occurred. This may be in great measure ascribed to the attention and excellent management of the treasurer, the Rev. Henry Hunt. A person taking a loan, pays the interest of 6d. in the pound for twenty weeks; or rather, has that sum deducted at the time of receiving the loan. One shilling in the pound is repaid weekly, which secures the repayment of the whole loan at the end of the twenty weeks. The interest, at 6d. in the pound for twenty weeks, would amount to £6. 10s. per cent per annum; and as the interest is deducted at the time of obtaining the loan, that would raise the interest to £6. 18s. per cent. This calculation is made on the supposition that none of the money be repaid till the end of the term;

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but out of every £100 lent one week, £5 is returned the following week, and so on, till in the last week of the twenty, only £5 remains unpaid; — so that £50 is the average sum out of the twenty weeks, and this being taken into consideration, the interest amounts to nearly double the sum which was stated above. It would be exactly double, only that the interest accruing on the interest being paid beforehand is included in the £6. 10s. It will amount to £13. 18s. 5d. per cent.

In reference to the competition in bidding for small farms, and the consequently disproportionate rate of rent, which, however, in a majority of cases, is nothing but nominal, Mr. Bermingham stated, that until this practice ceased, the condition of the labourers could not possibly be improved. "Nothing," added this gentleman, "can more clearly prove what may result from an equitable reduction of rents, than what has recently occurred in the townland of Doon, where Lord Clonbrock has succeeded the former lessee of the crown. Lord Clonbrock has lowered


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the rents more than one-third. Formerly, the tenants, oppressed with exorbitant and high rents, used to think they could not pay their landlords except by their labour; they have, however, now refused to accept work in the reclaiming of bog land, declaring they had enough to do on their own grounds. Hopeless of meeting their rents, they formerly neglected the cultivation of their holdings, and grasped at ready-money wages, however low. Their lands are now well tilled, and there are no arrears due, and labourers for the improvements come from other quarters." Although the disposition to junction of farms exists, on the part of the landlords, the system has not been pursued to much extent; the only great alteration of tenantry is on Lord Clonbrock's estate, and this (according to the statement of Mr. Bermingham, and others present) took place, not with a view of making one large farm, but of throwing a number of minute holdings into a certain number of farms of 10 acres each. The change had been effected without having recourse to any harsh measures.


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When Lord Clonbrock came into possession, the land was held by about fifty occupants; his lordship not only offered to each a sum of money as a compensation for being ejected, but proposed to furnish them with locations on the unreclaimed part of another estate, together with assistance towards building houses. Several accepted the latter condition; a few emigrated to the colonies, availing themselves of the money received; and four or five of the old occupants still remain. Mr. Bermingham adds, that so far as he can judge, he has every reason to expect that the produce of the farms of 10 acres will far exceed the united produce of the small holdings from which they have been made; he is also led to hope that the occupiers of these 10 acres will no longer seek for labour abroad, but find full occupation at home, which is not the case with farms of the same extent under the old system, and at high rents. Mr. Bermingham further adds that any tenement of two or three acres, is susceptible of all the advantages of a systematic course of husbandry, but in this barony no such attempt has


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ever been made. Lord Clonbrock is turning his attention to the formation of an Agricultural School, but nothing has yet been done.

The above observations of so experiened a man as Mr. Bermingham, are worthy of great attention, and go far to prove that by fixing the rents on a practicable scale, not only are the energies of the tenant more industriously exerted, but, no arrears being incurred, more rent is actually paid than when it was nominally nearly double. This, however, though leading the way to improvement, is only half doing what ought to be done. Let the poor tenant be taught that by altering his plan of husbandry he may double his produce, without the application of any additional capital except the labour of himself and family. If his landlord lend him a little assistance at the commencement, so much the better; this assistance he will soon be able to repay, with such interest as every landlord must appreciate; viz., the permanent improvement of his estate; a happy tenantry; increased rents, better paid; and the security and increasing prosperity of the country.


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By far the greater part of the barony of Kilconnel is held direct from the proprietors in fee, without the intervention of middlemen. "The lands of Ballyglass," said Mr. Bermingham, "were this day valued by me as Tithe Commissioner. Two hundred acres are on one side of the road, held by Mr. Conally, under the Bishop of Clonfert, at a rent, as I have been informed, of 19s. per Irish acre. The best part has been re-let to solvent tenants, at £1. 10s. per acre; but the Doon Hills, consisting of boggy bottoms, have been let to industrious but poor men, at £1. 5s. an acre — rents disproportioned to the true value of the respective lands. I have, acting conscientiously, valued the entire lands as follows — 80 acres at £1. 10s.; 80 acres at £1; and 40 acres at 10s. All the non-resident proprietors have resident agents; we only give the term absentee, at least in an invidious signification, to a proprietor who resides entirely out of Ireland, and has no resident agent. Restrictions to a particular course of husbandry are never thought of; but in general, tenants would sign leases containing any clauses


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whatever, for they never think of reading them." What can be a stronger proof than this of the reckless temper of the farmers — Having nothing to lose, either in possession or in prospect, they regard the restrictions with contempt. Worse they cannot be, and land they must have, on any terms.

Few landlords, except Lord Clonbrock and Lord Clancarty, allow for improvements, or encourage their tenantry.


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