Library Forum

Below is the link to a book Bodyke: A Chapter in the History of Irish Landlordism, entirely online, by Henry Norman, published in 1887, providing observations made during evictions that year by Col. O'Callaghan and also Norman's perspective on what O'Callaghan had done to increase rents beyond the lands' value and beyond decency. Page 17 has a table of affected tenants, showing how land values varied according to who had done the valuations; I'll show below a miniaturized version of that page, without informative headings. Page 25 contains O'Callaghan's reaction to pressure applied by the clergy and others to back off his callous agenda:

"I would think no more of throwing you out than I would of shooting a bird on the roadside."

Although the author noted the luxurious condition of the O'Callaghan house at Maryfort in 1887, the house became a derelict shell by some time in the early to mid 1900s. The table below, from a source previously posted here for untenanted lands in 1906, shows how well O'Callaghan drove off his tenants.

The link: http://tiny.cc/lqjvh

I recommend reading the entire book, as there are many passages in which an evicted tenant's family is described as to names and ages, in addition to physical health in several instances. The author provided this information in support of his strong urging of home rule, which he believed would be advanced by the British people realizing the human cost of keeping the then-current system in place in Ireland. There are a few line drawings of Clare people, including the tenants. I realize that there is another Bodyke eviction book, fairly widely-available in library collections, and that one has several photographs of the tenants at their destroyed homes.

posted by Sharon Carberry