The Land League in Clare

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Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Tue Jun 21, 2022 12:28 pm

Hi Matthew

I now think that the meeting of the Farmers’ Clubs in Ennis on 15 July 1879, which was not reported in The Irish Canadian until 6 August 1879 (see posting immediately above), must be connected to the meeting in September referred to in the piece on the Bodyke Evictions. At the 15 July meeting the advisability of holding a further meeting for the purpose of asking for rent reductions was discussed and a committee formed to decide the matter. I think this committee must have decided to go ahead with asking for rent reductions and the Farmers’ Clubs must have called a meeting to announce that decision. It may be that this second meeting was reported as being a Tenant’s Rights Meeting, since the tenant situation was the only item on the agenda. I’ve looked through my notes on items of interest in the Clare Freeman, 1879, and found no note re such a meeting, but that does not mean it did not take place, of course.

Some (rather disjointed) notes from Clare Freeman and Ennis Advertiser,1879:

Wed 30 Jul 1879: Mr Finegan took his seat for Ennis in the House of Commons last night. [Finnegan 83, O’Brien 77, Fitzgerald 54]

The season thus far has been a complete failure at the several watering places around our coast. Even at present the prospect is quite cheerless. There is still constant downpour of rain, with accompanying cold winds, and no inducements to entice people on their wonted tours of pleasure.

Bad harvest.
The tenant farmers and cottiers in the west of Clare have petitioned their landowners for a reduction or abatement of their rents.

Representation of Ennis (Post Election Speeches – inc Stephen J. Meany)

Wed 3 Sep 1879: The excursion from Limerick down the Shannon given to Mr Parnell, M P, and others, on Monday, was most enjoyable.
Mr Parnell, M P, and the members for the city and county of Limerick proceeded down the Shannon on Monday on the invitation of the Butt Memorial Committee. There was a dejeuner on board and speeches delivered. Mr W H O’Sullivan, M P, said that England should remember that it was not one Ireland she had to deal with now; there was a great Ireland across the Atlantic, and, in fact, there was an Ireland in every British colony. Mr O’Shaughnessy, M P, said that the University Bill of last session did not deserve the name of a Bill. Mr Parnell said that the secret of their success on the question of flogging in the army was that they were not afraid of the course they adopted – a penalty would have awaited any English member adopting a similar course. [Parnell and other Irish M.P.s had spoken in Parliament against flogging in the army – Army Discipline and Regulations Bill , May 1879]

Wed 13 Sep 1879: Colonel Augustine Butler, D L, Ballyline, has remitted one half year’s rent of their holdings to all his tenants, and has promised in future to give those tenants who have no bog attached to their land a plentiful supply of turf every year. [This was a premature announcement, according to following Wed. 20th issue]

Wed 17 Sep 1879: The Rev Laurence Browne, P.P., Kilkeedy, convened together on last Sunday the tenants of Hyacinth D’Arcy, Esq, New Forest, Ballinasloe, on his Kilkeedy property, and a memorial signed by the thirty of them, accompanied by a letter from Father Browne, was forwarded to Mr D’Arcy asking a remission of a half year’s rent. Correspondent.

Wed 15 Oct 1879: The Land Agitation. The Government and Mr Parnell. Mr Francis Comyn, J P for Clare and Galway writes to this day’s Times, announcing that he has just received from his agent a letter stating that the tenants on his estates refuse to pay rents. (more).

Sat 18 Oct 1879: Mr Francis Comyn and his Tenants (from Saunders Daily News).

Wed 22 Oct 1879: Mr Davitt addresses meeting in Mayo.
Monster meeting in Gort. [intended]

Wed 29 Oct 1879: The Gort Demonstration (from the Freeman’s Journal). Bad weather.

Sat 8 Nov 1879: Ennis Union. Lord Inchiquin changes “transferring” to “selling.”

Sat 22 Nov 1879: Lord Inchiquin and Mr Halpin differ.

Wed 26 Nov 1879: Ennis Union. Mr William Halpin handed in a notice of motion substantially the same as that read by him last day of meeting, when the discussion already reported as having taken place between him and Lord Inchiquin arose. It will come on for debate this day fortnight.

Within the past few days the colonel commanding the 87th Regiment has ordered that the usual guard at the Castle Barracks to be doubled, and it now consists of one sergeant, one corporal, and twelve privates. This, we believe, had been taken as a precautionary measure in view of the present disturbed state of the country.
Mr Davitt in Sligo. Mr Parnell in Balla.

Sat 6 Dec 1879: Ennis Town Commissioners. Circular issued by Board of Works transmitted by the Local Government Board. Providing work for unemployed.

Ennis Union. More trouble between Halpin and Lord Inchiquin.

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Wed Jun 22, 2022 11:23 am

Hi Matthew

In the hopes of finding something regarding Parteen and the Farmers’ Club and/or The Land League, I looked through the list of Old Limerick Journal articles, 1979 - 2018: http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/Loca ... ckJournal/. Parteen, lying so close to Limerick city, is of interest to Limerick readers, and Michael McCarthy’s articles are often about events in Parteen and Meelick. I depended on finding something with “Land League” in the title, but found nothing. However this article on the 1874 election and the candidacy of Henry O’Sullivan will interest you, I think, as it mentions the Farmers’ Club in Limerick and the support given to Henry O’Sullivan: “The Election of 1874”, by Michael McCarthy: http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/electi ... 201874.pdf.
I noticed that the Farmers’ Club meeting in the Theatre Royal in January 1874, is also called a tenant farmers’ meeting:
January, 1874 saw the first major development in the by-election. A meeting of the Limerick and Clare Farmers' Club was held in the Theatre Royal. (11) The purpose of the tenant farmers' meeting was to decide which of the two candidates, each claiming to be a Home Ruler, they would support. At the outset the large gathering voted unanimously "that whoever would be elected' should be one in whom they could place implicit confidence and reliance, that he should be a Home Ruler as defined by the Home Rule League, and a thorough Nationalist, and that they further believed that the time had come when a country should be represented by a person who would give expression to the views and aspirations of the people."(12)
The vast majority of the tenant farmers at the meeting favoured the candidacy of O'Sullivan, not because he would seem to have been the more able candidate, but rather because of Kelly's pedigree. Kelly's father was a landlord owning 1,500 acres in Co. Limerick and nearly 10,000 acres outside the county.
"The Election of 1874" by Michael McCarthy, in The Old Limerick Journal, Vol 9, Winter 1981


This mixing up of “Farmers’ Club” with “Tenant farmers” is a bit confusing, but I think the explanation is that the Club was mainly composed of tenant farmers.

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Thu Jun 23, 2022 10:22 am

Hi Matthew

I was looking back at your posting on the "Land League in East Clare" posted in June 2012, almost exactly 10 years ago: http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... f=1&t=4181, and I noted from the replies how very little seems to have been written on the subject of the Land War in Clare - maybe Alfred Sexton will go on to enlarge on his article published in the Other Clare, Vol 45, 2021. But a reply from P. Waldron mentions The Clare Elections by Kieran Sheedy, which I had forgotten about, although I’ve previously described that book as “terrific” (and still think it is terrific). Chapter 9, “1861 – 1880,” gave me the information I was looking for regarding the Tenant Rights meeting held in Ennis in 1879. On page 261, after describing the election of James Lysaght Finigan, a Home Rule candidate, as member of parliament for Ennis, Sheedy goes on to say:
Parnell’s own sense of relief at winning, what was for him a vital election, was evident when he rose to speak: “The emotion I feel chokes my utterance. I know you will forgive me, but I would say, if this were my last breath. Well done Clare! Well done Ennis!
Parnell had joined forces earlier in the year with Michael Davitt who was trying to relieve the burden of hard-pressed tenants by forcing local landlords to reduce their rents. Davitt had founded the Land League in August in Mayo, and when the National Land League of Ireland was founded on 21 October, Parnell became its first President. Meanwhile in Clare, the Farmers Club which had been set up in 1877 held a monster Tenant Right rally at the Fair Green in Clonroad on 28 September, and its principal officers were Fr P White P.P. Miltown Malbay (chairman); Michael Kelly, Creggs (secretary); T. S. Cleary, Editor Clare Independent; Fr. Matt Kenny P. P. Scariff and William Halpin Ralahine. For a third year in a row, the harvest was poor because of bad weather, and the low prices for cattle added to the general hardship.
So, although the meeting was called a Tenant Right meeting, it was organised by the Farmers Club.
Why did I not make a note on the report in the Clare Freeman - I assume there was one. I would like to have a fuller list of those attending it.

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Fri Jun 24, 2022 8:52 am

Hi Matthew

I see now from your third reply above that you had referred to the 1879 meeting, chaired by Father Whyte, as a Clare Farmers’ Club meeting. What confused me was that the meeting was referred to as a Tenants Right meeting in the piece on the Bodyke evictions. Anyway, I have a better understanding now - forgive me for taking so much time to get to grips with that.

The above biographical note on William Henry O’Sullivan (https://www.dib.ie/biography/osullivan- ... enry-a7076) says
As vice-chairman of the Kilmallock board of guardians, he achieved notoriety by setting a pioneering example of using meetings of poor law boards (then the only elective local government bodies in the countryside) as a platform for championing radical viewpoints on national questions and getting his speeches reported in the Dublin press.
Each Poor Law Union had its Board of Guardians, and, from the mid-1870s forward, meetings of the Board of Guardians all over the country began to include new voices; those meetings are a good source of information for local historians. Included in that book, The Clare Elections, by Kieran Sheedy, is a second section on elections in the Poor Law Unions (bringing the total number of pages to 886!), but Sheedy does not include Limerick Poor Law Union, which must be frustrating for readers interested in the part of East Clare that was included in the Limerick Union. On page 535 (under "Poor Law Unions 1880 and 1881"), Sheedy writes,
This period coincided with the election of Charles Stewart Parnell as leader of the Home Rule party and with the setting up of branches of the Irish National Land League all over the county. As a consequence, the increased politicization of the Poor Law Unions became evident and in advance of the Poor Law elections in 1881, Parnell issued a statement that “it was of the highest importance that the people should be encouraged to wrest the local government of the country from the landlords. I trust that the branches of the [Land] League will everywhere see that all exertions are made to secure the return of Land League candidates as Poor Law guardians and drive from office the agents, bailiffs and Landlord nominees who have hitherto been allowed to fill those important positions".
But in Co. Clare this changing of the guard was already underway for some years, and likewise in the Limerick Union, as we see from the biographical piece on William Henry O’Sullivan. There may be candidates from Parteen mentioned in the newspapers, and I’m sure the same people were also in Land League and probably in the Limerick and Clare Farmers Club also.

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Sat Jun 25, 2022 10:16 am

Hi Matthew

The Farmers Club continues to be mentioned in 1880 in connection with the Land League and with the Home Rule Party. A general election was due that year and hopeful candidates visited Ennis in preparation for it. On page 262 of The Clare Elections, Kieran Sheedy says,
Because of the links between Parnell and the Land League, it was agreed that the selection of the Home Rule candidates for the county would be made during the Farmers Club meeting at their room in Causeway, Ennis. Parnell had planned to be present at the meeting but he had received a hostile reception during a visit to Wexford and was unable to travel to Clare in time…
Parnell had despatched J. J. O Kelly to the meeting whom he nominated as his preferred choice of candidate to stand with O Gorman Mahon for the county seats. But Chairman Fr Patrick White proposed Capt. Henry O Shea (a Catholic) as one of the candidates …It was another example of the clergy opting for what they believed was a moderate Home Rule candidate.
Soon after that election Parnell was elected as leader of the Home Rule Party and the drive to organise branches of the Land League all over the county began. According to Kieran Sheedy, the first branch in Clare was set up in Feakle on 13 June by T. S. Cleary, and the Clare Farmers Club also became affiliated to it. During the next few months, several other branches were established and on Sunday 19 September,1880, the first monster Land League meeting took place [in Ennis]
….for the first time Parnell was joined on the platform by a group of priests including Fr Matt Kenny, Fr Stuart, Fr John Garry, Fr Anthony Clancy, Irish College, Paris, and Fr D. Ryan, Cratloe, in addition to William Reidy, vice-chairman Clare Farmers Club; T. S. Cleary Sec. Ennis Land League and J. J. O Kelly who had been elected as a member for Roscommon.
I think that is the last mention, by Kieran Sheedy, of the Clare Farmers Club. He goes on to give motions proposed by T. S. Cleary, Fr Matt Kenny, Stephen McMahon (Kilrush) and Michael Egan. The end note, No. 76, gives the source as The Limerick Chronicle 19 Sept 1880. It was at that meeting that Parnell advocated the policy of boycotting.

Sheila

matthewmacnamara
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by matthewmacnamara » Mon Jun 27, 2022 12:05 pm

Many thanks Sheila for such a comprehensive investigation.
One of the signatories of the riposte to the Lansdowne
estate agent was my great grand mother, a widow.

Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:55 pm

Hi Matthew

You are lucky to have an ancestor who did something interesting – I don’t think it was very common for women at that time to put their signatures to a letter of protest.
Going back to the Farmers Club, I have found that, while Kieran Sheedy gives 1877 as the beginning of the Farmers Club in Clare, the date is given as 1866 in The Story of Clare and its People: A History of Local Government in Ireland’s Banner County 1570-2020, by Dr Matthew Potter and Dr John Treacy - see page74, Chapter 3, sub-heading: “A Catholic Ascendancy ?”:
The general election of 1874 began the process the of dismantling the Clare Ancien Regime, when all three parliamentary constituencies returned Home Rule MPs. However, all three were members of the old elite and the transition to more ‘middle class’ MPs was a slow one…. At the local level, the rise of the Catholic middle classes was much more apparent. From 1879 to 1882, the Irish National Land League, led by Michael Davitt, flourished in Clare, co-existing with the Clare Farmers Club (in existence since 1866) (endnote no. 75: Samuel Clark, Social Origins of the Irish Land War, p 216)... The Grand Jury of Clare remained under landlord control until its abolition in 1899, but the boards of guardians and town councils were taken over by nationalists in the 1880s.
The Poor Law Unions of Tulla, Scariff, Kildysert, Ballyvaughan, Corofin, Ennis, Ennistymon and Kilrush are all mentioned as coming under nationalist control (i.e. having a nationalist as Chairman) between 1882 and 1886, but, once again, the part of Clare that is included in Limerick Union is not mentioned. As you are well aware, it was quite a large part of the county. We get a good idea of the size of it from this O’Mahony map (https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... u/plus.htm), posted by Sadhbh in the second last reply on the topic of “Electoral divisions and civil parishes”: http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... f=1&t=4693. It looks just as big as the whole of Corofin Union.

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:29 am

Hi Matthew

I looked over my notes taken from the Clare Journal (digitalized by British Newspaper Archives from 1850 to 1871) to see if I noted anything at all regarding the founding of the Farmers Club in 1866, but found only this note on the Burren Farming Society: “Thur 12 Apr 1866: Subscriptions to the Burren Farming Society. List of names.” But I don't know if that society had any connection with the Farmers Club.

The following excerpt from an obituary for a Mr. O’Neill, published in the Clare Champion of 27 June 1914, was posted by me on this forum in 2016 in a reply (to myself) on the topic of “Considine Family Tree”: http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... f=1&t=6785. It tells us that Denis O’Neill was secretary to the Farmers Club and then secretary to the Newmarket-on-Fergus branch of the Land League. He seems a typical example of a Farmers Club member, who, as you say, slid into a leading position in the local branch of the Land League:
… a man of standing even before the passing of Mr. Gladstone’s first Land Act, he had much to lose by espousing the popular cause. Those were the tenant-at-will days, before Parnell and Davitt made it possible for an Irishman to indulge the luxury of an opinion of his own. He was equal to any sacrifice when the heather took fire, and his exertions in these stirring times are part of a series which belong to the history of a country rather than to a personal memoir. Even before Michael Davitt raised the banner of the Land League, he was imbued with a firm conviction of the necessity of some sort of land reform. In Isaac Butt’s time he was secretary to the Clare Farmer’s Club, being one of the first, if not the very first, who held the position. He was also secretary to the first Land League started in Newmarket-on-Fergus in the Plan of Campaign days. He was an able supporter of the late Mr. “Ned” Bennett when he won the chair of the Ennis Union from the late Lord Inchiquin, and it will certainly be admitted that he had the courage of his opinions in thus opposing his own landlord. Together with the late Fr. Loughnane, Adm., he also joined issue against Lord Inchiquin relative to a number of cases of tenants of the Ballygreen property, and in three cases (O’Neill, Sheehan and McMahon) had the pleasure and reward of seeing the popular cause triumphant. That the deceased transmitted not a little of his spirit to his children, an episode at this period will serve to show. In the year 1888, at the height of the agitation, a great public demonstration, to be addressed by Mr. William O’Brien and Mr Michael Davitt, was proclaimed at Ballycoree. The meeting then adjourned to the Burns Store, but here they were surrounded like rats in a trap by police and a squadron of Hussars. Amongst those arrested and brought before a court under the Coercion Act were Mr. Michael and Mr. Pat O’Neill, the latter of whom was captain of the famous old Dalgais football club, and was one of the best players they had… (from Clare Champion, 27 June 1914)
“Burns Store” is my mis-transcription of “Burnt Store”. The Other Clare, Vol 41 (2017) has an article entitled “The ‘Burned Store’ of Drumbiggle,” by Brian Ó Dálaigh. The charging of a proclaimed meeting by the Third Huzzars occurred in 1888 – a good few years after the period when the Farmers Club was affiliating with the Land League - there had been many important developments in the Land War in the meantime. I found, by googling, that the Clare Champion published an article on the event, on 29 Sept 1956 (you will see that second part is promised, but I’ve failed to find it online) – see attachment.
Land league meeting 1888 CC 28-9-1956.doc
(437 KiB) Downloaded 167 times
Sheila

matthewmacnamara
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by matthewmacnamara » Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:50 pm

The Clare Farmers' Club certainly played its part in the 1880 general election.

Jimbo
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Jimbo » Thu Jun 30, 2022 8:19 am

A SHOT FIRED INTO A DWELLING.

A shot has been fired into the dwelling-house of a farmer named Andrew Mack, residing at Creggaun, county Clare. The only reason that can be assigned for the outrage is that a the recent meeting to establish a branch of the Land League, Mack made some observations which gave offence. His wife was lying ill, and the fright caused by the shot had a serious effect upon her.

Clare Advertiser and Kilrush Gazette, 16 October 1880, page 3
Matthew, the London Evening Standard specified that the meeting was for the "purpose of forming a branch of the Land League at Daoramenamara". Other newspapers, such as Bassett's Chronicle stated "Doora".

Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Fri Jul 01, 2022 9:48 am

Hi Jimbo

I am noting that you have access to Bassett’s Chronicle and wonder if you could look at it again and see if there is a list of members of the Clare Farmers’ Club sometime around the beginning of May 1880. Woe is me, I came on the list, as copied from Bassett’s Daily Chronicle, in the Clare Freeman of Sat 8 May 1880, but did not transcribe the names. Of course the list in the Clare Freeman might be just as complete, and I can get that in the Local Studies Centre (sometime).

Sheila

matthewmacnamara
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by matthewmacnamara » Fri Jul 01, 2022 4:01 pm

A report in the Munster News of May 8, 1880 notes tension between the
Limerick and Clare Farmers' Club and the Land League. It says that
some members of the Club strongly dissent from the present action
of the League.

Sduddy
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by Sduddy » Sat Jul 02, 2022 10:12 am

Hi Matthew

Does that report in the Munster News of May 8, 1880, give any more information, please ?

Sheila

matthewmacnamara
Posts: 139
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:38 pm

Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by matthewmacnamara » Sat Jul 02, 2022 2:04 pm

Dear Sheila,
I will get back to it. The issue between the Limerick and Clare Farmers' Club and the
Land League persists into the summer. Some Club members feel that 'the League asks too
much' and cite a letter from a priest referring to the 'utterly impracticable and wild scheme
of the Land League'. The League is a newcomer on the block and the Club has up to
then had a monopoly of representation, that is now being challenged. [Munster News, May 19]

matthewmacnamara
Posts: 139
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Re: The Land League in Clare

Post by matthewmacnamara » Sat Jul 02, 2022 3:10 pm

The May 8 report contained no further detail other than a decision that a
further meeting would be convened to consider the whole 'land question'.
At around the same time, the Bishop of Ossory accused the
Land League of 'communism and nihilism' because of what it
was agitating for. This went beyond the traditional demands of
the Limerick and Clare Farmer's Club.

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