|Clare County Library||
|Vandeleurs of Kilrush County
by Senan Scanlan
5. Vandeleur Evictions 1888-1900
By 1885 bad weather, poorer harvests, falling prices and declining markets had again taken their toll, and thousands of tenants, especially in the western parts of the country, found themselves unable to pay rents. The deficiencies of the act of 1881 became more apparent. Leaseholders were excluded from seeking judicial rents, many tenants were heavily burdened by arrears. Judicial rents fixed at a time of greater economic buoyancy were found to be too high during a downturn in the economy. It was this situation that brought forth the Plan of Campaign.
Pope Leo X111 sent a delegate, Archbishop Ignazio Persico, who spend six months in Ireland and reported unfavourably on the Plan of Campaign and on boycotting. The Duke of Norfolk and his zealous friend, Captain John Ross of Bladensburg, aided and abetted by Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, and Arthur Balfour, the chief secretary, also brought damning accounts of the National League and on the role played by bishops and clergy in furthering the Plan of Campaign to the attention of the Vatican. The Pope ordered that a decree should be made to enable the Irish people to defend and assert their rights without prejudice to justice or public tranquillity. The decree read as follows “ Fearing lest right notions of justice and charity should be perverted amongst that people in consequence of that mode of warfare called the Plan of Campaign-which has been employed in that country in disputes between letters and holders of lands or farms, as also in consequence of a form of proscription in connection with the same contests known as Boycotting, commissioned the Supreme Congregation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition to make the matter the subject of grave and careful examination. Accordingly the following question was submitted to the Most Eminent Fathers---. In disputes between letters and holders of farms in Ireland, is it lawful to have recourse to those means known as the Plan of Campaign and Boycotting---and their Eminences, having long and maturely weighed the matter, unanimously replied: In the negative.” (This is a translation of the Latin Decree and the words letters and holders of lands and farms was meant to refer to landlords and tenants)
Ross also forwarded numerous extracts from newspapers to bolster his case. These included a letter in The Times from the Liberal Unionist, T.W.Russell, about the illegal behaviour of priests at the evictions on the Vandeleur estate in Co. Clare. In an article by David Humphreys, the curate of Tipperary town, in which he argued that the decree did not condemn the Plan of Campaign and the boycotting as practised in Ireland. A letter from Croke announcing his subscription of £5 to a fund for Thomas Joseph Condon, the M.P. for Tipperary East, who had been imprisoned for organising the Plan of Campaign and for lobbying against the award of compensation to a policeman who was injured in the violent affray at Mitchelstown. -------------.
Ross showed no signs of withdrawing from the battle. He went on vacation to Ireland in the summer and used his spare time to visit the disturbed parts of the country and consult with his friends about the situation. He stayed with Lord Emly near Limerick, went to see the troubled estates at Woodford (Clanricarde's), Kilrush, Co. Clare (Vandeleur's), Luggacurran, Queen's Co. (Lansdowne's) and stayed with Bishop Healy at Portumna-------------.
Though admitting that the decree had done some good, which was difficult to quantify, he was still deeply perturbed by the role played by the priests. Not only were they present in significant numbers, when William O'Brien praised the Plan near Kilrush, and at Maryborough, when Joseph Kenny M.P. made his defiant comments about the Plan going on despite the actions of any 'Foreign Potentate’, but they were responsible for galvanising the resistance of the tenants on the Vandeleur and Luggacurran estates. -----------------.
Ross showed little sympathy for those who had been evicted, and blamed the Plan of Campaign for their plight. The tenants on the Vandeleur estate could have paid their rents but the organisers of the Plan of Campaign forbade them to do so, and as a result they have lost everything at the bidding of the organisation. The priests at Kilrush were especially culpable and the Plan would have collapsed, if they had been removed. ----------------.
Ross's visit only served to confirm him in his most blinkered views. English visitors to the Vandeleur estate in Co. Clare were shocked by the poverty and misery of the tenants, both before and after the evictions-------------------.
The Vandeleur Evictions Kilrush
One of the paradoxes of history is that small-scale events sometimes are better remembered than much bigger ones. Folk memory is highly selective and yet the very fact that it selects a particular event shows that this event is in itself of some importance. The Vandeleur evictions of 1888 can in no way compare in scale with previous evictions in the same area in 1848-9, yet it is the first mentioned that are best remembered. The scale of the evictions in the famine years is incredible. Captain Kennedy, the Poor Law Inspector in the area, calculated that over 6,000 people had been evicted in Kilrush Union between July and early December 1848. Less than a year later Mr. Poulett Scrope, a British M.P. who visited West Clare, estimated that 20,000 had been evicted in Kilrush Union in the previous two years-and that the greater number of these had died in the meantime. Not all of these were Vandeleur tenants, but many of them were.
The following is a typical eviction scene in West Clare in 1849 as described for us by the English humanitarian, Rev Godolphin Osborne. It is of particular interest for comparative purposes with what happened forty years later.
A gig or outside car arrives with
the Sheriff's deputy: the Agent for the property is in attendance on
horse-back, with ten or twelve rough-looking peasants, one or two of
them having iron crowbars and other necessaries for their business of
destruction. A certain form is quickly gone through by the Law's officer,
the effect of which is, to put the agent of the property in possession...
In very many districts a small body of armed police attend, in case
of any forcible resistance... The word is now given by the Agent to
his “Destructives”. If the people will not come out of the
dwellings they are dragged out: with them the bed, kettle, old wheel,
tub, and one or two stools, with perhaps an old chest: few cabins have
anything to add to this list of furniture at the time the tenants are
Agricultural Depression in West
Meanwhile a significant local development had taken place in Kilrush. In November 1881 the head of the Vandeleur family, Colonel Crofton Moore Vandeleur, died. He was the only landlord with extensive properties in West Clare who normally resided in the area. His successor, Captain Hector S. Vandeleur, did not come to the family residence, Kilrush House, to make it his home and paid only one visit to his West Clare property in the year after he succeeded to it. (As can be seen from the newspaper references above he spent lengthy periods in Kilrush during the years 1883,1884,1885,1891,1892,1894,1895 and 1896) A reporter at the end of 1882 commented on how few labourers were employed on the Vandeleur property in comparison with what had been the case when the previous owner was alive and he went on to describe the agricultural depression, which had hit West Clare.
Tillage is steadily decreasing in the district, and there has been a gradual decadence from tillage to dairy farming, from dairy farming to grazing, and from grazing to meadowing. The last mentioned transition has been accelerated, or rather is accelerated, by the unfavourable seasons. The less “strong” farmers have found it necessary to reduce the numbers of their stock: and what is still more serious, in view of the future, they have found it necessary, although for a different reason, to substitute an inferior breed of cattle for the improved breeds, especially the short horns, which during the last 25 years have by degrees found their way into the most remote parts of Ireland.
In addition to the bad weather, American competition had contributed to the agricultural depression, which had hit Ireland as a whole, by causing a serious decline in farm prices. When the second half of the 1880's was reached the position in agriculture had worsened rather than improved -and prices fell catastrophically in 1885-6. The result was that tenants had become unable to pay even what had been considered fair judicial rents-and according to law these were fixed for 15 years. It was against this background that the Plan of Campaign began in late 1886.
Michael Davitt in West Clare 1885.
The next work, which will be before us in Ireland, will be the work of resisting evictions by landlords for non-payment of impossible rents. The rent question, therefore, will be after November the most important question for the tenant farmers of Ireland...If they (landlords) band themselves together to resist a just demand for a just reduction the people must combine in order by every justifiable means in the constitution to resist the inhumane right of eviction for non-payment of such rents. Assuming that the present administration in Ireland will so disregard law and order as to defy the voice of justice and lend the authority of the powers that be to the carrying out of evictions, what must be done? Wherever a holding is thus made vacant, we must see that it remains so and we must see that the evil genius of the tenantry of Ireland and of the country-namely, the land-grabber-shall not thwart the popular movement and lend his support to Irish landlordism in order to thus defeat the just rights of the people of Ireland. We will be perfectly justified in following the example of the landlords, and they boycott the Nationalists in trade and business, it cannot be wrong on our part to boycott the land-grabbers and the landlords...........
The land struggle, as Davitt indicated, was now at the point of getting more intense again after a lull during the previous few years and the enforcement of a boycott was not new to his hearers. In March of that year (1885) fourteen evictions for non-payment of rent had taken place on the Vandeleur estate. One of those involved in carrying out the evictions was a sub-agent of Vandeleur, who had two horses which he wanted to run in Kilrush Races the following September. However, notices were posted calling on the people not to allow his horses to race. One of the horses (called “Harkaway”) had white marks on its legs and forehead. The owner painted these over and, with the disguise, it was not recognised and won the third race. But when his other horse went out for the fourth race it was recognised and a disturbance took place, with the jockey eventually being knocked off the horse. As a result a number of men were charged at Kilrush Petty Sessions and two of them were returned for trial at Clare Assizes.
The Plan of Campaign.
In December 1886 about 200 of the Vandeleur tenants met in Kilrush, preceded over by Fr. Dinan, P.P., and decided to ask for a 25% reduction on the judicial rents and a 40% reduction on non-judicial rents. They also stated very clearly that they would accept nothing less. If the landlord refused to accept these rents they would adopt the Plan of Campaign. A committee was appointed, consisting of two tenants from each of the parishes involved- and these, accompanied by a number of priests, had a meeting with Mr. Studdert the agent of Captain Vandeleur. The reason given for requesting the reduction was the terrible agricultural depression. Mr. Studdert replied that Captain Vandeleur had already given what he considered a reasonable reduction from 10% to 20% on old rents-and he had instructions to give no more. Fr. O'Meara, P.P., Killimer, then told him that if this refusal was the landlord's final word, they would adopt the Plan of Campaign. However even though the lines were drawn with tenants withholding rents and the landlord threatening evictions, many further efforts were made, particularly by Fr. Dinan, P.P, Kilrush, during the next year and a half to secure a peaceful settlement- as indeed happened on over half the estates in Ireland where the Plan of Campaign was put into effect.
By May 1887 the Clare landlords, who were banded together in the Clare Landlords' Union, were threatening wholesale evictions on many estates. A Coercion Bill was on its way through Parliament. At the same time a meeting, representative of the National League in West Clare, was held in Kilrush Christian Brothers' school, with Fr. Dinan in the Chair. They protested at the Coercion Bill and adopted a fighting attitude in the face of the threatened evictions. However, it is also clear from the resolutions of the meeting that not all tenants had as yet joined the Plan of Campaign.
Evictons in Kilrush Town October
During the first half of the week a number of evictions were carried out with only minor disturbances on Tuesday, when stones were thrown at police of whom eventually there were about 100 in the town. None of them could get lodgings and they had to bed down on straw in the market-house. On Thursday, as the evictions were now completed, the police who had come in from outside the town departed for home. However, they had some problems in getting out as the roadway was barricaded with planks of timber, trees, boulders and other materials. Later, during November, thirty people were brought to court in connection with the disturbances. One of those accused was James Clancy, formerly secretary of the local branch of the National League, who had been evicted and later returned to his house. For this he was given 21 days in jail with hard labour.
From Spring to Summer 1888.
In the following month Fr. Gilligan.C.C. Kilmurray McMahon got a month in jail for taking part in a proclaimed meeting at Labasheeda. This was the first attempt to prosecute a priest in Clare. Although very many of them were prominently associated with the land movement. On the 20th May a large number of people had gathered in Labasheeda for the forbidden meeting. Fr. Gilligan and some other men went out on the river in boats and delivered their speeches from the water. For this they were prosecuted and imprisoned.
By early July 1888 matters on the Vandeleur estate had come to a head. The landlord had obtained very many eviction orders but withheld them as negotiations continued. His offer was to wipe out all arrears to March 1886 and to reduce rents-32½% reduction on non-judicial rents: perhaps half that or less on judicial rents. The tenants, for their part, were asking for all arrears to March 1887 to be wiped out together with the following reductions – 40% on non-judicial and 25% on judicial rents. There was also disagreement on who should pay law costs and the county cess. Fr. Dinan offered as a comprise that both parties should accept that arrears be wiped out to March 1887 and that rents be reduced by 35 %( non-judicial) and 20% (judicial). Most tenants owed at least two years rent while in several hundred cases it was higher than that -three or four or even six years. All efforts at compromise failed although negotiations went on to the very evening before the evictions began. By mid July, then, everybody was prepared for the evictions, which were regarded as inevitable.
On Tuesday 17th July the town was quiet and a casual visitor would have noticed nothing unusual. But within the demesne, at Kilrush House, the scene resembled that of an army preparing for war. The people too had prepared -and many were said to have had their houses barricaded for over a month. A government manifesto, declaring that all meetings for the purpose of frustrating the work of the sheriff were unlawful, was posted up on Saturday. This was countered soon afterwards by an anti-eviction manifesto.
Come on Norbury. Come on with your hirelings. We await you and them. This is not the first time the hellish work was played on our forefathers. If the moulding bones of Shanakyle could speak: if the waters of the Ferry could give up their dead, humanity would be aghast at the dreadful tale they could tell. We faced the crowbar brigade then when we were friendless. Do you think we fear them now?
(The reference to Norbury was to the famous hanging judge, Lord Norbury, who was Hector Vandeleur’s great-grandfather).
Evictions Begin, Wednesday 18th
The Clare Journal described
the procession as follows:
The procession moved eastwards towards Killimer and the first house visited was that of Patrick McInerney at Dysert, where he had a 32-acre holding. McInerney himself was not present and his wife and family offered no resistance. After about an hour at the McInerney's house the party moved on to the house of James Finnucane at Clooneylissaun. Here the entrance was filled with bushes and heavy pieces of bog-deal. However, these were quickly cleared away by the Emergency men and very little opposition was offered.
The procession, which was now 1¼ miles long, next moved to the house of Michael Cleary, near Moneypoint. Cleary, who had a holding of 40 Irish acres, had strongly barricaded the house and was clearly prepared to resist. First of all cordon of police and soldiers were drawn up about the house, but at some distance. The only people allowed within this circle, apart from officials, were newspaper representatives and some English and American visitors. Smoke was coming from the chimney-and the first action taken was to put a ladder against the side of the house and block the chimney with straw. Possession was then demanded-and the only reply heard was a laugh from some girls inside. The police were now ordered to fix their bayonets, while the bailiffs got to work with crowbars and hatchets, but to little effect. An attack on the door moved it only slightly and hot water was thrown out. The tripod and battering ram were then brought up- and after a long time eventually made a breach in the wall. A shower of hot water was thrown out through the breach.
Finally, a large section of the wall crashed down to a cheer from the Emergency men. Two girls and their two brothers who were in the house were seized by the police and an impromptu court held in the field at which they were remanded until the following Monday. However, the girls were granted bail. The house was then knocked to the ground. When this had been done it was four o'clock and the procession returned to Kilrush, where every shop had put up its shutters for the day.
Thursday, 19th July.
Resolved that we, the undersigned priests of West Clare, present today at the evictions at the Vandeleur estate, protest in the strongest manner against the insults offered to us and the injustices inflicted on the tenants in excluding us, the trusted guides of the people, from the inner circle to which free admission was given to the representatives of the evictor and the enemies of the people.
Tuesday & Wednesday, 24th,
The McGrath eviction - Moyasta
The struggle was for the moment dreadful.
McGrath laid about him with extraordinary vigour. He had stones and
missiles of all sorts around him, but he struck out with his fists and
fought with the courage of a lion, but the numbers against him were
more than a dozen such men could cope with, and he was at last pulled
violently, still resisting, through the breach over the rubbish, when
he was thrown to the ground for the purpose of having the handcuffs
put on him. He presented a shocking appearance as he lay gasping for
breath under the weight of several policemen, with the blood pouring
from his battered head, while to add to the frightfulness of the scene,
his mother was filling the air with her shrieks and lamentations...
After the evictions McGrath's mother became ill and died in mid August. At the inquest the jury returned the following verdict.
We find that the deceased, Bridget McGrath, died of pneumonia, and we believe her death to have been accelerated by the eviction of her husband and the imprisonment of her son.
In Moyasta a hearse and coffin were placed outside the ruined house. “A pole bearing a black flag surmounted the vehicle, and the spectacle, combined with the ruin was altogether ghastly. They formed a horrible and miserable picture of what the relations of land are coming to at this crisis in Ireland”.
The McGrath eviction was the one which got most attention and in retrospect, it can be seen with its accompanying tragedy, to have put immense pressure on the landlord. There were two further days of evictions with Mr. French, the photographer, present on both days. On Monday 30th July Patrick Carrig, Thomas Considine, John Flanagan, the Widow O'Dea and Johanna O'Dea from the Tullycrine area were evicted, and a Mrs.O'Dea had her door burst in with a sledge before the evictors realised they had come to the wrong house. On the following day the procession again moved in the Kilkee direction and evicted John Connell, Thomas Bermingham and Thomas Higgins. Thomas Higgins was the last person to be put out of his house and holding in the Vandeleur Evictions of the summer of 1888.
Although resistance was offered in most cases-sometimes considerable resistance- it was nevertheless nothing more than a token as the people were well aware after the first day that they had no hope of holding out against the battering ram. However, the resistance did ensure widespread publicity for the tenants' case and this was their strongest weapon in effecting an eventual settlement. The settlement came through the intervention of Sir Charles Russell, the famous lawyer and later Lord Chief Justice of England, and in accordance with its terms, the evicted tenants were allowed back to their holdings.
Evcitions in Tullycrine, Kilmurry,
Coolmeen and Labasheedain the nineteenth century.
The National League introduced the Plan of Campaign in 1886. The first evictions in the Kilrush area were carried out in October 1887. The battering ram was augmented by extra police and troops. The Land Leaguers were defiant and determined to break the power and might of the landlord. Here it is worth recording that the curate of Kilmurry McMahon, Fr. Lawrence Gilligan was sentenced to one month's imprisonment in Limerick jail for addressing a meeting of the Irish National League at Labasheeda village on May 20th 1888. -------------
In all 22 evictions had taken place during July of 1888 in West Clare. Soon a settlement was reached, the Kilrush and Tullycrine evictions were raised in the House of Commons and Capt. Vandeleur was forced to call a halt to the evictions.
1889 1st June – Clare Saturday
1890 March – Clare Journal.
1895 July – Clare Journal.
An evicted tenant named James Galvin has been reinstated in his farm at Coolmeen from which he was evicted last year by the Count de Boissi for non-payment of rent. It is stated that a large amount of arrears has been wiped out and that the tenant has resumed possession under a substantially reduced rent.
1897 September –Clare Journal.
1899 June- Clare Journal.
1900 3rd November –Saturday