Peggy’s book recalls Coolgreany evictions
SIXTY FIVE TENANT FAMILIES WERE EVICTED FROM THEIR HOMES IN 1887
A BOOK on the infamous Coolgreany evictions of 1887 has been reprinted some 30 years after it was first published.
‘ The Coolgreany Evictions, 1887’ was first published in 1986 in advance of the centenary of the scandal which saw some 65 families in the Coolgreany and wider area evicted from their holdings. It was written and researched by Peggy Doyle of Railway Road, Gorey, who described the eviction as one of the most significant historical local events of the 19th Century.
She said that due to numerous requests for a copy of her book, she has had it reprinted. It is available for €9.75 in local shops in Gorey and also in Coolgreany, Kilanerin, and Ballyfad.
‘ This book, which is a record of our heritage, will preserve the past to inform future generations of these terrible events which took place in the Coolgreany area just over a century ago,’ said Peggy. The new edition includes eight additional photographs.
In researching the book, Peggy drew from contemporary accounts of the events as reported in the Wexford People newspapers at the time, and several books on the subject. She sourced most of the photographs from local people, and most of the pictures in the book include the names of those featured.
She said that the landlords in the Brooke estate, who lived in Ballyfad House, increased rents for their tenants in townslands including Croghan, Forchester, and Gurteen. The tenants couldn’t afford the increase, and faced inevitable eviction, Michael Davitt and the Land League got involved in a plan of campaign to support them. They arranged for the families to pay their original rent into a fund which was used to help find alternative accommodation.
The committee converted farm buildings at Croghan into one room houses to provide shelter for some of them while others were housed elsewhere. Many families returned to their former homes after a change in the law in the early 1900s.