The not so sweet history of ancient Donoughmore
AUTHOR GERARD O’ROURKE PUBLISHED ‘ANCIENT SWEET DONOUGHMORE: LIFE IN AN IRISH RURAL PARISH’ THIS YEAR TO GREAT APPRAISE. IN IT, HE WROTE THAT THE NATIONAL LAND LEAGUE FOUNDED IN 1879 BROUGHT GREAT PROMISE IN RECOGNISING AND DEFENDING DISTRESSED TENANTS TH
Given the economic turn-about it soon became apparent that many tenants in Cork and locally in Donoughmore were continuing to have many difficulties in paying their rent, which resulted in landlords resorting to civil bill decrees and writs.
In Cork alone these summonses increased from 1030 in 1880 to 2723 in 1881. As a result, conflict and confrontation developed and when a bailiff, James Regan, travelled to Goulane in May to serve writs on some of the tenants of the local landlord he got more than he bargained for.
As he approached the door of the first tenant, Cornelius Callaghan, he found the door of the residence closed. When some water was thrown at him from inside the house, he ‘was satisfied that he was not to meet with an amicable or peaceful reception’. He ran from the scene followed by Callaghan and his son Michael, who it was alleged threw stones at him.
Not to be undone by the menfolk, Mary O’Callaghan, wife of Cornelius, and her daughter-inlaw, Eileen Callaghan, were later alleged to have stripped the bailiff of his clothes and in doing so tore all the writs.
Needless to say, the unfortunate man made a quick exit albeit in his natural state.
In his evidence to the Ahadallane Petty Sessions presided by magistrates Capt Stokes and Kilcullen based JP Charles Lynch, James Regan collaborated the evidence presented. He further stated that he had been cut severely on the head from stones and that six women were pursuing him with their shoes and stockings off. Nothing worse than a woman’s fury the bailiff said, stating that the women beat him continuously. Scrambling his way over ditches he hid under a furze bush when fortunately for him the landlord came to his rescue.
He was taken to the landlord’s house, a doctor examined him and he was kept there for three days being confined to bed.
The whole episode had caused a considerable amount of excitement in the area and at the subsequent court sitting in Ahadallane the authorities felt it necessary to draft in thirty policemen from Ballincollig, the command centre for the region. The Cork Examiner described the scene; ‘ the result was that a crowd of some three thousand people assembled in the vincity of the courthouse, while bands from Mourneabbey and Donoughmore bearing banners and green sashes played national airs’. The arrival of the bailiff, James Regan, was the signal of an outburst of extraordinary indignation, with the result that the police had to use their strongest efforts to prevent Regan being molested. The decision of the magistrate to refer the case to the Cork Assizes enraged the crowd ‘from the fields and ditches people swarmed on to the road, shouting, hooting and behaving in a decidedly menacing manner’. The police, however, managed to gain control despite being bombarded with stones.
With tension high in the parish, evictions contributed further to the instability. In June a landlord, Mrs Longfield, was determined to use her rights to evict a Mrs Callaghan and she accompanied the sheriff and a small body of police to the farm concerned. Most of the land was under grass and the house was described ‘as one of the airiest for a human being.’ Its interior did not have a stick of furniture save a rickety old chair. The walls were unplastered and the space which once served as windows were now open holes through which the four winds of heaven had full liberty to come and go.
Finding the door closed the sheriff called it to be open and with no response he had no difficulty in entering, as the door and frame came away landing in the middle of the floor. Possession was taken but the landlord then decided to leave the unfortunate woman as caretaker at a penny a week. The stock on the farm consisting of twelve sheep and six asses were formally handed over to the landlord.
The party then proceeded to the farm of Edmund Coleman in Ballycunningham who held 60 acres of ground from Mr Creagh. This holding was in the charge of a caretaker named Michael Buckley, who had previously farmed the ground. Earlier in that year the landlord brought a number of ejectment processes against the tenantry (mentioned at the local Land League meeting of April 17). All the tenants eventually paid their rents except Coleman. Mr Creagh maintained that he (Coleman) had neither the energy nor capital to work the farm and he had suggested to him that he should sell his interest in the farm to another tenant or dispose of it. Coleman however was determined to keep a firm grip on the holding.
In adhering to the law, the procedure of evicting the caretaker was put into operation. The previous evening, fifty men of the Dragoon Guards and fifty policemen were drafted in from Cork, Midleton, Cloyne and other stations. Four mounted men acted as special bodyguards for the sheriff. With a crowd of two hundred people assembled being actuated by feelings of curiosity, there were no obvious signs of resistance or protest and for some unknown reason no opposition from the local Land League.
The imposing array of military and police began the eviction process by surrounding the farm dwelling. The caretaker said he was willing to leave the holding if he could be reinstated as caretaker to Mr. Creagh. This was agreed whereby the bailiffs proceeded to take all the household goods and about a dozen cattle with some pigs, and following this possession the confiscated goods were then handed over to the landlord.
Others were not so lucky as across the parish, cabins and cottages were tumbled.
A description by an eleven year old of an eviction scene in Co Kerry graphically illustrates an event reminiscent of events happening all over the country such as in Donoughmore: ‘ the sheriff arrived first and handed us a paper, off to one side, rifles drawn, stood the constabulary. The wreckers were near the front . . . when they got the order . . . they were on the roof in seconds, scrambling up there like monkeys, ripping away the thatch and hacking loose the crossbeam connecting the stone ends. In no time at all they’d sent the beam crashing into the living area and that ended it. The cottage had been tumbled; we could do nothing to stop it’.
‘Ancient Sweet Donoughmore: Life in an Irish Rural Parish to 1900’ is available locally and in neighbouring parish’s, in Philip’s Bookshop Mallow, McCarthy’s Newsagents, Macroom; Liam Ruiseal and Waterstones in Cork; Hodges Figgis Dublin and O’Mahony’s Bookshop, Limerick. Its 460 pages are generously illustrated with photos, maps, charts and data.