No, they did not
owe a penny of rent, they said. Remember there was only one harvest
between them and the famine year. They had also put in the crops in
their little holdings, they said, "but as God lives we have neither bite
nor sup to keep us till harvest time." The sub-sheriff asked why they
did not go to a certain dealer. They said the terms were so hard that
they could never pay him. "How much would keep you till the crops come
in," he asked. Two hundred of Indian meal for each they said. Finally he
promised them one hundred each on credit, even if he had to pay it out
of his own pocket. "That is what you will have to do," said the agent.
We left and drove home. We saw the police, hot and tired, march past to
their barracks after our return. These men had a long march, loaded down
with arms to protect the bailiff, the stalwart agent, the rosy sub-
sheriff from a crowd of five hunger-bitten peaceable men and three
ragged women. The whole crowd might have been put to flight by any one
of the three with one hand tied behind him.
I forgot to mention that the agent offered to one of the women there all
the tenant's poor things that were thrown out, which was an honest and
honorable proceeding on his part, and very generous.
XXXIII.
A SEVERE CRITICISM JUSTIFIED - PROCESS SERVING BY THE AID OF THE POLICE -
THE WHITE HORSE OF MAYO - PEASANT PROPRIETORSHIP.
I am glad to see by the papers that the state of the workhouse at Manor
Hamilton has been censured by the doctors, and deliberated about at a
meeting of guardians. It is certainly the worst conducted workhouse I
have seen as yet in Ireland, and it says with a loud voice, woe to the
poor who enter here. It was told me on this twenty-seventh day of May
that if I really wanted to see a disturbance a serious collision was
apprehended between the constabulary and the people, at some distance
from Ballina. I have been led to distrust the accounts of disturbances
that appear in the papers, or at least to admit them with caution. I was
assured that now at least I should see the wild men of Mayo, for they
had assaulted the process server and stripped him of his clothing,
taking his processes from him, some days before, and they would be out
in thousands this day to oppose the serving of the processes.
Got a car, as travelling companion the local editor, and driven by a
knowledgable man, followed in the wake of the police, seventy of them,
toward the scene of the disturbance to be. The police had one hour the
start of us. It was a dim day of clouds and watery blinks of sunshine.
As we drove along all historical spots were pointed out to me, being a
stranger, with great politeness.
