The Peasant Mind Had A Sort Of
Belief That America Consisted Of Two Large Towns, New York And
Philadelphia.
In one instance the Canadian paid nets arrived on
Thursday; they were in the water on Saturday, and many boats returned
laden with mackerel.
So great a capture had not been remembered for many
years. In one locality where the nets given were valued for less than
L200, it was proved that the boats had brought in during four weeks over
L1,200 worth of mackerel.
After we had taken a view of Killala we had a pleasant interview with
the good minister at Ballysakeery. Here we received one of those
welcomes that cheer the travellers' way and leave a warm remembrance
behind. The famine pressed hard upon Mayo. Many respectable people were
obliged to accept relief in the form of necessary food, seed potatoes
and seed oats. It is a noticeable fact that here, as in Leitrim - that
part at least of Leitrim in which I made investigations - the landlords
in a body held back from giving any help to the starving people on their
lands. Sir Roger Palmer gave potatoes to his tenants and sold them meal
at the lowest possible figure, thus saving them from having the
millstone of Gombeen tied round their neck. Sir Charles Gore, a resident
landlord, has the name of generosity at this time of want, and justice
at all times, which is better to be chosen than great riches. The Earl
of Arran, who has drawn a large income, he and his ancestors, from this
part of Mayo for which they paid nothing, not only gave nothing but gave
no reply whatever to letters asking for help.
The land belonging to the Earl of Arran here - I cannot undertake to
write the name of the locality by the sound - was a common waste and was
let by the Earl at two shillings and sixpence per acre to Presbyterian
tenants, who came here from the North I believe. Of course they had to
reclaim, fence, drain, cultivate for years. They built dwellings and
office houses, built their lives into the place. After they had spent
the toil of years on improvement, their rents were raised to seven and
sixpence per acre, five shillings at one rise; then it was raised to ten
shillings; the next rise was to fifteen shillings and then to twenty.
The land is not now able to bear more than fourteen shillings an acre
rent and support the people who till it. These people have been paying a
rack rent for years to this nobleman, the Earl of Arran, yet when
starvation overtook them, he had neither helping hand nor feeling heart
for them.
The distress of this last famine was so great in this corner of Mayo
that people on holdings of thirty acres were starving - would have died
but for the relief afforded. It takes some time - and more than one good
harvest - for people who have got to starvation to recover themselves
far enough to pay arrears of rent.
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