Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-01-07
JOE NKEY.
An Irish Story, Arrupus to the Times

Hampshire, and now Archbishop of Dul
lin, to say that the Marchioness of Bat
had requested him to offer mo the agenc
; of Lord Baths estate in the Count
Monaghan. After some inquiry and CO.
respondence, l wrote to say that l shoul
be happy to undertake it, on certain col
ditions and under certain arrangements
These having been all dgreed to, / lei
kenmare for Longleat, where rename
a few days with Lady Bath. Lord Bat
was then a minor, travelling with tuto
abroad
II is unnecessary here to say more, tina
that | made it one special condition,
heartily acquiesced in by Lady Bath
that l should not be required to eject an,
tenant off the estate without being at ILL
erty to provide for him by emigration o
otherwise, at the landlords expense /; an,
thus that no one should be turned out il
misery on the roadside or into the poor
house, without at least the offer bein!
made him of providing for himself ah'
family by free emigration to America.
On Lord Baths estate the tenants ha,
been allowed to fall into heavy arrears
so that not less than 30,000l. were du,
upon the estate when I undertook it
management Many of the tenants mac
not paid any rent whatever for period.
varying from two to six years.
My first step on coming to Carrickma
cross, "a locality with which my previous
experience on Mr.. Shirley's estate hac
made mo well acquainted, was to offel
free emigration, at the expense Of the
landlord, to any tenant who chose to &C.
cept it, and to his immediate family, pro.
vided he would surrender his land /; Civ
ing him, at the same time, his stock and
crop and all that he had or could make
money of, and forgiving him all rent and
arrears,-no matter how much he owed.
was aware that in making this proposal
it would not be accepted by any except
those who could not pay and from those,
all l required ON the landlords part was
the bare, worn-out land.
A large number of the eutterly insolvent
availed themselves of this proposal
resigned their land, and took shipping
forthwith for America but, liberal as
the offer was, it provoked the bitter hos
tility of the most reckless and daring of
the tenantry. These at last saw that they
must now be forced to come to terms !;
they must settle their accounts or EN- :
CRATE Hitherto they had declined to do
either. They had paid no rent, and yet
| they held possession of their land. This
they plainly saw could now go on no
longer.
The plan acted most advantageeusly
over the property. Large sums were
paid il by those who found themselves
able to do so, and the paupers prepared
for emigration. A few, however, stood
ont opl would ra,tbar r,;orofa ,or no ~ :.
and one man, named Traynor, plainly
told me THAT he had held the land for
six years without paying any rent, that it
was worth fighting for, and by the pow
ers' he would never pay while he could
still hold out against the law" !" This
man afterwards narrowly escaped being
hanged for conspiracy to murder Patrick
MacMahon, one of my bailiffs. He was
arrested and put into Jail, climbed over
high prison wall, and ran for it, got him
self packed amongst hamper of eggs,
slipped over thus to Liverpool, and was
never heard of afterwards
Amongst the most obstinate and rebel
lious of this portion Of the tenantry was
man named Joe Mickey. He called
himself Presbyterian. He held con-
siderable farm in wild district border
ing on the mountainous part of the coun-
ty of Armagh and he had paid no rent
for the past five years. Frequent "lati-
tats" and other legal missiles had been
hurled at him, but no one ventured to ar
rest him. He was a man reputed to be of
singular courage and daring, ac-
tive, and desperate; and he prided him
self on having defied any man in ireland
to take him prisoner,
was informed tie
acknowledged lea =,
over large dstrs
many hod bou 4
were put d>SS
would hold OUT in de
and order
Ny first step. accord: as to issue
warrant against hin. K debt, and to
offer 50i. to any man VINO would arrest
him. But my surprise was considerable
to hear that no one could be found who
would undertake q mission 50 dangerous !;
and bailiff to whom especially remark
ed upon the large premium for the arrest
Of one man, replied, Thank your honor !;
50l is very good, and not to be earned
every day; but life is sucet," and moth
ing could say would induce him to at
tempt it. The report, whether true or
not, was that he always went about with
loaded horse pistol in his breast, that
many people had seen the brass handle
sticking out of the pocket of his coat,
and that he had sworn solemnly to put
the contents Of the pistol into the body of
any bailiff who should ever attempt to
take him.
Such was the leader with whom had
now to deal. had only been about six
months in Office and was plainly, but
reluctantly, told by the head bailtf and
clerk, That whilst Joe Mickey held
sway, no good could be got of large
portion of the northern end Of the es-
| tate
/ confess / was much puzzled it
would have taken year or more to eject
him Dy the ordinary notice to quit, and
resistance to authority was beginning to
spread over the district / determined ac-
cordingly to go myself and at least take
the measure Of this redoubted hero, and
see if he was as formidable as he was re-
puted to be- | cannot say that had any
specific plan in view but | wished TO see
him and to speak TO him, and be guided
afterwards by circumstances as they
might arise Nothing was then further
from my intention than to arrest him N.Y.
self
The country at this time was very seri-
ously disturbed Several murders had
been committed i'll that immediate vicin-
lty bordering on the county of Armagh
and the people had become excited, and
were i'll Il very dangerous temper. |
therefore carefully loaded brace of
double -barrelled pistols on which i could
thoroughly depend and, having deter
mined to go to the man abode alone, but
wholly unexpected, l took with me q
tracing of the estate map to show me thu
way to his house, without the necessity o.
making any inquiries along the road
And mounting my horse, | started from
Carrickmacross at ten O'Clock in the morn
ing, telling no one of my destination.
McKey's residence was about sever
miles from Carrickmacross l rode quick
ly to prevent the possibility of my inten
ton being suspected or anticipated, and
arrived at the house Of course who'll,
without notice. 1t had once been re
spectacle, but had fallen much into de
cay. The hall door stood in the centr'
of the building, with a long, narrow win
1
and, after II short interval, "A man dresses
only in his shirt and trousers came to tn
narrow window and asked what | wanted
Il want to get III, said |.
you can't get in here" he reple'
curtly, and with a clear, and determines
voice.
at once suspected that this was tn
man l sought, and l asked him imme
dlately,-
Are you Joe Mickey ?"
"And what if am p said he boldly.
! Nothing" replied, "but that wan
to speak to you, and should be obliged j
you would let me in.
: ''Speak to Inc as You are, you can
got in here"
"Do you know who am p l asked.
"No," said he, ''nor don't carea rap.
! 81 am Mr. Trench"
= "Oh r' returned he, Il beg your pal
! don, sir,-I did not know it was you bu
"a | + o,n unrrv 10 aov I cap't nncuiklv Iat vo