Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1898-10-15
First Step to Abolish Landlord
ism Is to Abolish the
Land Grabber.
People of ROscOmmOn Organize
to Regain Possession and
Control of the Land.
GREAT LEAGUE MEETING AT DROMIN.

large and imposing public meeting
was held at Dromin, County Roscommon,
the scene of a recent eviction and of
police prosecutions. The object of the
meeting was to start a branch of the
United Irish League and to give such
other help as might be found necessary
to the evicted tenant, Miss Conroy, with
whom lived her sister, Mrs. Begge, a
widow with a large family. Since the
eviction the tenant has re-entered into
possession of the house, and at the last
petty sessions on Wednesday in Elphin
she was prosecuted for trespass by the
new tenant, policeman named Egan,
whose family holds land in the neighbor-
hood, but the cases were dismissed. At
the same sessions a young man, Mr..
Michael MacEgan, was prosecuted on a
charge of intimidation in connection with
the eviction and the taking of the land.
These events, including the imprisonment
of young MacEgan in default of giving
bail, have caused a good deal of excite
ment in the district.
Fhe meeting was of most enthusiastic
character. All sections of Nationalist
worked in perfect harmony, and the
speeches advocating unity from all the
speakers were received with specially
emphatic cheering.
On motion of Mr.. John LAWN, Elphin
the chair was taken by Mr.. John Doyle
Elphin. The chairman said they were
sorry to have met under such circum-
stances that day, but as they were all
united together in putting down an un-
Just cause no matter what their principles
might be otherwise, OH this occasion, and
wherever there was necessity for it, every
man pledged himself to hold true to the
principle of not taking evicted farms and
having nothing to do with people who
did take them. The man that took an
evicted farm should not be recognized by
his neighbors, but should be summed.
The reason they had met was to devise
means to prevent such an iniquity in this
county. 1t was not possible to live in the
county if such things were allowed to be
carried on. The Commandments said
they should not covet their neighbours
goods. He advised them to put down
land grabbing by every legal means in
their power.
Mr.. Feebily, Dromin, proposed the fol-
lowing resolutions:
THAT we hereby condemn in the
strongest possible manner the nefarious
system of land grabbing which has at all
times inflicted countless miseries on the
Irish people; and we hereby pledge our
selves to use all legitimate influence to
wipe out the disgrace of that really
national curse.
THAT, for the better protection of our
people against the landlord cruelty, and
his disgraceful ally, the grabber, we
hereby determine to establish branch of
the United Irish League in this parish,
and thereby assert the rights of our coun-
trymen to possess the soil that bore
them"
The resolutions were put to the meat
ing and were passed with reclamation.
Mr.. William O'Brien, who was received
with cheers, which lasted for several min
utes, accompanied by waving of hats and
handkerchiefs, in the course of his speech
said:
Undoubtedly, from the National point
of view, grabbing is an actual blessing in
disguise if it should be the means of
bringing side by side together men who
fought grabber ands fought evictor Shout
der to shoulder on many day and many
a night in happier times for Ireland. 1t
is to ME nothing short of delight to find
myself once more on the platform beside
men like Mr.. John Fitzgibbon, of Cas-
tlerea, and like Mr.. Hayden the member
for South Roscommon. Mr.. FitzgibboD
has just said to you that time there was
when a grabber would no more dare to
raise his head in Roscommon than the
anaconda serpent would dare to raise his
head in the land of St. Patrick. These
were the days when we were all united
Irishmen, when John Hayden and myself
were comrades in Tullamore prison, and
when Mr.. Fitzgibbon and myself met
together in many fray here in Roscom-
mon, and l am bound to say that
stouter or a more loyal comrade / never
cared to have in the thick of fight.
Well, please God, it won't be Mr. Fitz-
gibbons fault, and it won't be Mr.. Hay
den's fault, if we don't today convince
the grabbers that Irishmen can be united
Irishmen still. This movement is grow
ing and widening in way that its SAN
guine promoters never did expect. II
began by proposing to save this province
from famine-it is going on to save this
county from grabbers, and, please God, it
will never end until it has rid the country
of grabberism and landlordism and of all
the discussions and disorganizations that
have been preying on the Irish cause for
the last eight years.
Now, want you to understand that
no man, no section and no party must
ever be allowed to promote this move