Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-23
IRISH STORM CENTER
Counties Galway and Clare
Make 1t Warm for Landlords.
ORIGIN OF THE BOYCOTT
Peace Plan of Persuasion Under Ban
of the Church.
TENANTS CLAMOR FOR LAND
Earl of Clanricarde Refuses to Sell
His Farm Lands-Novel Way
to Keep Cool.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.
special Correspondence of The Star an,
aoAR ooord- Herald

GALWAY, August 16, 1908.
This is the storm center in Ireland at
present. County Clare and County Gal
way are the districts of the greatest I'M
rest, and the largest number of boycotts,
cattle drives and evictions are occurring
here, because certain large land owners,
chief of whom is the Earl of Clanricarde,
of whom 1 wrote you several weeks ago,
stubbornly refuse to sell their estates I'M
der the land act of 1903, restore the ten
ants they have evicted. or divide up their
pastures into farms. The Earl of Clan
ricardo has carried the matter into court
and the court has sustained him in his
refusal to sell. They have taken the
ground that the law is not compulsory,
and it is probable parliament will adopt
an amendment introduced since the de-
cision now pending to carry out the pur-
pose of the act-that is. to require every
large land owner in Ireland to divide I'D
his estates among his tenants at prices
to be fixed by the courts. But even more
revolutionary proceedings have occurred
here.
Peaceful Plan Of Persuasion.
The disturbances that are taking place
at present are gentle and mild compared
with what has occurred during the land
wars of the past, and they are confined
to a limited area and small number of
estates whose owners are following the
example Of Clanricarde. The methods of
persuasion" used by the tenants and the
'landleSS" men. as those who are en-
tlrely without farms are called, are, how
ever, very much the same as those adopt
ed In the past. but they are not so effec-
tive as they used to be. They are Sc
verely punished by the courts, and the
taxpayers are assessed for all the dam
age committed If these assessments
could be confined to the particular parish
within which the outrages occur it would
be very much better. for it Is not fair to
ask INNOCENT property owners twenty and
thirty miles from the scene to pay for
the mischief of few reckless and ire
sponsible persons over whom they have
no control.
County Limerick is unusually quiet
There has been no trouble there and the
best of feelings prevail between the land
lords and their tenants, with a few ex-
ceptions. There was only one criminal
case at the recent term of court. In
that the charge was infanticide. There
were two boycotts and twenty-one COM
plants of intimidation. which, however,
did not all relate to land matters. There
have been thirtyfour evictions in County
Limerick this year. most of them being
due to poor crops and the lack of remit
tances from America
Tough Rea, the seat of the Clanricarde
estate, has been the residence of that
family since the year 1900. Athenry, the
nelghboring town, is also very old and
has belonged to the Earls of Clanricarde
since 123s. There is a castle a Domini-
can monastery. Franciscan monastery
and several churches, Al in ruins, the
The Earl of Clanricarde never comes
here. He has never occupied his ances-
two n,,I 1,~-
cinity but once since he inherited the
property thirty or forty years ago.
Origin Of the Boycott.
The boycott was invented at the little
town of Ballinrobe on Tough Mask, about
twenty miles north of Galway Charles
S. Parnell made a speech at Ennis, the
capital of County Clare, September 49,
1880. advising the people to punish those
who did not sympathize with them by
"iSOlating them from their kind as If they
were lepers. This advice was first ap-
piled to Capt. Boycott, agent for the es-
tate of Lord Erne, near Balinrobe a
pretty village of about 800 inhabitants,
and he was complete victim of the pol
icy. The police, could do nothing. There
was no law under which dealers could be
compelled to sell him food and drink and
all his supplies had to be shipped to him
from Dublin. Nobody would speak to
him, nobody would work for him. nobody
would accept his money and, as Parnell
suggested, he was treated as if he were a
leper.
The plan was so successful that it was
promptly adopted throughout Ireland
and has since been commonly used else
where under the name of the first vic
tim.
But boycOtting is growing unpopular in
Ireland. 1t is condemned by the bishops
and the clergy generally. They are tax
ing more and more positive grounds and
many refuse the communion to persons
who are guilty of either boycotting or
cattle driving. because they are contrary
to justice and charity and are therefore
sinful Only the other day one of the
bishops preached an impressive sermon
on the subject and condemned all COM
binations of persons to cause suffering or
distress in their neighbor as inhuman,
immoral and unjust. He declared that
boycotting was worse than murder be-
cause 1t caused greater degree of suf-
fering. When man was shot he usually
died without agony, but when he was
boycOtted he suffered the worse sort of
mental torture. and to cause such suf-
fering was one of the worst Of sins.
Condemned by the Church.
At present boycotting is applied to
landlords and cattlemen who are occu-
plying the land that is wanted for farms
The eattlemen have no permanent ten
antcy, they erect no buildings. they make
no improvements. and the cattle business
Is so profitable that .they are able to pay
twice as much rent as the ordinary farm
ing tenant. For those reasons and be-
cause he has only one man to deal with.
landlord is always glad to rent his
lands for grazing, and gradually Ireland
is becoming one great pasture.
Cattle driving is another weapon used
by the same people for the same purpose,
and that also is condemned by the bish-
ops and the clergy with equal emphasis.
Archbishop Fennely of Tipperary recent
ly preached sermon in which he ex-
pressed the hope that before he closed
his eyes in death he would see every acre
OF land in Ireland owned by the men who
titled it, but he could not sympathize
with and he must earnestly condemn
every form of violence and every unlaw-
full measure that was used to secure that
end. He gave his diocese solemn
warning that boycotting, cattle driving
and similar unlawful practices would not
be tolerated by the church.
Up to July l there had been 4O3 cases
of cattle driving. against 3S1 for the
same period last year, and 40 cases of
tfvrnr k1fr.