The Irish standard., 1908-01-25
WILL NOT DOWN
Story Of Famine Comes Anew
From West Of Ireland.
In the Best Of Seasons Many
Merely Manage to Live.


constant as the seasons, this appeal for
government help, and many people
have come to regard it as matter OF
form. This is greatly to be regretted.
The problem of the west must be
grappled with and settled soon. The
cost would be trifing, and the gain
to the country enormous. Briefly put,
the people want land to live upon. If
they are ever to be placedjabove want,
they must be the owners of what have
been so often described as economic
holdings. Until that time arrives all
relief given is merely by way of feed
ing a disease, says Cahir Healy in the
Syracuse Catholic Sun. writing from
Enniskillen, Ireland.
1 was in the west when the last fam
Of years ago. AS journalist, visited
many Of the affected areas. I shall
not soon forget the sights l saw and
the stories l heard. Everywhere it
was the same story-chronic poverty
and misery-and always the hope, Mi
cawber-lille, of something turning up.
10 think seriously upon such Il matter
is to realize the utter hopelessness of
it. Here We have a fine people always
a little removed from want, who, un-
der ordinary circumstances, could
make a decent competence 1t is no
fault of theirs. They We're driven
from the fertile plains and literally
sent into the wilderness of heather.
Around Westport, in the County of
Mayo, many hundred acres are given
over to bullocks, while Il few miles off,
the people are huddled together on the
bogs. In dark, mud walled cabins of
one apartment you will find the entire
family, with perhaps a COW tied in the
lower end. We speak fippantly of
our government. After witnessing
such II scene as this one might well be
ashamed of it. Burke once termed
government as "a contrivance Of lu-
man wisdom to provide for human
wants. This is how We have sue
ceeded. 1t is Il depressing thought.
On Achill Island the people are very
poor. 1t is the widest and bleakest
land have ever seen. On every hand,
whichever way you so, there is Moth
ing but IL desolate moor. A bitter,
piercing gale blows in from the Atlan-
tic. The island has a big population,
while in other parts Of the country the
poulation has been decreasing, it is in
creasing here. The land is valueless
as Il means of providing a livelihood.
The people live in settlements, for rea-
sons of convenience and companion
ship, I suppose. There are three ham
let's, and the little cabins are huddled
up SO closely together that the ordin-
airy convenience of sanitation are
the domestic animals live under the
same roof with the family-oftentimes
in the same apartment. The reader
may looked shocked and ask what
have the sanitary authorities been do
ing? l answer that they have been
doing a lot; but even the sanitary au-
thorities may not throw families out
by the roadside to die. 1t is better to
live with the COW than to perish with
ments-the Congested Districts Board
I think-through local committees, has
been endeavoring to clear away these
settlements and provide homes for the
people elsewhere. Land there is in
abundance for this purpose. but it is
in the hands of the big graziers, who
will not give it up, and the law does
not seem to bother much in applying
compulsion.
While on Achill I was told that the
people regularly took the roofs from
their homes to make manure for their
crops in summer.
Such are the straits to which they
are driven in order to eke out an cx-
istence. Yet these people are indus
trious and kindly and good looking. 1t
is merely that fate-or rather. our
laws-has dealt harshly by them.
They have been forgotten in the
scramble for reform, their voices have
passed unheeded out there by the At
lantic. and SO this unlovely state of
things is now rising up. at once men,
ace and disgrace to us. Land is re-
quired The state owes a duty to the
western peasantry, as it owes a duty
to every other citizen. That the state
has failed to carry out that duty is
clear, think, from the fact that, while
people starve for land to raise bread
the grazier's bullocks roam over rich
tracts of hundreds Of uncultivated
acres. Goldsmith once said: