Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81.   By: Bernard Henry Becker (1833-)

Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and unusual spelling in the original document has been preserved. A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of this document.

DISTURBED IRELAND:

BEING THE LETTERS WRITTEN DURING THE WINTER OF 1880 81.

BY BERNARD H. BECKER, SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF THE "DAILY NEWS."

WITH ROUTE MAPS.

London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1881.

LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL.

PREFACE.

Having been most cordially granted permission to republish these letters in a collected form, it is my duty to mention that my mission from the Daily News was absolutely unfettered, either by instructions or introductions. It was thought that an independent and impartial account of the present condition of the disturbed districts of Ireland would be best secured by sending thither a writer without either Irish politics or Irish friends in short, one who might occupy the stand point of the too often quoted "intelligent foreigner." Hence my little book is purely descriptive of the stirring scenes and deeply interesting people I have met with on my way through the counties of Mayo, Galway, Clare, Limerick, Cork, and Kerry. It is neither a political treatise, nor a dissertation on the tenure of land, but a plain record of my experience of a strange phase of national life. I have simply endeavoured to reflect as accurately as might be the salient features of a social and economic upheaval, soon I fervently hope, to pass into the domain of history; and in offering my work to the public must ask indulgence for the errors of omission and commission so difficult to avoid while travelling and writing rapidly in a country which, even to its own people, is a complex problem.

B.H.B.

ARTS' CLUB, January 6th, 1881.

CONTENTS.

PAGE I. AT LOUGH MASK 1

II. AN AGRARIAN DIFFICULTY 18

III. LAND MEETINGS 26

IV. MISS GARDINER AND HER TENANTS 52

V. FROM MAYO TO CONNEMARA 70

VI. THE RELIEF OF MR. BOYCOTT 120

VII. MR. RICHARD STACPOOLE 153

VIII. PATRIOTS 160

IX. ON THE FERGUS 166

X. PALLAS AND THE PALLADIANS 191

XI. GOMBEEN 207

XII. THE RETAINER 215

XIII. CROPPED 225

XIV. IN KERRY 232

XV. THE "BOYCOTTING" OF MR. BENCE JONES 262

XVI. A CRUISE IN A GROWLER 279

XVII. "BOYCOTTED" AT CHRISTMASTIDE 307

XVIII. CHRISTMAS IN COUNTY CLARE 328

[Illustration: (foldout Map of Ireland, showing author's route.)]

[Illustration: (foldout detail map of western Ireland, showing author's route.)]

DISTURBED IRELAND.

I.