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There is mention in documents of an Owen Cummins in the
Carlow area since the mid-1700s, I wonder if this Owen is
related to the dozen or so other Owen Cummins (Cumminsess!)
that we know of?
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To the Editor,
Nationalist and Leinster Times, Carlow.
January 1st 1922.
Mountneill Manor,
Rathvilly, Co. Carlow.
Sir-- The enclosed
letter kindly give space for publication in your paper,
which reminds me very much of a weekly journal that I had
the pleasure of reading for over twenty years, it being a
paper for everyone to read, the New York "American".
Dear Friends --As
we are now living under a banner of a Free State which to my
way of thinking, means freedom in every sense --free to
write, free to express a person's opinion, free to do as you
please, so long as you keep within the walls of the law,
which is established to keep peace and order in our Free
State.
We can all be
officers of this law by standing shoulder to shoulder and
man to man by expressing our opinion and admonishing any
crime or act of injustice done to our fellow man or our
country.
I wish to call your
attention and especially our ratepayer’s attention to this.
Why does any particular body of men use as a cloak the
workingman, who, not of his own fault is out of employment?
Nine shillings and
sixpence to the pound has been collected from our ratepayers
for the purpose of giving employment in repairing our roads,
which are a disgrace.
Instead of putting
men to work, they create an officers' pension roll amounting
to hundreds of pounds to be paid yearly. This is an
act that requires a thorough investigation. Why is our money
wasted? Some readers object to paying one shilling for
an honest act performed by an Auctioneer.
They don't realise
the fact of the great responsibility that rests on the
shoulders on an Auctioneer. He has to satisfy the man who
purchases and the man who sells and is ever ready to give
justice to each party. He is the poor man's friend --always
with a smile to greet you; as a man of honour and
profession, he is ready to make any sacrifice when you need
him. And yet, a grumble at paying one shilling to the pound
to a man of this generous type.
But people don't
grumble when they are compelled to pay nine shillings and
sixpence to the pound by one of the first brutal Coercion
Acts passed against the Irish people--to seize all their
belongings, even the beds they lie on, for taxes they must
pay. Oh! you Irish people, how soon you forget your little
book.
- Very
respectfully yours,
- Owen L.
Cummins.
The above is a true and
accurate transcript of the original document.
Transcribed by Jean Casey, 2010
Footnote from Sue Cummins Feb 2010
The Owen Cummins who wrote this letter to
the editor was Owen Lorcan Cummins, son of Walter Cummins of
Busherstown, Killerig and Anne Kehoe of Mount Neil,
Rathvilly. Walter was the son of James Cummins and Alicia
Cullen (who was the first cousin of Cardinal Cullen). Owen
had immigrated to New York City, but returned home in about
1920 when he inherited his uncle Joseph Kehoe's farm in
Mount Neil. He was a farmer, and had been a salesman in New
York, so perhaps he was an auctioneer as well.
Sue