Galway - Newspaper Items - Clanricarde

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NEWSPAPER ITEMS - CLANRICARDE, COUNTY GALWAY, IRELAND

Freeborn County Standard
Albert Lea, Minnesota
July 20, 1882

AN IRISH LANDLORD
Something About the Marquis of Clanricarde and His Irish Estates.
    Most Irishmen who know anything of the personal
character of the Marquis of Clanricarde will regret that if
there was to be a murder like that of Thursday week the
victim should not have been the landlord himself rather than
his old agent and his bailiff. Lord Clanricarde is the only
surviving descendant of the great orator, George Canning,
Pitt's protege who married one of the three daughters of the
famous gambling Scotchman, general John Scott, who pursued a
regime of perfect abstinence from drink in order that he
might fleece the less temperate players of that generation.
General Scott accumulated a fortune large enough to give
each of his daughters a million sterling, and as Canning was
penniless, his marriage set him on his feet at once. Another
daughter of General Scott married the Duke of Portland,
father of the late eccentric bearer of title and joined her
family name with that of the Bentincks, and the third
heiress was captured by the Earl of Moray. George Canning's
only daughter inherited all the immense fortune of her
mother on the death of her brother, Viscount Canning, in
1862. She had married the father of the present Lord
Clanricarde and her brother's private estate went to her
second son, who, on the death of his older brother, about
eight years ago, came into the title and estates. The family
name of the Clanricardes is De Burgh, to which Canning was
added on the marriage with the heiress. The estates lie in
Galway and the seat is Portumna Castle, which exists only in
name; having been long ago destroyed by fire. The father of
the present Marquis planned and began the construction of a
new house, and meanwhile fitted up his residence over the
extensive stables, which were the pride of the West country
huntsman. But when the present Marquis succeeded to the
estates he decided to return from Paris, where he passes
most of his time in a life of elegant bachelor loafing, and
he has allowed the immense Irish estates to go practically
to waste in the hands of agents and factors, whose orders
have been to make the rents as large as possible. The
marquis of Clanricarde has no personal interest in the Irish
estates beyond the revenues, and his perpetual absence and
indifference have brought the dissatisfaction of the men of
Galway to the point of violent resistance to his orders. He
is probably one of the worst cases of absentee landlordism
in Ireland, and the evicted farmers would certainly never
have murdered his agents if they could have got a shot at
the Marquis himself. A man who would refuse, as he did, to
make any abatements on rent in the famine year of 1870 has
very little occasion to show himself in Galway in the
present condition of affairs.

Waukesha Freeman Waukesha, Wisconsin Sep 2, 1886

On the Clanricarde estate, in county Galway, Ireland,
several hundred policemen and extra bailiffs evicted a
tenant named Saunders, who had held his house with the aid
of twenty armed neighbors and cauldrons of boiling water.

Monday Oregonian Portland, Oregon Nov 11, 1886

INCONSISTENT LAND LEAGUERS. New York, Nov. 10- The Sun's
London correspondent cables: Measures are being taken to
bring to the notice of Parnell the arbitrary conduct of
certain members of his party owning land, which is fast
becoming a crying scandal. The chief offenders are Sir
Joseph Neale McKenna, member for South Monaghan, and William
J. Corbett, member of the east division of county Wicklow,
although there are others whose conduct is equally
questionable, among the scores of petty landlords who have
joined the national league as a means of escaping the
results of tyranny. McKenna evicted several of his tenants a
few months ago, and Corbett is now serving writs by
wholesale, evidently under the impression that it is only
necessary to become a member of the league to obtain full
rents. Corbett refused to make the slightest reduction of
judicial rents, although even the Marquis of Clanricarde
from whom nothing of the kind was expected, has recently
made concessions of his tenants.

Chester Times Chester, Pennsylvania Nov 22, 1886

BATONS AND BAYONETS Irish Tenants and Police Officers Come
Together LONDON, Nov. 23- For the first time since
Gladstone's defeat an eviction affray has terminated in a
violent attack by the police on the people. It occurred at
Listowel,county Kerry. Some bailiffs seized a number of
cattle in an action for rent and a fight ensued. The police
went to the assistance of the bailiffs, and with batons and
bayonets succeeded eventually in dispersing the mob after
wounding several of its members. This unfortunate affair,
following so quickly on the heels of Sir Robert Hamilton's
dismissal, will naturally be associated in the public mind
with the inauguration of the new Tory regime. Mr. Morley is
going to speak next week on the Irish question. It is
confidently expected that he will make a strong speech in
favor of home rule and against concessions or compromises
with the Unionists involving sacrifice of principles. He
will review the attitude of the government and the speeches
of Lord Salisbury and Lord Churchill in connection with the
coercion, and announce the firm intention of the Liberal
leaders to resist by all the means in their power any steps
the ministry may propose in the direction of a coercive
policy. He will on the same occasion expose the true state
of affairs between the tenants and the landlords on the
Clanricarde estates and denounce the conduct of the latter
and hold him responsible for the difficulties that have
arisen in that part of the country. This speech will give an
immense impetus to the anti-eviction movement in Ireland and
do much to enlighten English and Scotch opinion as to the
true nature of the struggle now going on across the channel
between the owners and occupiers of the land. In the
meantime proofs thicken that the government has gone in head
foremost for what is termed vigorous action. That the attack
of the police on the people at the eviction affray above
referred to is one of the first fruits of that resolution no
observer of political movements here could for a moment
doubt.

Trenton Times Trenton, New Jersey Dec 17, 1886

MR DILLON ARRESTED. The Anti-Rent Agitators Taken in by the
Police. DUBLIN, Dec. 17- Mr. John Dillon and Mr. William
O'Brien attended an immense National League demonstration at
Loughrea yesterday which was presided over by Father
Cunningham. A large number of clergymen, together with
Commoners Harris and Sheehy, occupied seats on the platform,
and a numerous contingent of tenants from the estates of
Lord Clanricarde were present among the audience. Messrs.
Dillon and O'Brien addressed the meeting eloquently and at
great length, and at the conclusion of the speeches the two
gentlemen opened rent offices for the collection of rents
under the league's "plan of campaign". Hundreds of tenants
came forward and paid the sums they were willing or able to
pay, when suddenly a strong force of police, headed by
Inspector Davies, burst into one of the offices, seized the
money, books, and papers and arrested Mr. Dillon who was in
charge. Mr. Dillon remonstrated with Inspector Davies and
was assaulted and roughly handled by the police,
unrestrained by the inspector. The police then proceeded
upstairs to the office occupied by Mr. O'Brien, arrested
that gentleman, and seized his books, papers, money, etc.
Having secured the principals, the inspector sent a squad of
police to arrest Messrs. Harris and Sheehy, and the four
prisoners were arraigned before a magistrate and charged
with conspiring to induce tenants to abstain from paying the
rents they were lawfully bound to pay, which charge is
included in the general one of conspiracy to defraud. The
prisoners were remanded for one week. When the police
arrived Mr. Dillon had collected $100 and Mr. O'Brien about
$350.

Elyria Daily Telephone Elyria, Ohio Feb. 22, 1887

The agent in charge of Lord Clanricarde's Irish estate has
resigned. A bailiff named Murphy was shot dead in Killarney,
Ireland, the other day. Mr. Dunne, magistrate for County
Clare, Ireland, has been superceded by the executive for
supporting the National League's plan of campaign.
Archbishop Walsh of Dublin has donated £10 to the
traversers' indemnity fund. In the letter accompanying the
donation he expresses sympathy for the traversers, who he
says, are denied a fair trial by jury packing.

Newark Daily Advocate Newark, Ohio Jan 9, 1888

LONDON, January 9- Mr. J.G. Shaw Lefevre, Liberal member for
Bradford, addressed a large meeting at Portumna and another
and still larger gathering at Ballinaslee taking for his
subject in both cases the conviction of Mr. Wilfred Blunt.
The manner of his conviction, Mr. Lefevre declared, was
simply outrageous. The charge made against him in the county
Court was entirely different from the one made at the time
of his arrest and preliminary hearing, showing conclusively
that his prosecutors did not regard the case against Mr.
Blunt as warranting conviction, but being determined to
imprison him, had falsified the records and imposed upon the
court. Why, Mr. Lefevre asked, should Mr. Blunt have been
selected for conviction while others against whom similar
charges were or could have been brought were allowed to go
free? The wrongs to which tenantry of Ireland had been
subjected for the last two years, he declared, were directly
traceable to Lord Clanricarde and he was surprised in view
of recent disclosures affecting Lord Clanricarde and others
connected with the not very remote administration of
Government in Ireland that the Government should have
persisted in the prosecution of Mr. Blunt. No attempt was
made to prevent Mr. Lefevre from speaking and the crowds he
addressed were remarkably orderly.

Newark Daily Advocate Newark, Ohio Jan 29, 1888

Michael Davitt's Advice. DUBLIN, Jan. 30- Michael Davitt,
speaking at Rathkeale Sunday, advised the tenants of Lord
Guillamore not to accept the offer made to them to purchase
their farms, because heavy burdens would soon accrue and
mortgages would turn their farms over again to other hands,
and also because Lord Guillamore had evicted two tenants
from his estate. Musicians Arrested.

DUBLIN, Jan. 30- Yesterday at Galway, as some musicians were
returning from serenading the bishop at his house, the
police seized their instruments and arrested the musicians.
There is intense excitement over this matter.

Decatur Daily Republican Decatur, Illinois Feb 24, 1888

When Ireland Will Have Home Rule LONDON, Feb. 24- Lord
Randolph Churchill, in his address to the Oxford Union
Society, Wednesday, said that if he were asked if home rule
would ever be granted to Ireland, he would answer yes, but
the he would not tell the time when this would happen. He
could only indicate the epoch. When England had ceased to be
a nation of wealth; when her manufacturers and her commerce
had departed, and when manly resolution and dogged
determination no longer remained, and when the memory of the
past was forgotten, then, and then only would home rule be
granted to Ireland. Lord Randolph's whole address of last
evening seems to have been especially severe in its
strictures upon the Irish party and the plans of the
Gladstonians in general. It looks very much as one of the
Liberal journals remarks, that it must be a decidedly
wavering cause that necessitates such language toward its
opponents from one of its leaders. The speech is, however,
not considered as an important utterance, although Mr. John
Morley will shortly reply to Lord Randolph and tone down
some of the fiercest parts of the harangue.

SURRENDERED TO HIS TENANTS. Sir H. Burke, who owns estates
at Woodford, has surrendered to the plan offered by his
tenants and settlements have been made in accordance with it
to the satisfaction of all. Only Lord Clanricarde and Mrs.
Lewis now hold out in that district against their tenants.

ABSOLUTE CRUELTY. An exhibition of the absolute cruelty of
the present rule in Ireland was afforded Wednesday in the
adjoining towns of Milltown and Millbay, over in County
Clare. A number of people of the neighboring parishes
attempted to distribute two hundred and sixty car-loads of
turf and the same amount of potatoes among the families of
eleven men, who are at present serving terms of
imprisonment, having been sentenced for alleged crimes
against the coercion law. The police, however, stopped the
proceedings, and would not allow the humane work to
continue.

THE RENT QUESTION. LONDON, Feb. 24- In the House of Commons
last evening, Mr. Shaw Lefevre moved as an amendment to the
address in reply to the Queen's speech the necessity of a
measure dealing with the arrears of excessive rents in
Ireland. He accused Chief Irish Secretary Balfour of
favoring landlords like Lord Clanricarde. Mr. Balfour, in
reply, said that fair rents had been fixed by the tribunals
since the act of 1881, and that it was unreasonable to
demand that tenants be relieved of arrears arising under the
terms so fixed. Mr. Shaw Lefevre responded that only about
ten per cent of Lord Clanricarde's rents were equitably
fixed. Mr. Timothy Healey and other Irish members spoke to
the same subject.

Decatur Daily Republican Decatur, Illinois March 22, 1888

MANIFESTLY A TRICK LONDON, March 22- The acceptance by the
government of Mr. Howells Williams' amendment to Mr.
Parnell's Arrears bill is manifestly a trick designed to
soothe the consciences of the Unionists, relieve them of the
necessity of stultifying themselves and prevent their
possible desertion to the enemy. Whatever else may be said
of the amendment, its downright dishonesty is the feature
that first attracts attention. Its declaration that no
arrears bill shall be satisfactory that shall not deal with
tenants' debts to other creditors as well as to landlords is
merely Mr. Chamberlain's old scheme revived, and this fact
alone is sufficient guarantee of its insincerity. The
divisions taken on both the amendment and the bill show the
marvelous elasticity of the Unionist creed, and abundantly
prove that the government does not intend to deal seriously
with the question of arrears. The number of ejection notices
now ready for service exceeds that of any period since the
great famine, and they will now be served almost
immediately. Lord Clanricarde has already resumed the
service of these notices on his tenants, and the old scenes
of strife between tenant and bailiff, police and people,
will shortly become as common as they were a year ago.

Freeborn County Standard Albert Lea, Minnesota Sep 12, 1888

On the 6th the houses formerly occupied by evicted tenants
on the Clanricarde estates in Ireland were torn down by the
landlord's orders. Some of the houses were owned by the
tenants.

Trenton Times Trenton, New Jersey January 8, 1889

WHOLESALE EVICTIONS War on Irish Tenants to be Resumed with
Fury.

LONDON, Jan. 8- It is announced that after the evictions at
Falcarragh are completed the eviction brigades will turn
their attention to the neighboring estates of Harpur Nixon
and Mrs. Dalkey, both of which are in Father McFadden's
parish. The evictions from the estate of the Draper's
company will begin on Wednesday. Enormous pressure is being
brought here to compel the purchase of the estate under the
Ashbourne act, but the movement is being just as stoutly
resisted. Lord Clanricarde intends to renew the evictions
from his estate at as early a day as possible. The evictors,
with the assistance of the magistrates, have resorted to a
clever trick to effect an entrance into barricaded homes.
The tenants occupying these houses are summoned to give
evidence in star chamber proceedings. If they obey the
summons they are kept waiting the whole day before being
permitted to testify. If they return to give evidence they
are imprisoned, so that in either case they are absent from
their homes when bailiffs arrive. Mr. Balfour has given
instruction that the coercion act must be carried out with
the utmost vigor and his orders are being literally obeyed.
It is expected that the military will be called upon to use
their rifles in the endeavor to eject the Clanricarde
tenants as all of the houses on that estate are strongly
barricaded and the occupants armed.

The assertion that the Dublin Invincibles will kill Balfour
if they have an opportunity to do so appears to be based on
something more tangible than mere idle rumor, and it is
generally believed to be true. At any rate the Irish
secretary believes it and has taken extraordinary
precautions against the possibility of an assassination.
Effort to release Harrington.

LONDON, Jan. 8- An effort will be made in Dublin on Friday
next to have Mr. Edward Harrington, who is undergoing a six
months' sentence in Tullamore jail, brought into court a
writ of habeas corpus and released. They Scorned the
Summonses.

DUBLIN, Jan. 8- Commoners John O'Connor and Dr. Tanner were
served with summonses to appear at court at Tipperary. Both
tossed the writs into the street and neither will appear.

Twenty Tenants Arrested. DUBLIN, Jan. 8- Great excitement
has been caused by the arrest of twenty tenants on the
Vandeleur estates at Kilrush, for barricading their houses
against evictors.

Newark Daily Advocate Newark, Ohio Jan 11, 1889

 A WONDERFUL IRISH SCENE A curious and interesting scene was
enacted over in Ireland yesterday. Loughrea was the place
where the spectacle occurred. After the court had adjourned
a sitting in which a number of Clanricarde rental cases had
been under consideration, a hundred or more Nationalists
headed by a band, paraded the streets, led by a convert from
the enemy's side. The convert was one of her Majesty's
policemen in full uniform. During lulls in the music this
enthusiastic proselyte would address the crowd, asserting
that the police were heartily sick of the degrading work
which they called upon to perform in Ireland. He said that
there were many, who, like himself, would be only too glad
to abandon the whole business.

WARMED UP THE BOYS. After finishing one of these addresses,
he called for three cheers for Dillon and O'Brien, but this
juncture was an unlucky one in his new career, for at that
moment the head constable, with a body of police, swooped
down upon the crowd and capturing the rebellious constable,
marched him off to the barracks under arrest.

Newark Daily Advocate Newark, Ohio April 8, 1892 Cruel Mode
of Revenge. DUBLIN, April 8- Some unknown persons took cruel
revenge on a police pensioner who occupied a farm on the
Clanricarde estate, from which the previous tenant had been
evicted, by breaking the legs of forty ewes. Many of the
ewes had lambs dependent for sustenance on the mothers.

Washington Post Washington, D.C. June 22, 1906 PICTURESQUE
AND HATED MARQUIS Evictions at Loughrea, in which the
permanent under secretary for Ireland, Sir Anthony
MacDonnell, endeavored in vain to act the role of peacemaker
and to intercede in behalf of the tenants, traveled all the
way from Dublin to Galway for the purpose, have had the
effect of once more drawing the attention to the Marquis of
Clanricarde, a peer whose name is execrated throughout the
Emerald Isle, and quite the reverse of popular in the United
Kingdom. Few people know him personally, and yet there is no
member of the House of Lords who has been frequently before
the public. Half the agrarian crimes in Ireland during the
past three decades have been due to his merciless and
relentless cruelty toward his tenantry on his vast estates
in Ireland. Hundreds of thousands of dollars-probably
millions- have been spent by the government in executing the
decrees of eviction which he obtained from the courts
against his tenants for nonpayment of rent. No one more deaf
to appeals for mercy, to every sentiment of generosity, and
to pity for suffering than this grandson of the great and
illustrious English statesman, George Canning. The latter,
the son of an actress, died as prime minister of Great
Britain, his end being hastened by the bitterness of his
fight for the fundamental principle of his political creed,
namely, the freedom of the Commons and of the people from
the dictation of aristocracy, both Tory and Whig. Lord
Clanricarde, the son of his only daughter and heiress,
disregarding the obligations of his political inheritance,
has identified himself with every reactionary onslaught made
by the nobility against the Commons and the people at large.
Afraid to Show His Face.

Of course, the marquis is an absentee landlord. He would not
dare to show his face in Ireland, for fear of being murdered
by those whom he has driven to desperation by destroying the
homes which have been theirs for generations, and Portumna
Castle, his place in Galway, remains closed from one year's
end to the other, the marquis contenting himself with a
dingy set of chambers in the Albany, off Piccadilly, where
he lives all the year round, except for mysterious
periodical trips to Paris. He lives a solitary life, and at
the Reform Club, to which he belongs, does not associate
with the other members, keeping to himself. Of course, all
sorts of stories, some of them not of a particularly
pleasant character, have been current concerning him, and it
is to this quite as much as to his reserve and taciturnity
that is due the chilling attitude, mingled with unfriendly
curiosity, of his brother legislators on the rare occasions
when he rises to address them in the House of Lords. His
appearance is as little calculated to arouse good will as
his manner and reputation, and his thin lips, scanty gray
whiskers, thin, aquiline nose, parchment-like cheeks, and
peculiarly- arranged hair, are quite in keeping with his
hard, harsh, voice and his appallingly egotistical
utterances. He has but one fad, namely, skating, a pastime
in which he still excels, in spite of his seventy-three
years. He presents an extraordinary appearance on the ice at
the rinks in London. His costume on these occasions consists
invariably of dark-blue cloth trousers, with a broad stripe
of black braid up the side, three or four Cardigan knitted
jackets of undetermined hue and great age, over which is
worn a remarkably short tweed jacket, made of an
extraordinarily loose cut, to give room to the layers of
knitted waistcoats underneath. His hat is a genuine
old-fashioned "stovepipe" of ancient vintage, perfectly flat
in the brim, and perfectly straight up and down from the
crown. He speaks to no one on the ice, being wholly absorbed
by the work of cutting figures and letters with his skates.

A CHANCE FOR A BURKE. In reply to an inquiry which reaches
me from St. Louis, asking who will succeed to the peerages,
the titles, and the estates of Lord Clanricarde, I may state
that the marquis of Clanricarde will die with the present
peer, the earldom of Clanricarde and the entailed estates
passing to his cousin, the Marquis of Sligo, who is a
frequent visitor to this country. It is possible, however,
that this succession may be contested, as the descendants of
the Hon. Edmund de Burgh, or Burke, fifth son of the third
earl, who died in the middle of the seventeenth century,
have a prior claim upon the earldom and estates if there are
any such descendants in existence. Hence, everyone bearing
the name of Burke, that being the modern corruption of
Burgh, will do well to find out whether or not he can trace
his descent to this Edmund de Burgh, who married Catherine,
daughter of Thomas St. Lawrence, of County Tipperary, lived
at Kilcornan, County Galway, and died June 22, 1639. Any one
tracing his descent from him, will stand a fair chance on
the death of the old Marquis of Clanricarde, of finding
himself Earl of Clanricarde, and owner of estates of some
60,000 acres in area, and yielding a revenue of about
$250,000.

Washington Post Washington D.C. August 21, 1915

MARQUIS OF CLANRICARDE COMPROMISES. After litigation
extending over some four or five years the legal proceedings
in connection with the expropriation of the octogenarian
Marquis of Clanricarde through compulsory sale from his
estates in County Galway to his tenants, have been brought
to a close by means of a compromise according to the terms
of which he is to receive $1,200,000 for the property. This
is not a large sum considering that the estates were
formerly rated as yielding a rental of near $100,000 per
annum. But of course the fact that Lord Clanricarde is 84
years of age and has no direct heir will have been taken
into consideration by him in consenting to accept this sum.

HE LIVES LIFE OF A HERMIT. Few people know Lord Clarnricarde
personally. He lives the life of a hermit in London in a
dingy set of chambers in the Albany, off Piccadilly, and
never goes out into society. Yet there is no member of the
House of Lords whose name has been so frequently before the
public. Half the agrarian crimes in Ireland during the past
four decades have been due to his merciless and relentless
cruelty toward the tenantry on his extensive estates on the
Emerald Isle. Hundreds of thousands of dollars-probably
millions- have been spent by the government in executing the
decrees of eviction which he obtained from the courts
against his tenants for the nonpayment of rent. No one is
more deaf to appeals for mercy or to every sentiment of
generosity and to pity for suffering than this grandson of
the great and illustrious English statesman, George Canning.