A GEM OF MISGOVERNMENT IN IRELAND

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 41

A GEM OF MISGOVERNMENT IN IRELAND

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valuation is only 18s. 4d. per head of the population. In addition to this, the islanders' potato-patches were planted at the expense of the Poor-Law Union. Largesse was distributed liberally out of the Balfour and Zetland Famine Fund of 40,000l. The constabulary laid aside their loaded rifles to become distributors of relief. To crown all, Lady Zetland and Miss Balfour visited the island in state, and through a corps of reporters the British public learned how the praises of Mr. Balfour were chanted by a grateful peasantry in an address which was drafted (the detail was not mentioned) by the hand of the local Removable magistrate.

A very respectable substitute, you will say, for the royal bounty of Granu Uaile. If British rule cannot choose but produce chronic famine, at least the next best thing is to encounter it with Government rations? True, if Irish landlordism were not all the while preparing to pounce upon the Government rations as they reached the peasants' mouths, and—more amazing still—if the very Government which issued the rations did not deliberately assist in the theft. Mark, however, what occurred.

Even while the relief works were in full swing, the landlord's agent and a force of police swooped down upon Clare Island, and attempted to capture for arrears of rent the very wages John Bull fondly supposed he was paying to fill starving children's stomachs. How the trick is done is worth studying. The ' Loyal Minority ' on the Mayo coast numbers only a few scores out of a couple of hundred thousand people; but the few scores own all the land, possess all the castles and fair pastures, and fill all the offices of power and emolument. One of the chosen families is (let us say) X. By an arrangement worthy of our refined civilisation in its most inspired hour, X. the … continue reading »

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