Guth & Tuairim, Meán Fómhair 1979

STAIR Leanfaidh muid ar aghaidh le p{osa eile as leabharStephen Gwynn "Highways and Byways .in Donegal and Antrim". Ins an am i la thair ta se i nGaoth Dobhair. I have quotcu this singular uocument in rxl<'llro not only occausc Lord Gcorge vouches for its accuracy, but because it gives a clear pictur.: of what must hav.: cxisteu in the hack– ward parts of Irdand, everywhere that th.: population relied suldy on the potato. A cc.rtain number of the f.:atures re– main constant !'loughs arc still probably scare.: becaus.: the land is so rocky ami ftdus so smalL · Scythes ar.: not used, but in those days even the sickle so:•""' . .J have been al"e11t. Bare f.:d are still common .: .. . , jonegal is one of ·the f~w places where a woman may yet be seen riding pillion l•c· hind her man. It is, howcrer, an increasingly rare spectacle. llut the whole condition of the peasantry is changed, asa;1y on.: may see with a glance. l'audy ~T'Kyc's list will be usdul to any observer who thinks them wretched at present. l'oor enough they arc, H.:avcn knows! but Gweedorc is a paradise to what Lord Gcorgc Hill found it. It was even tht'll a noto– riously uncivilised district; to cross the border was accutulted an adventure, and to visit a fair in it required an escort. l'ur the change it woulu be wrong to give the credit wholly tu ex ternal agencies. The Irish p_eople have hcen busily improving themsdves since the schoolmaster was abroad, a11d if neither Loru (;.:orgc nor any other benevolent imlividual had helped, the ccnrntryside woulu still b.: v.:ry Jiff.:rent from its misery of ftfty or sixty years back. Still, it is at least equally cerwin that th~ improv.:ment woulu hav.: come more slowly hut fur Lord Ceor~c; it is by no means certain that without hint it would have reached its pres.:nt stage. 1\!oreovcr, one of his early acts was to builu a grain store at the p<>rl of Bunbcg, wher.: the ClaJy river flows into the sea. The object of this was to put uown the illicit whisky-making which was alntt,;t a necessity to th.: peopk. By th.: tim.: they had taken their corn to tlw nearest mctrkt:t, th~y w~re almost obliged to take what th.:y were offen:J rather than waste a .journey of ftfty miks; wlwreas distillation paid better and was cunuucteu on the spot. · There was, per contra, the risk of sciwre, which meant heavy ~ ""If"'")' LJ,,,..... ~;-f! ' .);~ ·' ·'~/ . ~if"~'i:JI~ ·~-~-·;..-:::--...-"..i'l ... ~ -, .~ ., ',.'.·.• ¥~ ~::--- Thus a n1an would lt.:avc his sun Hone cow's grass" in a CL'rtain lidd, the extent of grounu being ftxed by its quality. Then: was a further subdivision into fourths of a cow's grass, each known as one cow\; funt : and cVl:ll this was halved agairi into 5 the unit utll' c],·l'!, wlti,·h i..... il:df a" f,,(J! :: ~wd Olh' ,.j~!1t lt ,J!' :L. t·uw's gr:1:"\". TIH h ·:-,lllt ~~r 1l1i~; jqiJll lt·Jntrf· wa~ th:lt, in tin: Iri~h phr.\~l' 1 "I·:h·ni~~HI\ '., ],thill···.-; ,,.;,.,. 11uiHHly's IHhinc~~." Ntll•udy would lll:lllllrt · lur lti..., lh;i,:.:,hlunu·'.-. t,L· rwl~l; JltJIHJ(ly wuuld :-,uw ltnniJ• • ''~" t"]tJ\t ·r, ;l:-J l1i. ..:. lll: i:~Jd,uur':-. ~lll:L'i' WtHIItl cat them; anu agrintlture was redtwcd tu tho: most ruoli mentary operations, Clllltplicakd l•y cndltss di,putl'S. Tl ... nnulah: arrangement which datl'd, "'' cluuht, back lo the ti111<: when all land W<.t~ tilt' ntllllllull !tt·rit;tgt..: uf a scpl or t Lln, t'\ tended ihclf L'\'t'll tu auim.d:-;. ThL·rc i:-; a sh,ry ,,fa bur:-.t· tl1.tl was owned j..intly l,y three men un on.: uf the isi.LIHi s, lll tt ultimately went d,·ad lame because non.: of the. three W<>lllol pay fur ,h,e·ing "'''re than one foot. Each kept' his {J\\'11 f,,.t in order, but the fourth went unsh.od . If any man Wt·r" "'"h enough to reclaim a pi.:ce of hog land, he was alluwnl ""e crop off it, ami it was then dirided among tht: tenants of tht: townlallll in pn>portion tu the rent that each p;tid. Lord ( ;eurgl', who came \\'.ith a :-.in~ular appc;d tu (he pcuJ ,!c -he spoke lrish - cxpl.<il.led his pruje·ct tu "" unwil !it_r,; audienc.: with inlinite patience. I k proposed tu rcsuntc: all the land, and rl'divide it, and rdd, a <"<lllllllittee· uf the: te11;urh assisting. I low a sdlklllL'Ilt was rl'at:lil'd, I J,·an:n knows: l•ul it was n:adted : nu m;ut was dispossl'ssnl, rlu lll<.tll . was rulJIJnl .) of his knant -right, _a nd a S)\tcrrl of fencing was institutl'd. Then prt·mitllllS werl! offered rur the· hest kept colta~t', th~ grcatc:-.t <.lll1Utllll or llCW f~.._·ncillg, the IH·:-.t fi~..·ld of ttlrllip~, ~tnd so furth , till gradually nt:w habits were: implanted .in the l'""l'iv. But to this d.ty the old craze fur subdivision is the tkspair uf landlords. 1\u other means of livelihood IJilt the land is rl'n•g– nis.:d, e1·cry man has a large family, and his 011e idea of 1 ,.., •· viding f,r tlwm is to dividt· up ;unong them wh.tt land I"· ltas. The result of this t·xclusive del-otiun tu th~ land is tu gi1·" a fabulous value to tenant-right. Ami f,r the: bcndit of English tou~ists who hear the clamour against re·nt, i~ is well to sl'l dull n . a few facts bearing on th.: whole qut·stiun. The country, for ·instanc.:, betwt•t·n I lunfanagh)' .:nd (;we·t·dure looks inca pabl~ of yielding any rdurn r.. r cultivation: lt wnuld seem impossible that a man shoitld ·Jiuol it prolitaule to pay any– thing for tl><-: priYilcge of fanning it- any rent, that is. :tllorc~>n· r, that impression is cunlirm~d when one sees on th" farms, now unhappil y too cdmmon, from whil'h tenants have been evicted for a refusal to pay rent, the fields after a year's ncgil'ct running back into bog and rushes. \'et, as a m:tttcr of fact, this country supports a. laq;e population--the men eking out the earning:~' of their farms hy a month or two's h:tn·csting in England. it will also be apparent that the poptrlat.ion is much tlemer close to the sea, though the land seems n.:n mnre hnpelcssly b:trren there, and is utterly dc1·oid of shelter. But along the sea there arc great gleanings; sea-wrack after storms, which is carted or carricu on to the. fields for manure; kelp, wh;ch used to be hurnccl in great quantities for the manufacture of iodine, though this industry is nearly killed hy new discoveries of a cheaper method of procuring the stuff. Then there arc the cdihlc sea– weeds; sl.oak which Cl'eryhody knows, anu dilsk (or dulse), a sweetish tasting weed which is dried anti hawked round in pcnnyworths with apples and oranges at inland f:tirs. Lastly, there is the chance of ftsh, and the certainty of cockles, mussels, and other shell-fish. All these things cost merely tht! trouble of getting them. Further, the actual rent which has to he paid for land is a trine. It usccl to he said that Lord Gcorgc Hill's rent book h;Hino pounds mltunn; actually in 1868 the highest rent pai< I by any inoli1·idual \ras £o .; sonu: were as low as 4s. The highest rent aI pn anc'~>ras 5-'· rid., tho~ average from zs. to JS. Now it is ol11·inus that the distress in llonegal cannot arise from a tenant's ha1·ing ln pay 1o.r. on ca<:h quarter clay; ·obvious also that if he got his gnolltl<l rent free h·~ would not be much . better off. The real oltsta.-l..s arc, ftrst , the enormous sums paid for tenant ..righl --- amntllrting frcqncntly to £JO for the goodwill Of a farm WJHbl' ,-,·ntal i>< o( I (Wr annum-in some inst:1nccs rising to ftlrly nr lifty years' pun~has·.' of the rent; an<l secondly, the h;1hit nf suhdi,·i.><io>n which makes it impossible to <"Hltil-ale on :~ j\;rying s('.tlt~ in ;r ~r:11in~ country. Each of these rental,;, it must he rt'nll·nrhctn 1, inrlndcs the right to turf-cutting and nHHnrtain pa>l\tn'. This is no place to go into an 'cconnmic discnssi{ln. I will add, however, a sin~lc sl't of f.wts. ~olllt' )'L':u::; ago wlwn tlw Plan of Campaign w;~s " st:nll'ol in ltnnl'g:rl :UHI there·"'" "" orgn.nlse<.l stand against r, ·nt, a gt'lllll·lllan ha' in~ a .... m.dl property i1car Falcarra:.:h wa,; nhli~t·d ln gl'l 1id ,.f hi' lt'll:nrts. The gross rental amounted to '"nh:thin~ un<kr £_;o. The land being left Oli his hamb, his ,;>11 nrr,·ro·d to takt• it lill· a krm of years. The son ftonccu it in. put stno-k nn it, with an cmcrgency·m:tn in _ char~~..·, and J,y his (l\\ll · :ln:~~unt fclt.Jnd it pay him wdl. · lie went into th·· l ..tnd (.'o>urt "'"! ha,[ :\ judicial rent f1xcd, thus acquiring tenant rif!lit. A )'l':lr nr two1 ago the parish priest came :uul ofli·red him;__: JOO for the ll'nant right on behalf of the origin;d occupiers. who were lorthwith reinstated i1,1 their holdings. mionth6Q raf K·.th1e~ll ?r~ulyj Cctthal McGee. Kr.-. tb1 een 2.nd 8<1 thal wish to thank all those ~o~ho st:mt werlding gift~ ;,.nu good · wi "her~· en Uwir recent IIoarriage. -Ar, tArd Jnnn, ·:;?.oth Dobha.ir. For Sal.,. De Luxe autmr.a'tic wash– ing machine.ln fairly good working order. Box No. 18. e. Complete D.i.sco <: nd Lighting Equipment. Also largt• collection of recor\ls. Iicx No. 1 '?. Record~ Wanted– Je~amin~ (1968) ly Casu~ls. £3 if in &C<ld condi tion . Eox No. 20. Comhgh::s:i._rde ~i n 2~ ::;hr8'ir:r:e ar do ~~"" (~ a c·han nd.uinE: i .nGut.t·. \ ·~ ~.: ~ :-irr•• Youl~g r rl. ir! t.P r re:r...;irf"~~ wcrk • .•·: ~ !: k ---...nd ti dy a-t ra i..n twn!'k . ;, ny ~~ (7 ~ ~ ' · r.snywh~re. Eox :~ ~.· 1 .! ,~r p~1ope Gwet:~i1 1 • l:! f~idir 1 e~. t-micn­ f!. 0gr~ i1 ehu r i nG~ t.h ~ Tu::~irim ~a.or i r:t::.:...:ct\. ~"!~·n-- .. _;-. rj ?\: r.! lpi·.~ ""(· '~ .. S:.'l. -11 a ~~~- r~ rt~ -r''!'~ '~, Fh,:ne ~ 't.nt t~,.~ ?6 S. Outside Kincasslagh. And he ctid.or did . he?