New Zealand Tablet Vol.XXVI Issue 17 – 2nd September, 1898 P9
HARSH EVICTIONS (abridged)
There is still a friend left here and there says United Ireland, to the evicted and harassed tenants of Ireland. While the majority of their brethren look on indifferently at eviction and consequent suffering, a few faithful friends, priests and payment, are doing what they can to stem the tide of landlord oppression. Among these must be reckoned Father Newell, the parish priest of New Quay, County Clare, on the southern shore of Galway Bay. He recently drew attention to some harsh evictions carried out by Lynch, of Renmore galway in his parish, and he has consequently received some private assistance for the poor people. Father Newell returns to the subject in a public letter published recently. He says;
I regret to have to add that more ‘processes’ were served a day or two ago on the same island. In the early days of the Land League, Major Lynch was one of the first to put down his name for $100 (pounds) for the funds of the;Property Defence Association’, got up by the late A McMurrogh Kavanagh.
I wish he would show a like generosity to the poor tenants in these trying times.’ The moral of this and similar pitiful stories is that the people require again a protective organisation, widespread and powerful, to prevent the landlord fro indulging in his pet pastime of harassing legal process and subsequent eviction.
The Burren and Beyond 