Photo: William Rafti
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TOBACCO IN IRELAND
Tobacco culture was introduced in Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh during the reign of Elizabeth. County Cork can boast of being the first part of the country in which the plant was cultivated. The plant thrived and grew abundantly in the prolific soil of this country for some centuries.
During the reign of Charles II a law was passed prohibiting the culture of tobacco in Ireland. However, in the reign of George III the act was repealed. The people had forgotten all about its culture until some inhabitants of Wexford returned. This state of things continued till 1829. In this year 1,000 acres were under cultivation in Ireland. The industry is now flourishing in County Meath.
Western Waterspout – 1788
Image ID; wea00308 Historic NWS Collection
Dr. Joseph Golden, NOAA
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The Times
London,
May 20, 1788
On the 6th inst. between two and three in the afternoon, a water-spout of considerable diameter made its appearance between Adare and Barnakill-bridge in the county of Limerick in Ireland. This phenomenon, which is rather uncommon in Ireland, is described to have been of a spiral storm, exhibiting a very dazzling brightness, and attended with a ???? somewhat resembling the clash of arms. It is added that the beasts of the field appeared terrified, and that several crows, as if suddenly killed, dropped to the earth. At the same hour a very heavy rain (accompanied with loud thunder and unusually vivid flashes of lightning) fell in the city and liberties of Limerick, but did not extend beyond them. We have not heard whether the bursting of the water-spout occasioned any particular injury to the part where it fell.
The Scold’s Bridle – 1887
Artist: Frank Hazenplug
from ‘Curious Punishments of Bygone Days (Project Gutenberg)
Alice Morse Earle. Originally published Chicago. H.S. Stone 1896
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PUNISHING SCOLDS (abridged)
Amongst the instruments of punishment introduced to Ireland was a kind of helmet formed of rods, a cage in fact, within which the heads of incorrigible scolding viragos were incased. Provision was made to stop any oral whirlwind of the patient by a counter tongue of metal extending inwardly from a frontal bar, and nicely adjusted to fit an average female mouth.
A fine and well-preserved specimen of a peace-maker of the kind in question, long used in Kiilkenny, at present forms an interesting and suggestive object amongst the antiquities preserved in the museum of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland.
Professor Ball, of the science and art department, Dublin, has had this tangible evidence reproduced in excellent work for exhibition in the national museum.
A rare find – 1788
Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände auff Erden, hoher und nidriger, geistlicher und weltlicher, aller Künsten, Handwercken und Händeln …” / from Jost Amman and Hans Sachs / Frankfurt am Main / 1568 / thanks to http://www.digitalis.uni-koeln.de
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A short time since as some labourers were clearing the race ground of Loughmore, near Limerick, they found a small brass box, containing a piece of parchment five inches square, on which is written the admission of a fellow or scholar at Mungret University, which was at an early age, a famous one; at the top is a picture of St. Patrick, and it is signed Gulielmus Nophine, with the date A.D. 485. It was purchased for a guinea and sent as a present to a member of the Irish Academy.
The Hearth Tax – 1788
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28TH MARCH, 1788 (abridged)
Mr. Conolly of Ireland has brought forward a motion for abolishing the tax upon HEARTHS, and the Irish Ministry will not oppose it. In Ireland, hearth-money is at this day more oppressive than ever it was in England.
This tax has ever been hateful, and as the subject is again revived- we will give its history. In Doomesday-Book, compiled by order of William I. there existed a tax called fumages or fuage, which common people termed smoke farthings. This tax was paid by custom to the King, and was rated upon every chimney in a house.
Edward, the Black Prince, after his successes in France, in imitation of the English custom, imposed a tax, one florin upon every hearth in his French dominions. This tax is mentioned in the twenty-third volume and four hundred and sixty-third page of the Modern Universal History, and in Spelman’s Glossory under the word Fuage.
In the fourteenth year of the reign of Charles II, a statute was passed in Parliament that all houses liable to church and poor, should pay two shillings for every hearth. This payment was granted as an hereditary revenue to the king for ever. Subsequent statutes allowed a surveyor, appointed by the crown, a constable and two other inhabitants of the parish, to view the inside of every house in the parish.
Hearth-money was eventually abolished by a statute, passed in the first year of King William and Queen Mary. The statute declared-that hearth money is “not only a great oppression to the poorer sort, but a badge of slavery upon the whole people, exposing every man’s house to be entered into, and searched at pleasure, by persons unknown to him. To erect a lasting monument of their Majesty’s goodness in every house in the kingdom, the duty of hearth-money was taken away and abolished.”
Ireland awaits and the Minister will acquire well earned popularity by not opposing its annihilation.
NOTE: The hearth tax was abolished in England in 1689 – It was abolished in Ireland during the 19th Century.
An Extraordinary Occurrence – 1824
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EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE
The following singular occurrence which took place a few days since in the neighbourhood of Woodford, has excited a very considerable sensation there: Elizabeth C—, an interesting young woman about nineteen years of age, who lived in the service of _____ Forrest, Esq. a gentleman residing at Woodford, in consequence of getting her feet wet, caught a severe cold, which brought on a fever. She was confined to her bed for several days, when she, to all appearance, died! An undertaker was sent for, and the next day, she was placed in a coffin. The intelligence of her supposed death was transmitted to her mother, an industrious woman, with a large family, who was almost broken-hearted at the melancholy tidings.
From her good conduct while in the service of Mr. Forrest, that gentleman resolved to defray the expenses of the funeral, which, it was arranged, should take place on Sunday last, a week after her supposed death. On that day, her mother, and several other relatives came to pay the last tribute of respect to her memory. Prior to the coffin being screwed down, they went to take a look at the body. One of them observed that she had not undergone the change usual on such occasions, and that her face appeared rather flushed. She suggested the propriety of sending for a surgeon, which was immediately done. He ordered her to be placed in a warm bath, and applied the remedies usually resorted to, to recover persons apparently drowned, and which were happily crowned with success! The young woman was so far recovered in a few hours to be able to speak, and is now in a fair way of recovery. The anxiety with which her friends witnessed the progress of the means resorted to for her restoration, and their joy at its success, may be more easily conceived than described.
The Burren Spa – 1824
Photo: Ingo Mehling
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RURAL SPORTS – The crowds now at the Burren Spa are beyond any calculation in that country. – The numbers assembled to see the best Irish jig dancers was immense and the contest so equal between two of the fair competitors, that the judges could not decide between them, and therefore directed the silver watch to be given to those very interesting girls, to be disposed of as they pleased. Immediately after the dancing, four horses were started, and there was a most excellent race. – On yesterday a fox was to have been shook at the well, and it was so arranged, that the ladies should witness “his funeral tears;” and on Sunday next there will be another race, and afterwards a hurling match, consisting of twenty-one men at each side – one party dressed in blue jackets and caps, and the other in red.–Limerick Paper.
Sound advice – 1825
Photo: E Michael Smith
Wikimedia Commons
WHEN TO LEAVE OFF DRINKING –
When you feel particularly desirous to have another glass – leave off, you have had enough.
When you look at a distant object, and appear to see two – leave off, you have had too much.
When you knock over your glass, spill your wine upon the table, or are unable to recollect the words of a song you have been in the habit of singing for the last dozen years – leave the company; you are getting troublesome.
When you nod in the chair, fall over the hearth rug, or lurch on your neighbour’s shoulder, go to bed – you are drunk.
The N67 – 1909
Creative Commons
Last week a young man named Moran, son of a herd in the employment of Mr. M. McDonogh, Galway, was fired at from behind a wall on the public road at Ballinderreen, near Gort. Moran was in company with two other cyclists who were returning from Kinyara. There were, it is stated, about 200 pellets lodged in his left arm and back. He was treated by Dr. Foley, Ardrahan, and his injuries are not considered serious. The police are investigating the affair, but up to the present no clue has been obtained.
The Connacht Tribune – 1909
Caomhan27
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The first issue of the “Connacht Tribune,” a new Nationalist weekly newspaper, published in Galway, is a promising initial number of eight pages of eight columns each. Its local news supply is extemely full and diversified, the type good, and the printing very legible. Mr. William O’Malley, M.P. begins in the journal a series of articles entitled “Connemara Land League Reminisecnces.”
