Collected by Mary Leary, Kinvarra, Co. Galway from Patrick O’Leary (age 70) Duchas.ie There is nothing as terrific as a house burning. It is dreaded by every-body. There is scarcely a town or city in Ireland without its share of ruins of burned houses. Galway comes under the rigour of burned houses as well as every other town and city in Ireland because in a town called Kinvara the ruins of a burned draper’s shop are to be seen. This draper’s shop is supposed to be burned by the Black and Tans about the year 1921 when Ireland was infested with them. The burning occurred about eleven o’clock on a dark stormy winter’s night. The Black and Tans entered the shop in a wild fury and went to the kitchen where a range was. They spilled petrol in the fire which immediately burst into flames. The blaze immediately reached the roof overhead, and they followed from the roof to the ceiling and thus the goods caught fire. The occupants of the shop tried to rush to safety and luckily enough they succeeded in escaping from the flames. Their attempts to rescue the contents of the shop were all in vain. All the goods that were in the shop were burned to ashes. Men from the neighbourhood did their best to quench the flames but it was impossible for them to overcome the raging flames. Water was brought in large quantities but the more water was thrown on the flames the wider they spread. Higher and higher they rose until the whole town was illuminated by their lights. The flames could be seen for miles and miles outside the town. Many lives were in danger in the conflagration. A near-by public-house was beginning to take fire when the occupants luckily felt it taking root. They sprang at once for water and neighbours helped them to extinguish the flames. No lives were lost in the burning. The fleeing of the occupants from the house at the beginning saved their lives. The wind blew very strong and this made the flames burn through more swift. On that account there was no possibility of saving the burning house. The ruins of the burned shop are to be seen in Kinvarra to the present day. Never will the terrific burning of the draper’s shop be in oblivion by the people of Kinvarra.
The W. A. Record (Perth W.A) 5th August, 1905 p. 12 Accompanying a recent contribution to the “Irish World’s” Gaelic Language Fund from a subscriber to that paper was the following terse poetic sentiment of the donor : I’m just a plain hard-working man. I was born in the village of Ardrahan, And I like to do the best I can To help dear Mother Erin. For I spent many a happy day In Galway, Tuam and Monivea, Kinvarra, Gort and sweet Loughrea, Athenry and old Kilclairin. My hands are just as tough as leather, My face is bronzed with wind and weather, My heart is just as light as a feather, As I mingle with the throng. When times are bad I never holler, Thank the Lord I can spare, a dollar To help the cause along.
Irish Times 8th October 1904, p9 (abridged) We drove through a rocky defile for about three miles, where large boulders on either side of the roadway were apparently so lightly poised it seemed as if a strong puff of wind might dislodge them and send them down on our path. “Now, we must get out here. I believe the oratory is somewhere there,” and my friend waved her hand to include a three mile circuit. “Let us have tea first,” I mildly suggested. So we sat on the grassy fence and produced our tea pasket. Then we rose like giants refreshed, first giving the old man a cup of powerful tea to “cut the drouth.” We made for the nearest Galway wall, and patiently made a gap to get through, my conscientious friend building it up when we had got through. You see galway walls are made of large loose stones with the daylight visible through them; this is done purposely so that the wind can pass through them, an ordinary wall would offer too much resistance to the winds from sea and mountain which alternate and prevail in these parts. I have heard the “Galway Blazers,” when pursuing the crafty fox, take the fences at a flying leap, but I do not believe any one else could perform such a feat. Crossing the extensive field of “praties,” we came to the conclusion there was no church or ruin within two miles, so back we plodded, took down and re-built the wall again, but when this was repeated in a wheat field, and once more in a field of turnips my ardour began to abate and I even murmured “some other day perhaps.” Just then we heard a man’s voice, “If ’tis lookin’ for St. Colman’s Church, yez are all wrong. You’d never find it. Hould on a bit and I’ll show ye the way,” and putting the scythe with which he was at work against a wall, he told us to follow him. We coinjointly deprecated taking him from his work, but he replied with Irish politeness, “I am only working for myself so ’tis no odds.” Leading the way we followed through fields of tangled mountain grass and bog myrtle, through purple heather and rushes; it was slow work, as the growth hid the stones, which were truly a trap to the unwary. After slips and stumbles, we stopped to take breath in a hazel coppice; on emerging from thence our guide, pointing to the slop of the mountain, said “There it is before you now,” but it was some time ere we could distinguish the tiny grey ruined church from the back ground of the limestone rock. “Here we are,” we exclaimed simultaneously. Such an out of the world spot even in these days of hurry and bustle and sight seeing; not a sound but the murmur of a mountain stream; here indeed it might truly be said, “Grim silence held her solitary sway.” We stopped at the stone covered holy well of the old-world saint; in a niche placed by some pilgrims we found two scallop shells. On a hot August day one need not be reminded to “drink deep of the wave.” Hanging down in luxuriance from the roof were flourishing fronds of the Asplenium Tricomanes and Scolopendrium Vulgare ferns. The present day followers of the saintly St. Colman Macduagh who carry away stones and plants from his hermitage, and who marvel at the legendary powers of fasting credited to the ascetic, seem to overlook entirely his abstemiousness from all drink save that of his mountain well. We climbed about amongst the fallen masonry till we stood in the oratory itself, which consists of one side wall and the two gables. The Reverend J. Fahey in his interesting work on the ruins in the Diocese of Kilmacduagh says:- It must have been previous to A.D. 597 when St. Colman entered on his seven years’ retirement here. At this time the now treeless Burrin hills were clothed with dense forests, so that the spot chosen by the Saint for solitude and contemplation was doubly more different of discovery than at present.
The existing ruin shows signs of restoration, as is supposed in the eleventh century, which is indicated by the difference in the masonry. Like all those of that period, the church is very small, being only 16 feet long, by 12 broad. Dr. Petrie has observed that these tiny churches were merely erected for the private devotion of the founders, for in the immediate vicinity of these oratories is usually found a cave or cell which served as habitation for the hermit. We saw St. Colman’s grotto about 30 feet above the church in the mountain side. We can hardly fancy this being the above for seven years of the recluse, for the grotto is only 15 feet by 5; it is, however high enough for a tall man to stand upright in, and doubtless the hermit’s contemplation was chiefly out of doors where his eyes would wander to the blue heavens, where his spirit loved to soar, and at night-fall would gaze on “the ocean hung on high, bespangled with those isles of light so wildly, beautifully bright.” Ah, if that old rugged peak of Ceanaille could tell us all it saw of the good man’s life at its foot, how much more interesting would it be than the stories invented by later day monks, and accredited to him as showing the miraculous powers they supposed St. Colman to be possessed of. Here is one:- The saint lived here quite alone save for one youthful disciple, and the story is, that after the long Lenten fast – which, doubtless, the mountain air must have aggravated – there was nothing to be found in the scanty larder of the hermitage save a little wild fowl and the usual herbs wherewith to celebrate the approaching high festival. The Saint urged that God could provide a dinner if He thought fit. Now, it came to pass that the King of Connaught was staying at his palace at Kinvarra for the Easter festivities, but he had no idea that his saintly kinsman was only five miles distant in his retreat. So the legend goes on to tell that as his Majesty King Quain (sic.) was about to seat himself at his sumptuous repast, his aspiration was that so rich a banquet might be set before some true servants of God who needed it. With this thought, the dishes were speedily whipped off the table by invisible hands! King Quain and his followers mounted their steeds and followed the dinner, when lo! it was placed before St. Colman and his hungry disciple. The arrival of the King of Connaught and his cortege caused considerable alarm to the hermit and his disciple. Then St. Colman, raising his hand, commanded the horsemen to remain where they were, and move they could not till the Saint had finished his repast, and prayed for their release. The smooth limestone plateau upon which the horsemen’s progress was stayed is full of small round holes which the faithful believe to be the hoof marks of King Quain’s (sic.) horses. This spot was from its appearance at one time the bottom of the lake, and the supposed hoof marks are apparently water-worn holes, but of this we did not hint to our simple guide.
The Irish Times 1st August, 1871 p 3. Lisdoonvarna Spas and Sea Side Places of Clare, by E. D. Mapother, M.D. Price 1s, Dublin: Fannin and Co., 1871
Is there any of our readers who desires a short sojourn amid beautiful scenery, with the briny breezes of the Atlantic for his lungs, and the choice of a great variety of mineral waters for his digestive system? He can effect this purpose conveniently and economically by a visit to the places, the names of which stand at the head of this notice. Leaving the Broadstone station at 8.50 a.m., he can reach Athenry at 1.40, and Gort an hour later. From Gort station, a well-appointed two-horse car will take him to Lisdoonvarna at about 8 p.m., for a 4s fare. The traveller who has no objection to linger on the way will find enough to interest him for a few hours’ in both the former places. At Gort he will be charmed with the beautiful Lough Cooter, the bold outlines of the Burren and Derrybrian mountains, and the fantastic course of the river alternately subterranean, and revealed to view which flows from Lough Cooter into the Bay of Kinvarra, forming the Ladle, the Punchbowl, the Beggarman’s Hole and the Churn on the way. Athenry is celebrated for its extensive and interesting ruins, attesting the ancient importance of the town as the seat of the presidency of Connaught in the days of Elizabeth and her successors, down to Cromwell. From Gort the car takes him along the southern coast of Galway by Kinvarra, New Quay (a pretty bathing place) and Ballyvaghan, the most picturesque view being had from the Corkscrew road which winds upwards from a point three miles beyond Ballyvaghan. The barony of Burren, in which Lisdoonvarna is situated, was described by Cromwell’s General, Ludlow, in terms suggestive of the business which brought him there. He says; “This is a country in which there is not water enough to drown a man, wood enough to hand a man, nor earth enough to bury a man.” There is earth enough, however, to feed some of the best mutton in Ireland, as those who dine at either of the two hostelries of Lisdoonvarna will allow. The mineral springs are five in number; one of them, called by Dr. Mapother the Double-Arch Iron Spa, is now disused. Of the others, two are sulphur springs, and one of those is the Gowlaun, sufficiently copious to supply baths. A third spring, the Rathbaun, is a chalybeate, and contains as much iron in ten pints as Newbridge Spa contains in seven. The remaining spa is magnesian, but Dr. Mapother says that “it scarcely deserves the name.” The first medical writer who gave an account of the mineral springs of Lisdoonvarna was the famous Dr. Lucas, M.P. for Dublin, whose statue adorns the City Hall. His analysis was made in 1840 and is quoted seventeen years later by Dr. Rutty, in a work now hard to get, entitled the “Mineral Waters of Ireland.” The barony of Burren, in which Lisdoonvarna is situated is, says Dr. Rutty, “remarkably rocky and dry, the air, wholesome, and the herbage between the rocks which lie very close together very sweet and nourishing, so that the farmers send their cattle in winter thither and it fattens them better than hay would do.” There can be no doubt about the rocks nor the wholesomeness of the air, nor the sweetness of the pasture; but if Lisdoonvarna was remarkably dry in Rutty’s time the climate must have undergone a considerable change in the hundred and odd years that have elapsed since he wrote. Dr. Mapother’s little book, gives a far more correct and complete account of the mineral springs of the County Clare than any previously published. Dr. Apjohn’s pamphlet is out of print. Dr. Mapother quotes from it, however, the analyses made by that eminent chemist Dr. Apjohn, who wrote in 1853, adds: “This consideration indicated by science is amply confirmed by experience, for the numerous invalids who visit annually these waters bear the strongest testimony to their curative powers; and the Chalybeate springs of Lisdoonvarna are now recommended with confidence to their patients by the most eminent members of the faculty in the metropolis and other parts of Ireland.” Dr. Mapother seems to rank the principal sulphur spring quite as highly as the chalybeate for its special purpose. His testimony ought to be conclusive on the subject for he is known to have made a careful study of the spas of England and of the United States as well as of his own country. The visitor will be at no lack for splendid coast scenery. The far-famed cliffs of Moher, Galway Bay, on the one hand, and the Shannon on the other, with the islands which fringe the coast, are all within easy reach by car or boat. The cars are well horsed and always to be had, the tariff being 6d per Irish mile, the cheapest travelling, perhaps in the world. Dr. Mapother makes an admirable suggestion which we give in his own words (p page 46) “The greatest benefit to the poor labourers and artisans would arise from the establishment of an Infirmary at Lisdoonvarna, where the victims of rheumatic gout, a disease more prevalent in Ireland than in any other country, could be lodged, and inexpensively fed. The cost of a plain building, to contain twenty beds, need not exceed £300; and allowing each patient from two to three weeks’ residence, about 200 would be relieved in the season, from May 1st to October 31st. The maintenance and attendance of the patients would cost from £200 to £260 for these six months, and much of it would be readily subscribed by the proprietors, who would profit by the proven value of the spas, by the wealthier visitors, and by public bodies who sent patients there. Such institutions, similarly supported, exist on a large scale at Buxton and many other famous health resorts, which I feel are in no degree superior to that which I have now inadequately described.”
A large and representative meeting of the electors of the parish of Kinvarra was held recently at Kinvarra for the selection of a candidate for the office of County Councillor of the Gort Division and of candidates for the District Councillorship of Kinvara, Doorus, Killinny, and Caherimore. The Revd. John Moloney, P.P., presided and the attendance included the Revd. Father Davoren, C.C., and Messrs J.W.Brady Murray, John Flatley, William Flatley, Fergus O’Dea, John O’Dea, Doorus, John Quinn, PLG; Moyo Hynes, Ml O’Donoghoe, Martin Corless, Patrick Curtin, John Quinn (Kinvarra) Thomas Greene, (Loughcurra); F Green, P Hynes, PLG; M Brennan, Stephen Leech, Thomas Leech, John Morris, John Fahy, PLG; Thomas O’Halloran, John Finucane, Thomas Fahy, Patrick Hynes, (Croshooa); John Burke, Thomas Burke, Thos. Kavanagh, J O’Connor, Michael Howard, John Tierney, Wm Whelan, A Staunton, P Kennedy, Ml. Kennedy, William Connor, John Devonport, T. Doogan, Ml. Grady, E Holland, F Fox, Wm. Quinn, Michael Mooney, F Lally, T Lally and many others. Among the ladies present were the Misses Hynes, Mrs Cullinan, Mrs Watson, Mrs Johnston, Mrs O’ Halloran, the Misses Joyce and Mrs. O’Donnell. The Revd. Chairman explained the provisions of the new Act and advised the electors to choose only honest, reliable, and competent men for the several offices. Mr. John Flatley proposed and Mr. Fergus O’Dea seconded the selection of Mr. Brady Murray as a suitable candidate for the office of Co. Councillor of the division. Mr. Brady Murray addressed the meeting and after alluding to his services as an active member of the Gort Board of Guardians and other public bodies, and his qualifications as a resident in the district, &c., explained that as a large ratepayer his chief object if elected would be to keep down the Rates, that he would strive to obtain payment of the full amount of the Agricultural Grant to which the Ratepayers and Cesspayers of the Union and Co. were entitled, and that he would use every effort to secure economy and efficiency in the expenditure of public money. so far as consistent with these principles he would advocate the improvement of the roads, and of markets and fairs, the improvement of the dwelling houses of the labouring classes and of the poor both in towns and country, the improvement of sanitary arrangements generally, and the improvements of the Hospitals, Asylums and Dispensaries of the County. He also advocated the extension of the Congested Districts Board, for the development of the agricultural, fishing, and industrial resources of the Union and District. He stated he was in favour of the establishment of a Catholic University and its endowment out of Imperial funds, and that he had been a consistent supporter of the movement for the Redress of Ireland’s Financial Grievances, laying special stress on the Relief of Local Taxation by the Government taking over the Asylums, Hospitals and the Dispensary system. The meeting unanimously adopted Mr. Brady Murray as their Candidate for the County Council and also recommended the following candidates for the District Councillorship of the several Divisions; Kinvarra – Mr Michael O’Donohoe, Mr Moyo Hynes, Mr Patrick Curtin and Mr John Fahy. Doorus – M. John O’Dea, Mr John Quinn, Mr John Halvey, and Mr William Connor. Killinny – Mr John Burke and Mr Michael Mitchell Cahermore – Mr Thomas Clayton and Mr Ml. Grady.
On the motion of Mr. J. Quinn, seconded by Mr. Brady Murray, a cordial vote of thanks was passed to the Revd. Chairman, together with an expression of the deep regret of the meeting at his approaching departure from the Parish which has been in his charge for the last thirty years, coupled with their best wishes for his welfare and prosperity in his new Parish of Ennistymon.
Nenagh Guardian Wednesday, May 01 1844, p.4 (abridged) On the other hand we learn that the Rev. William John Burke, who for the last thirteen years, has been a Romish priest, publicly read his recantation and conformed to the United Church of England and Ireland, in St. John’s Church, Kinvarra, in the County Clare, on Sunday last. during the return of the Rev. Mr. Burke from Church in the carriage with the two clergymen, the Rev. Mr. Moran and the Rev. Mr. Nason, who had been present at the ceremony, a mob of nearly two thousand persons, we are informed, assembled, with shoutings as the party passed, and threw several stones at the carriage. One of them struck the carriage, but the party being well armed, and defended by a body of police, escaped serious consequences. Watchman
Mrs Skerrett, of Pembroke road, Dublin and Finavarra House, Kinvarra, Co. Clare, has let the latter place for the summer months to Mr. J. Harris Stone, B.L. of Oxford and Cambridge Mansions, London. The change to the solitude of the Burren district will be pleasing to the tired London man, and the air is deliciously fresh. There is a fine music room at Finavarra, and a series of theatrical performances was given there a couple of years ago by Mrs Skerrett and her sister, Mrs Sampson – both widows and full of quite unique talent in a musical and histrionic way.
THE IRISH TIMES, Friday, June 13th, 1862 p.3 Pursuant to previous notice from the Rev. Mr. Arthur, P.P., a meeting was held in the Court house, Kinvara, on the 8th inst., for the purposes of devising some means whereby the labouring poor of the town and its suburbs could be supported for the next month or two, until Providence gave them by a bountiful harvest the means of warding off the present distressing destitute condition of the poor people. At three o’clock, on the motion of Mr. Martin Linnane, seconded by Mr. Kering,
The Rev. F. Arthur, P.P. was called to the chair. It was then resolved on the motion of Mr. Thomas Fahy, seconded by Mr. Frank Kilkelly, that Dr. Hynes, whose exertions were ever found available in the cause of the poor, should be requested to act as treasurer to our relief fund, and that the Rev. C. O’Carroll, be requested to act as secretary.
The rev. Chairman having observed in the first instance that having passed through the ordeal consequent on the famines of 1947, ’48 and ’49 in this parish, he had hoped that such things as then occurred would never occur again, the rev. gentleman in continuation said – But when I saw on looking around me, even in this potato growing district, that my poor parishioners were many of them on the verge of starvation – and when I remembered how great was their repugnance to seek that relief they so much required at the hands of the Poor Law Guardians – feeling also, that owing to the badness of the times how very ill able the shopkeepers and traders of Kinvara, generous though I know them to be, would be to support the destitution around them, I applied in the first instance to a member of the Mansion House Committee, explaining to him the peculiar circumstances of our cast; and although the committee very kindly then sent us some relief, I was given to understand that unless we established a committee no further funds could be had from that source. Feeling, then, as I thing every man in Ireland ought to feel, that, when every other resource failed, the Government were bound to come to the rescue, and to save the lives of the poor, I addressed a letter to Sir Robert Peel detailing, as well as I could, for it required neither eloquence nor oratorical power to do so, the destitute condition of the labouring poor of my district, and telling him, at the same time, that we wanted no charity – nothing but a loan, as I may say, to get us over the present crisis – a loan which, I felt satisfied, the ratepayers of the district would willingly repay if required to do so, as I wanted no advance except for works which would be beneficial to the barony and the public at large, and I particularly instances the parapet wall along the shore opposite Dr. Hynes’s lawn, as the most useful that could be effected, under the circumstances. You all know, gentlemen, that a man’s life is not safe driving along that road, without almost any protection on the sea side, having a parapet in many places not a foot high, and over which, if a stranger fell, he would precipitated into the deep ever so many feet. Well, to this I drew the Chief Secretary’s attention; and what does he do? He sends an inspector to inquire into the truth of my allegations. That gentleman accordingly came here, but how did he institute his inquiry? Within folded doors, allowing no more than one at a time to appear before him. Even Dr. Hynes, whom he wished to see, and who gave up a pressing engagement in the hope of being enabled to assist me in the inquiry, he told (when he called on him) that he would not want him until evening; but in the evening Dr. Hynes could not attend, and Mr. Bourke (the inspector) returned from the inquiry at Kinvara fully impressed, I am sure, with the applicability in his case to the old proverb of – “veni, vidi, vici” – I came, I saw, I conquered. What you may or have to expect from hiss visit among you, you will hear from Dr. Hynes and as it is noting to give us hope, I have ventured to call you together today in order that you may among yourselves devise some means whereby the poor of our district may be saved for the next two months.
Dr. Hynes then rose to propose the first resolution (which will be found in our advertising columns), and in doing so said – Before I enter on the purport of the resolution entrusted to me, I feel pleasure in being enabled to inform you that I received a very kind and courteous note from our worthy rector, the Rev. James, F. Moran, of Kilcolgan, in which he feelingly speaks of and sympathizes with our present destitute condition in Kinvara. He adds, that he would most willingly have taken a part in our proceedings here today if circumstances, over which he had no control, did not prevent him doing so; but as the sinews of war prove the mainsprings in matters of this kind, he send me what I consider a very handsome subscription from him, on whom there falls so many demands of this nature. I say, therefore, that we should all feel obliged to the Rev. Mr Moran. (Hear, hear.) And now, adverting again to the resolution entrusted to me by our worthy chairman, I do not know whether his recollection of the years 1847, ’48, and ’49, and the part I then took in alleviating the distress of my poorer fellow-townsmen of not which made my respected parish priest so anxious that I should be the mover of this resolution. But, my friends, whatever be his motives, I have felt it my duty to respond to his call. (Hear.) It is melancholy that, in a year like this, when plenty of food can be found in almost every market in the country, our poor should nevertheless be on the point of starvation. What is the cause? Chiefly want of employment. Henceforth, well, then, be it out business – be it our duty to provide employment for the next two months for all such as may require it. (Hear, hear.) I am very sorry that I had not the opportunity of meeting Mr. Bourke here on Friday last, and as I had not, I wrote to him my views of the present destitution, and the means whereby it might be relieved. To that letter, I received a kind and courteous reply, but there was one sentence in it which blasts all our hopes of Governmental aid. He says – “I do not anticipate that any steps whatever will be taken by the Government in consequence of my report”. What, then, are we to do? Let us adopt the good old motto – “Those that help themselves God will help,” and let us this day, and in this Courthouse, enter into a subscription that will enable our poorer townsmen to tide over the present crisis. It may be said that there are too many to be relieved, and that our resources are limited. Granted. But let us divide the responsibility with the poor law authorities. The poor law, even as it stands, empowers the guardians to give outdoor relief to widows, orphans, &c, &c, but denies that relief to the able-bodied labourer, &c. Let it therefore be our province to provide for the latter class, and let the Poor Law Guardians look to the class of persons I have specified. But in order to avoid abuse, we ill give no relief to any person will not give us some work in return for what we give him; in other words, we will provide works of public utility in and about the town, for such as are in the habit of supporting their families by daily labour; to such persons we will give 1s per day, but we will not undertake to maintain those that are entitled to out-door relief from the guardians, and who could not, of course, work for us. I hope the guardians will take care of them – we will take care of the other class, and now, having explained the principle on which we propose to act, I beg leave to propose the following resolution which, being seconded by Mr. Henry Flanagan, passed reni cor. Mr Peter Linnane then proposed, and Mr. Daniel O’Dea seconded, that a subscription list be opened, and that the secretary be requested to solicit subscriptions from the humane and charitable throughout the country, and a vote of thanks having been passed to the Rev. Mr. Arthur, the meeting separated.
Papers relating to proceedings for relief of distress, and state of unions and workhouses in Ireland, 1848
Photo: Cresswell Archives
Sessional Papers 1847-1848 HMSO
Dippam.ac.uk
(abridged)
P.928
Along the shores of the bay of Kinvarra and bay of Galway, which form a portion of the boundary of the electoral divisions of Kinvarra and Killeenavarra, reside a considerable number of persons, some with and some without land, who have heretofore supported themselves by fishing, and by the sale of sea weed for the purpose of manure. The failure of the potato crop in 1845 and 1846 by its discouragement to the planting of potatoes, completely paralysed the operations of the latter, who are now in a most abject state.
The only portion of the population remaining to be noticed is that which comprises the miscellaneous class of pedlars, hucksters, small dealers in fruit or vegetables, and mendicants, all of whom are affected by the general poverty of the district and are mostly in a destitute state.
As regards the prospects of the Union for the ensuing harvest, we have learned that a considerable quantity of wheat has been put down by the larger farmers, but it is certain there will not be anything approaching to the breadth of corn of the past year. On the other hand, it would appear from the reports of the relieving officers, and from personal observation, that the general success of the potato crop in 1847 has encouraged the larger holders of land to make arrangements for planting in a greater quantity in the spring. Many, however, of the smaller farmers will, we fear, be unable to set any, in consequence of the scarcity and high price of seed, added to their inability to purchase manure, and it is therefore to be apprehended that a much greater quantity of land will remain uncultivated this year than last. In former years most of the labouring population had potatoes in con-acre, but their impoverished conditions now renders them incapable of making any preparations for having a crop in the present season. Even if they were able to procure seed and manure, they have no means of support while engaged in their cultivation.
The amount of agricultural employment at present is very trifling, and we regret to say that after making the most minute inquiries we have no reason to hope that the demand for labour will be much increased for a considerable period.
p 930
In common with many other parts of Ireland, in the spring and summer of the past year, the Gort Union was affected with fever and dysentery; and as there was no permanent fever hospital in the Union, no effective mode of relieving poor persons suffering from these diseases was in existence. …The Relief Committee for the electoral divisions of Kinvarra and Killeenavarra were authorized and directed to provide hospital accommodation and other means of relief for the sick poor. In pursuance of such instructions the former Committee fitted up a building near Kinvarra for the purpose of an hospital to contain 50 patients; the latter, however, through a mistaken idea of economy, declined to fit up a separate institution, but with the consent of the late Board of Guardians, adopted the workhouse hospital as the fever hospital of their district, in direct violation of the express provisions of the statues, and sent all their patients thither. By this course of proceeding the (Gort) workhouse became the reservoir of contagion for the entire Union, except Kinvarra and Killeenavarra, and their hospital speedily filled.
p.923
At Kinvarra, a most impoverished district, in which fever prevails to an alarming extent, we propose to erect sheds to accomodate 100 patients, retaining the building now used as a temporary hospital for the purpose of convalescent ward after providing therein a room for the medical officer, a kitchen, washhouse and store-room.
By these arrangements, if sanctioned by the Commissioners, we hope we may be able to provide for the more destitute portion of the sick poor in this Union. If, however, the increase of contagious disease should require further accommodation, we shall be prepared to suggest the erection of temporary hospitals in other parts of the Union or the extension of those now proposed, as may seem most expedient.
On Sunday last a large and influential meeting of the people of Kinvarra and the surrounding districts was held in the chapel yard after last Mass. The meeting was convened to consider the present general depression, which is telling very severely on the tenant farmers in the neighbourhood. Kinvarra is essentially an agricultural district and the principal crops, being potatoes and barley, have been very seriously damaged by the constant wet and the late severe storms. The Rev. John Molony P.P., presided and Mr. James Curtin acted as secretary. The following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
Proposed by Mr. Henry Fanagan, Esq., and seconded by Mr. John Lynch; That this meeting is of opinion that the agricultural produce of this district, on which the people have almost entirely to depend for the payment of their rents and the support of their families, has been so much injured by the unprecedented wet summer and the late storms as to render it impossible for the tenant farmers to pay their present rents; and moreover to give just grounds for learning that the coming winter and spring will find many of them almost destitute.
Proposed by Mr. William Flatley and seconded by Mr. Stephen Leech; In the face of the great losses we have sustained, caused by three successive bad harvests and the depreciation of agricultural produce arising from foreign importation, we are compelled to make an earnest but respectful appeal to our landlords to make such a reduction in our rents as will enable us to pass through the present severe crisis and save us from utter ruin.
Proposed by Mr. Thomas Corless and seconded by Mr. Michael Kelly; That we feel we have good grounds to hope that our appeal will meet with a favourable response, as many of our landlords reside outside the parish, and consequently there is not so much employment given to the labouring classes in the district, nor that encouragement to local trade which might naturally be expected from resident proprietors.
Proposed by Mr. Peter Burke and seconded by Mr. John Burke; That copies of these resolutions, signed by their respective tenants, be forwarded to the landlords of the parish, and that another copy, signed by the chairman and secretary, be sent to the Freeman’s Journal, the ever-faithful friend and advocate of the rights of the tenant farmers in Ireland.
(signed)
J. Molony, P.P., Chairman
James Curtin, Hon. Sec.
The Burren and Beyond 