Writings - 1886
Gweedore…
Flag of Ireland - Saturday 18 December 1886
“If there is any part of Ireland that cannot pay rent it is the wild, barren, and yet cruelly rack rented district of Gweedore. The Hill tenants have been living on charity, their crops are grown from charity seed, and the rents that have for many a year been squeezed out of those poor people came invariably from the benevolence of the people of Ireland, England, and America. Colonel Dopping, the agent of the Hill property, met the tenants the other day, and in answer to their request for 33 per cent reduction, he declared not a farthing in the way of abatement would be got. Father M’Fadden, the advocate and friend of the distressed tenantry, entered at length into the circumstances of the people, stating that he had distributed 170 tons of charity seed potatoes amongst the tenantry, that for the past six years they had been struggling for existence, subsisting almost exclusively upon the voluntary contributions of the public. Colonel Dopping said he had no alternative but to press for every shilling due. But the tenants had an alternative to that decree, and they soon had recourse to it. Their rents are now in deposit, and Colonel Dopping will have to discover an alternative from the one he stated before he will get any more rent in Gweedore.”
Flag of Ireland - Saturday 18 December 1886
“If there is any part of Ireland that cannot pay rent it is the wild, barren, and yet cruelly rack rented district of Gweedore. The Hill tenants have been living on charity, their crops are grown from charity seed, and the rents that have for many a year been squeezed out of those poor people came invariably from the benevolence of the people of Ireland, England, and America. Colonel Dopping, the agent of the Hill property, met the tenants the other day, and in answer to their request for 33 per cent reduction, he declared not a farthing in the way of abatement would be got. Father M’Fadden, the advocate and friend of the distressed tenantry, entered at length into the circumstances of the people, stating that he had distributed 170 tons of charity seed potatoes amongst the tenantry, that for the past six years they had been struggling for existence, subsisting almost exclusively upon the voluntary contributions of the public. Colonel Dopping said he had no alternative but to press for every shilling due. But the tenants had an alternative to that decree, and they soon had recourse to it. Their rents are now in deposit, and Colonel Dopping will have to discover an alternative from the one he stated before he will get any more rent in Gweedore.”