Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
When Thomas, Earl of Kildare (page 182) died (1477), he was succeeded by his son, Garrett or Gerald as 8th Earl. The Irish Council elected Garrett as Lord Deputy, but the English King (Edward IV) refused to recognise him, and sent over Lord Grey in his stead. But the King’s nominee was refused admittance to Dublin Castle by the doughty Keating (page 183), and the Lord Chancellor refused to deliver him up the Great Seal.
Grey called a Parliament in Trim, but Kildare and the Chancellor (his father-in-law, Fitz-Eustace, Lord Portlester) immediately called a rival Parliament at Naas. During two years the contest went on until finally Kildare won, and was appointed Lord Deputy with increased powers, which left him practically independent. For the next 35 years (1478-1513) the Great Earl was the most powerful man in Ireland, and with the exception of one break of four years (1492-6) he was all that time Lord Deputy under the Yorkist Kings, Edward IV and Richard III, until 1485, and then under the Tudor King, Henry VII.
In 1485 the House of York fell at the battle of Bosworth, and Henry Tudor became King of England as Henry VII. The Wars of the Roses had ended, and new conditions prevailed jti England which were to have a profound influence on Irish affairs. The wars had destroyed the old feudal nobility of England, and for many years to come that country was to be ruled by sovereigns whose power was arbitrary. Untroubled by powerful nobles, the Tudors were able to direct the policy of England with a single mind.
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The Great Earl with the End of Wars of Roses
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Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Above : Photo Of Michael Davitt
Gladstone was but half convinced. He saw that to the complication to Ireland of an agrarian system unsuited to the circumstances of the country the prevalent disorders were mainly due. This he proposed to remedy by means of a comprehensive Irish Land Bill. Unfortunately,however, a Coercion Bill was to precede the remedial measures.That the effects of the latter in Ireland would be lamentable was pointed out by many of the Irish members, and notably by Parnell himself. Their efforts to impede its passage were vain, and in March, 1881, the Coercion Act became law.
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Saturday, June 14th, 2008
Above : Portrait Of John Blake Dillon
The summer of 1879 had teen cold and wet. Most of the crops were extremely poor, and the potato crop practically a total failure. This, of course, meant for the rural population of a great part of Ireland nothing short of famine. Amongst the despairing peasantry, the advice of the Land League to consider the needs of their families before satisfying the claims of the landlords, and, at the same time, to ” keep a firm grip on their homesteads,” found ready acceptance.
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Friday, June 13th, 2008
Above : Photo Of Young Michael Davitt
Foundation of the Land League.— In 1846, there was born to a small farmer named Davitt in Straide Co. Mayo, a son destined to play a leading part in the history of the Irish Land Agitation during the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth. Before he was five, the young Michael saw his parents evicted and cast on the road-side, and the cabin which had been their home, levelled to the ground, owing to the failure of his father to pay the impossible rent which the landlord demanded of him. The scene which he then witnessed engraved itself indelibly on the child’s memory, and translated itself later into a resolve to make the destruction of the system under which such things were possible his lifework.
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Monday, June 9th, 2008
Above : Illustrating Picture Of The Civil War
The Act for the settling of Ireland, which passed the English Parliament in August 1652, divided the inhabitants of Ireland into classes, according to the degree to which they were, or were supposed to be, implicated in the lately suppressed rebellion.
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Sunday, June 8th, 2008
Above : Picture Of Sir William Petty
After her long struggle Ireland was absolutely exhausted. Of her population of millions, over 600,000 had perished by the sword or by famine. Few cattle remained of the once great herds, few sheep of the splendid flocks. The famishing people, especially the old and feeble, died in great numbers. Of the soldiers of the defeated armies, many went abroad and enlisted in Continental services. Numbers of young people, boys and girls, were seized by order of the Government, and shipped off to the West Indies or to the English colonies in North America, where they were sold as slaves.
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Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
Above : Portrait Of Jeremiah O’Donovan
FOR the next few years there was tranquillity in Ireland. The activity of the constitutional politicians had ceased ; the ” physical force ” party gave no sign of life. Within a decade each had made a great effort ; both had failed. The English people in general believed that the Irish were at last ” settling down,” and that agitations and rebellions would be heard of no more. In truth, however, the apparent peace was but ” smothered war.”
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Above : Photo Of John Sadleir
As the new league therefore, scarcely at all diminished the grievances under w h the people suffered, the discontent continued to grow, and soon an outcry arose all over the country against the injustice of the Land over was accompanied by an insistent demand for their alteration. In the Northern Province a custom prevailed by which a tenant acquired what was called an ” interest ” in the land which he cultivated, and could dispose of this when he vacated the farm. The value of this ” Interest ” varied largely, according chiefly to the amount of ” unexhausted improvements ” made by the seller, but even when no improvements had been made, something was paid.
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Above : Picture Of Poverty At The Time
It has already been mentioned that during the earlier part of the nineteenth century a large proportion of the Irish people lived habitually on the verge of destitution. The food of about one-third of the population was almost exclusively potatoes, with which the better-off drank milk.
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The Poverty In Ireland and The Sufferings of the People
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Above : Illustrating Picture Of The Great Famine
In the payment of crowds of officials a great part of the availabe funds were frittered away. Persons not in need of relief obtained employment by means of ” influence,” while the destitute and deservin were often refused.
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