The following Article appeared in the Kerry Weekly Reporter
on September 29th 1883. After reading this , you really cannot blame
the Famine alone for people wanting to leave Ireland in their droves!!
“The work of eviction is not yet at an end in Kerry. At
eight o clock on Tuesday morning a party, consisting of Messrs. H. F. Browne,
Leary, Dennehy and Scannell
, left Tralee on outside cars for Dreenagh, to the west of Ballyheigue,
where cottiers on the Swanzey estate were to be evicted for non – payment of
rent. They arrived at their destination , after several hours drive ,
accompanied by a large force of police.
The holdings of the cottiers are situated on one of the
wildest mountains in this wild country. It is
however, a district rich in scenic beauty and profuse in historic
surroundings, so that the ‘Cromlach of the Druid’ and the ‘Battery of Helen and
her soldiers’ , go hand in hand in Dreenagh with one of the finest views of the Irish
coast that could be desired.
There has been some uncertainty about the ownership of
Dreenagh town land for a number of years. The present eviction proceedings have arisen because the
tenants have refused to pay rent to the Rev. Henry Swanzey , on the grounds that
he is not the proper landlord. The tenants to be evicted were Pat O’ Hara, Jim
O’ Hara, Pat Ned O’ Hara, John Ned O’ Hara, Widow O’ Hara, Edmond Corridon,
John Hurley and Denis O’ Connell. Pat and Jim O’ Hara were the first to be
visited, and were promptly evicted from their joint holding. A settlement was
reached however, in the cases of Pat Ned and John Ned O’Hara and the Widow O’
Hara.
In the next house visited, that of Edward Corridon , there were no less than seventeen
human beings – thirteen children , the parents and their
Grandparents. The latter were a patriarchal old couple, the Grandfather being
105 years old and his wife about 90. It was really a pitiful spectacle, as the
bailiffs threw the furniture out of the house, to see
these old people, whose days were well numbered, rendered homeless.
The final tenants visited, John Hurley and Denis Connell
were also evicted. As soon as the bailiffs had finished their work, the police
and themselves set off at a quick march for the road where the train of
sidecars awaited them, and in a short time the entire party was on its way home
from the scene of the campaign”
