FROM THE ARCHIVES:Tenants of Lord Oranmore and Browne (Geoffrey Henry Browne) in Co Mayo met on New Year's Eve a century ago to increase pressure on him to sell his land to the Congested District Board for division among them. – JOE JOYCE
LORD ORANMORE has arranged for six weeks to lodge his maps, etc., with the Congested Districts Board, and some of the tenants have agreed to “allow” him a month. His lordship, during the Christmas season, presented a number of his poorer tenants with blankets, and for the children attending the Ballindine schools, of which he is the manager, prepared an entertainment for to-morrow night. The gift of the blankets and the entertainment formed the chief subject of debate at the meeting.
Mr. Mark Waldron presided, and almost all the tenants were represented.
A resolution was passed at the outset warning people against taking conacre on the estate, as such “takes” were detrimental to the tenants’ interests.
Mr. P. Rush said that they had given Lord Oranmore a month to make up his mind whether he would sell, but he was now trying to coax the tenants by giving them blankets during the Christmas.
The Secretary said that a resolution should come from the meeting asking the people who got blankets to return them.
Mr. Monaghan – We are called beggars long enough, but we never begged anything but our own. Mr. Patrick Rush proposed, and Mr. Costello seconded, and it was unanimously passed, that all the tenants who got blankets be asked to give them to the man appointed to receive them, and that they be returned to-morrow in a cart to Castlemacgarrett, the residence of Lord Oranmore.
Mr. Rush said that everyone in Killeen who got a blanket would give it up. These were called cradle blankets, but the people who got them had neither cradles nor children.
Mr. Kirrane – We should send them all back in a box barrow.
The Secretary – But unless you have them all brought into Ballindine first you won’t know whether they were sent back or not, because some people might keep them . . .
Mr. Rush – It is no wonder the poor people took the blankets when a grazier took one. (Cries of “Name,” and counter-cries of “No.”) . . .
Mr. Kirrane also referred to the entertainment which his lordship was preparing for the children, and said that to that entertainment he had invited the pauper children from the Claremorris Workhouse.
Mr. Walsh – Paupers are as good as anyone else, but we are not looking upon the invitation in that light.
Chairman – He may have the paupers, but he cannot compel us to go to his entertainment.
Mr. Gallagher said that all the parents should be asked to keep their children at home, and not let them go to this entertainment.
Mr. Patrick Stephens said that what they wanted from Lord Oranmore was the land.
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