Erasing the landlords' legacy in Inishowen
Derry Journal, Friday 24th January 2003

Erasing the legacy of centuries of colonialism may seem a daunting task but lawyers in Inishowen have been attempting to do just that for many years.

As part of a crusade to "undo hundreds of years of Irish history", Ciaran MacLochlainn and his partner at C.S. Kelly and Company, Solicitors in Buncrana have been buying out lands, which for centuries were leased to townspeople in the peninsula by large British estates.

by Ian Cullen

In towns around Inishowen some land remains under lease but most rents, many amounting to just a few pounds annually, are no longer collected by the estates, as it would not be economically viable. And as a result some residences and business people simply may not be aware that the land their property stands on is under lease from an absentee landlord for anything up to 999 years.

Mr. MacLochlainn and his partner at C.S. Kelly Solicitors have acquired the freeholds to a number of lands from the McClintock estate in the town of Buncrana and Carndonagh over a number of years. Most of the freeholds have since been sold onto residents and business owners for a nominal sum "basically a handling fee," Mr. MacLochlainn explained "We set out nearly 20 years ago to basically undo four hundred years of Irish history. All the agricultural land was taken off the estates by the Irish Land Commission's purchase schemes - so the only thing we were really buying were the town properties," he added.

After Inishowen Chieftain Cahir O'Doherty was killed in a skirmish at Kilmacrennan in 1608 his lands, including the whole of the peninsula, were handed over to Lord Deputy Arthur Chichester. But by 1700 Chichester's successors had run up crippling debts and the land was leased and sold off in sections. "In five years time the four hundredth anniversary of Cahir O'Doherty's death will be celebrated with most of the land once again owned by the people of Inishowen" "By buying out the original titles, converting Chichester's original 1000 year leases to freehold and selling them onto the people, we're effectively undoing history in what is a long, slow, tedious process," he said.

Since the mid twentieth century the McClintock Estate's land in the town of Carndonagh was gradually sold off, and finally in 1989 the landowner signed over the remaining interests to MacLochlainn and his partner for a small fee. "They sold us what was left of their property in Carndonagh but most had been bought out at that stage. We bought the freeholds to various places in the town Chapel Street, Market Square South, Pound Street South, Pound Street North, Bridge Street South and as we sold them on we marked them off and we sold on what remained in 1996 for the princely sum of £1,500.

Only in for profit

The freeholds were then sold on for fees of around £50 for land occupied by a house and £100 for land with a business premises. "We did have people who rang us up and offered us five thousand and ten thousand pounds for the ground but they were in it simply to profit from the people of Carndonagh. "One person offered £10,000 - but he was only going to cause problems for tenants down the line. For example we could have been acting for a client in Carndonagh the following week, say a man who wanted to buy out the freehold for his pub, and the owner said he wants £20,000 for it, then where would we be. So we refused to sell," he said.

The buying out of the rents was tedious work begun in Inishowen in Buncrana by the predecessor of MacLochlainn, solicitor C.S. Kelly, in 1945 as a "service to the people". C.S. Kelly's work was carried on by another Buncrana lawyer, Paudge Dorrian, for a number of years, who purchased the Swan titles before selling them on to MacLochlainn and his partner. And many people may be skeptical as to the attraction of such a low-profit venture for the solicitors. Well, according to Mr. MacLochlainn, the answers to that is simple: "It makes our work a lot easier by cutting down on a lot of paperwork that we would have to deal with anyway," he said. "Nobody wants to become a landlord in this way, absolutely nobody.

And so the freeholds were sold on to another solicitor in Carndonagh, Philip White whose father campaigned vociferously against the eviction of tenants from properties in the town for many years. Michael White, also a lawyer, "made tremendous efforts to ensure that, where possible, people could buy out their ground rents," according to his son. "There are virtually no ground rents remaining in Carndonagh. The intention of buying out the ground rents on land is simply to ensure that people don't encounter title problems which must then be sorted out by the solicitor."

Your house, their land

And the problems which can arise merit some attention. Indeed, some people may not even realise that the land their property sits on is under lease, until that is, they attempt to sell up. Only then will they discover that a bank will not grant a mortgage to a buyer of any property which has a lease with less than 70 years to run. If the property owner intends to sell to somebody buying by means of a mortgage then they must buy out the freehold on the land, which if in the wrong hands, can be a costly business. In the recent past landlords in the area have been known to demand "ludicrous sums" for freeholds, according to Mr. MacLochlainn.

If someone wants to sell their building but has no title deeds and the price slapped on the property by the landowner cannot be met, then the property owner's hands are tied. "And that has happened in Inishowen. The people were left in a position where they could do nothing with the property," said Mr. MacLochlainn. "The main reason for us taking over the leases is so nobody could do that," he added.

Leases for ground rent could have been granted right up until the late 1970's when the Landlord and Tenant Ground Rent Act abolished them for dwelling houses. New ground rents for dwelling houses do not exist.

A section of Buncrana is still under control of the McClintock estate while land in other towns in Inishowen remain under the ownership of British estates or successors.

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