Landlords of Inishowen
Erasing
the landlords' legacy in Inishowen
In towns around Inishowen some people may not be aware that the
land their property stands on is under lease from an absentee landlord.
John George Adair
- Landlord
Because of the poor standard of history teaching today it is not
easy to realise what the Irish people, and particularly the people
of Gweedore, had to endure during the latter half of the last century.
The British landlord had absolute power over the tenant. He could
be evicted at a whim whether or not he paid his rent. He could be
evicted too if he refused to send his children to a Protestant school;
or he did not vote as he was directed. Out of 132 judges 114 were
Protestant and of these eighty were landlords, twenty-five land
agents, five military officers and two Protestant clergymen. The
Irish tenant did not have much chance of justice.
Taken from The Secret Places of Donegal by John M. Feehan
John Hamilton of Donegal
A good many Irish landlords - more than is commonly recognised
- did in fact, try to improve the lot of their tenants and promote
the general welfare of their neighbours. One such man was John Hamilton,
of St. Ernan's in County Donegal, one of the poorest parts of Ulster,
where the population was predominately Roman Catholic and where
relations between landlord and tenant were, in general, less harmonious
than they were in the province as a whole.
Taken from John Hamilton of Donegal by Dermot James
Killing of Leitrim
Back in the late 1800s the Third Earl of Leitrim was one of the
most hated landlords in Ireland and no more so than in County Donegal
where he owned 55,000 acres of land.
Land
War and Eviction in Derryveagh 1840 - 65
By Liam Dolan
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'landlords of Inishowen'. If you have any, please send them to us
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