Land, Politics and Religion on the Clancarty Estate, East Galway, 1851–1914
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Land, politics and religion on the Clancarty estate, east Galway, 1851–1914 Brian Joseph Casey, B.A. Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D Department of History, National University of Ireland, Maynooth Head of department: Professor Marian Lyons Supervisor of research: Dr Terence Dooley July 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of tables and figures i Summary ii Acknowledgements iii Abbreviations v INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: ESTATE MANAGEMENT POLICIES ON THE CLANCARTY ESTATE, 1851-1914 22 CHAPTER TWO: THE THIRD EARL OF CLANCARTY, PROSELYTISM AND EVANGELICALISM IN BALLINASLOE IN THE 1850s AND 1860s 61 CHAPTER THREE: NOLAN VERSUS TRENCH: THE 1872 GALWAY BY- ELECTION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE CLANCARTY FAMILY 94 CHAPTER FOUR: THE BALLINASLOE TENANT DEFENCE ASSOCIATION, 1876-79 131 CHAPTER FIVE: THE CLANCARTY ESTATE, 1879–85 160 CHAPTER SIX: THE CLANCARTY ESTATE DURING THE ERA OF THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN, 1886-91 212 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE DECLINE OF THE CLANCARTY ESTATE, 1891–1914 246 CONCLUSION 280 APPENDICES Appendix one: Map of Galway, with parishes that contained land owned by the Clancarty family shaded. 297 Appendix two: Proposed baronial relief works as discussed in chapter five 298 BIBLIOGRAPHY: 301 List of tables and figures Table 1: List of businesses in Ballinasloe as listed in Pigot’s directory , 1824 30 Table 2: Prizes offered for neatest habitation in the four different classes of houses 31 Table 3: Number of cattle sold at Ballinasloe October fair from 1851 to 1862 47 Fig. 1.1 Trench monument 29 Fig. 3.1 Statue of William le Poer Trench, third earl of Clancarty 130 Appendix One: Map of Galway, with parishes that contained land owned by the Clancarty family shaded. 297 Appendix Two: Fig. 1: Map of the barony of Athlone South, indicating proposed relief works. 298 Fig. 2 : Map of the barony of Moycarn, in the Ballinasloe Poor Law Union, indicating proposed relief works 299 i SUMMARY Studies of landed estates are important for understanding not just the life of the landlords, but also for assessing the social history of the community resident on estates. This thesis expands upon existing knowledge regarding landlordism in Ireland, with its focus being land, politics and religion upon the Clancarty estate between 1851 and 1914. The estate was situated in east Galway and comprised 23,000 acres and included the large town of Ballinasloe, which underwent a radical transformation in the nineteenth century under the watchful eye of the Clancarty family. They oversaw its development from a town of dirt roads and unsanitary conditions to a superbly designed estate town that was praised by contemporaries as an example for other landlords across the country to follow. Both the urban and rural parts of the estate witnessed massive economic, political and social change, paralleled with the rest of the country. This thesis examines the common ground that existed between urban and rural tenants and traces the development of urban society and how this impacted upon the rural hinterland and vice versa. It examines the relationships that existed between townsmen, tenant- farmers and others on the estate, such as labourers. A study of this nature allows a closer examination of the reasons underpinning an estate’s decline and break up. Particular attention is paid to urban tenants and the benefits they derived from the shifting power structures in Ballinasloe, as a new elite emerged following the collapse of the Clancarty estate and the departure of the family from the town they iii constructed. iiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr Terence Dooley, for his unstinting encouragement, advice and kindness over the period of this research. Professor R. V. Comerford and his successor, Professor Marian Lyons were always very supportive. I am very appreciative of the financial generosity of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Thanks are due to the staff at the Ballinasloe Town Library, (especially Mary Dillon) the British Library, the Dublin Diocesan Archives, the Galway County Library at Nun’s Island, the James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway, the John Paul II Library, NUI Maynooth, the National Archives of Ireland, the National Archive, Kew, the National Library of Ireland and Dr John Kirby D.D., Bishop of Clonfert, who allowed me to access the diocesan archives at Coorheen, Loughrea. I want to thank my former colleagues in the Department of Manuscripts at the National Library of Ireland, in particular, Fergus Brady, James Harte, Colette O’Daly, Colette O’Flaherty, Maria O’Shea, Eimear Walsh and the indispensable Tom Desmond. I am also grateful to the staff at the History Department at NUI Maynooth, especially Dr Gerard Moran, Dr Thomas O’Connor and Dr Jacinta Prunty. Dr John Cunningham, Professor James S. Donnelly, Dr Carla King, Dr Sean Lucey and Dr Anthony Malcomson offered sound advice on various aspects of this thesis. Thanks to my fellow post graduates in the History Department at NUI Maynooth for their friendship, especially Cormac Begadon, Anne Bergin, Patrick Cosgrove, Emer iiv Crooke, the late Brian Duffy, Mel Farrell, Caroline Gallagher, Brian Heffernan, Des Konopka, Kevin McKenna, Ciaran Reilly and Mark Wehrly. I especially appreciate the assistance of Dr Damian Mac Con Uladh for imparting his own encyclopaedic knowledge of Ballinasloe to me and for his support in many ways over the years. A deep thanks also to the members of staff at the History Department at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra for their support while I was a tutor there, in particular Professor James Kelly and Dr Daire Keogh. Friends have been neglected during this research and their patience was unwavering. My unreserved appreciation goes to Fiona Casey, Darren “Lenin” Cogavin, Paul Clogher, Eoin Deasy, Francis Farrell, Eoin Fenton, Darragh Hurley, Tom Kehoe, Conor Kennedy, Bryan Lohan, Ruth McCormack, Stephen McDonald, Brendan McGrath, Suzanne Mitchell, Alex Nolan, Eilís Raftery and Niall Sherry amongst others. My deepest debt is to my immediate family – Mike, Marie, Tosh, Kev, Enda, Caoimhe and Cecilia – and to my uncle and aunt, Martin and Kitty Hynes of Maynooth, who were so hospitable to me while I was in Maynooth. I profoundly regret that Martin did not live to see this work completed. His integrity and numerous kindnesses to me will always be cherished, as will the generosity of my uncle Michael Casey, whose equally cruel and early passing is also deeply regretted. The greatest debt I owe is to my mother, Maureen, whose unstinting support and love is something that can never be repaid. In partial recompense for the numerous sacrifices she has made for me, this work is dedicated to her and to the memory of my father, John. vv ABBREVIATIONS B. T. D. A. Ballinasloe Tenant Defence Association C. T. D. A. Central Tenant Defence Association C. D. A. Clonfert Diocesan Archives C. P. Connaught People C. S. O., R. P. Registered Papers of the Chief Secretary’s Office C. T. Connaught Telegraph D. N. Daily News F. J. Freeman’s Journal G. E. Galway Express G. P. Galway Press G. V. Galway Vindicator I. F. G. Irish Farmers’ Gazette I. H .S. Irish Historical Studies I. N. L. Irish National League I. T. Irish Times L. G. B. Local Government Board N. A. I. National Archives of Ireland N. L. I. National Library of Ireland N. Y. D. T. New York Daily Tribune N. Y. T. New York Times P. D. A. Property Defence Association P. P. Parish Priest R. M. Resident Magistrate S. R. M. Special Resident Magistrate T. C. D. Trinity College Dublin T. N. Tuam News T. H. Tuam Herald vi T. N. A. The National Archives of the United Kingdom U. C. G. University College Galway U. I. L. United Irish League V. F. Vicar Fornae W. N. Western News W. S. Western Star vii INTRODUCTION I.) Aims and objectives This thesis explores issues of land, politics and religion on the Clancarty estate between 1851 and 1914, with attention also being paid to religious and class tensions that existed on the estate. The estate was located in east Galway and south Roscommon, mostly within the vicinity of the town of Ballinasloe, though the family did possess some land near Loughrea. In 1876 it comprised almost 24,000 acres in Galway and over 1,600 acres in Roscommon, with a total valuation of nearly £20,000. 1 The family possessed land in eighty-nine townlands, spread over eleven parishes. According to the General valuation of rateable property in Ireland , there were 1,444 occupiers on the estate – and in the absence of estate rentals – this is the most important source for ascertaining the approximate size of holdings on the estate. 2 The estate expanded after the Famine because of purchases made by the third earl of Clancarty in the Encumbered Estates Court, thus signifying that the estate remained solvent after the numerous crises presented to many other Irish landlords during the Famine and this expansion is discussed in chapter one. Landlords generally carried out evictions in response to the non-payment of rent or as a method of maintaining order on estates. Prior to the Land War, such evictions frequently failed to provoke a sympathetic response. J. E. Pomfret’s The 1 Return of owners of land of one acres and upwards in the several counties, counties of cities and counties of towns in Ireland (Dublin, 1876), pp 294, 314. 2 See The general valuation of rateable property in Ireland [Griffith’s Valuation] for Galway and Roscommon. 1 struggle for land in Ireland, 1800–1923 (1930) is an orthodox nationalist account of landlords acting as capricious evictors. He argued that landlords had no interest in improving their property, were predatory in their management and evicted tenants at a whim.