The South Isles of Aran (County Galway)

And he sped to O'Brazil away – far away.

3

"Morn rose on the deep, and that shadowy isle,
O'er the faint rim and distant reflected its smile;
Noon burned on the wave, and that shadowy shore
Seemed lovely, distant, and faint as before.
Lone evening came down on the wanderer's track,
And to Aran again he looked timidly back;
Oh! far on the verge of the ocean it lay,
Yet the isle of the blest was away – far away!

4

"Rash dreamer, return! oh, ye winds of the main,
Bear him back to his own peaceful Aran again;
Rash fool! for a vision of fanciful bliss
To barter thy calm life of labour and peace.
The warning of reason was spoken in vain,
He never revisited Aran again.
Night fell on the deep, amidst tempest and spray,
And he died on the waters away – far away."

CHAPTER V

Never Boreas' hoary path,
Never Eurus' poisonous breath,
Never baleful stellar lights
Taint Aran with untimely blights."

    Burns.

OLD AGE IN ARAN.

The extreme old age to which the inhabitants live in Aran proves the excellence of the air and of the food. Neither asthma, nor gout, nor rheumatism are known in portions of the islands. Formerly there were forests of oak and of pine in Inishmore, which must have been peculiarly suited to those who suffered from diseases of the chest.

The fishery here begins in the spring, and great quantities of spillard, cod, ling, haddock, turbot, gurnet, and mackerel are caught. The natives look much to the herring fishery, which seldom disappoints their expectations. In May the pursuit of the sun-fish gives employment to many, and it appears, from evidence given before the Irish House of Commons in 1762, that sun-fish of average size were worth from £5 to £6 each. Then all manner of shellfish are in abundance in those waters – multivalves, bivalves, and univalves – lobsters, oysters, periwinkles. The Aranite may be said to be an amphibious animal – a fisherman and a farmer, but as a fisherman he is powerless to cope with them whose ships are built for the deep sea fishery.

LAND COMMISSION IN ARAN.

It was as a farmer we had the pleasure of seeing him, and in the court of the Land Commission, which sat in Kilronan on the 20th of July, 1886. The Land Court presented an animated appearance on that day, the islanders crowding in to hear their cases. Unlike any Europeans that we know of, the men sat or squatted on the floor in manner as the Mahometans would in the mosques of Bussorah. Remarkably intelligent, they gave their evidence in court with an ease and precision, especially when examined in Irish, which it was refreshing to hear. Many of the cases stood over from the Land Commission sittings in the islands on June 25, 1885, on which occasion there were ninety-five listed for a hearing, and of these the following, the first heard, is a fair specimen of all the rest, the Commission being composed of Mr. Crean, B.L., Professor Baldwin, and Mr. Barry.

Irish Land Commission.

Michael O'Donel, tenant.

Miss Digby, Landenstown, county Kildare, and the Hon. Thomas Kenelm Digby St. Lawrence (second son of Thomas, twenty-ninth baron, third Earl of Howth – by his second wife, Henrietta Digby, only child of Peter Barfoot, Esq., of Landenstown, county Kildare), landlords.

Mr. Concannon appeared as solicitor for the tenants; Mr. Stephens, solicitor, for the landlords.

Michael O'Donel sworn.

Mr. Concannon. O'Donel, are you tenant of this holding?

I am, your honour.

How long are you tenant?

Since I was born – and that's fifty years ago.

Do you swear that, that you were tenant since you were born? How long are you paying rent?

Since my father's death, about eight years ago last Pathrickmuss, – that's the time I'm the rale tenant. My father and his father were tenants on that holding since the Deluge at all events – couldn't swear longer than that.

Do you swear that?

Well, of coorse I couldn't swear it out and out.

What quantity of land have you in your holding?

Well, twenty-two acres exactly, be the same more or less. [Mr. Stephens, for the landlords, said that twenty-two acres was the true area of his farm.] Five of the twenty-two acres were nothing but rocks and stones, without one blade of grass in them, so that it was seventeen acres of productive land he had, at an annual rental of £3 18s. 6d., and it was not worth that.

To the court. The last change of rent was thirty years ago.

What buildings have you?

The house is my own, and the barn. Both are thatched. [Mr. Stephens did not claim the houses.] Improvements? – Well, there are walls, but did not measure them, and small gardens.

In answer to Mr. Concannon: We claim to be entitled to take the seaweed for manure. We have no turf, nor timber to burn, and have to pay £3 a year for two boat loads of turf. The stock on his farm was a cow and a veal calf, a horse, five sheep, and eight lambs. Shears them every year, but the wool he never sells as he keeps it for his family. As for tillage, he had about eighty stone of potatoes last year, and by his stock he realized £12; that includes £6 7s. 6d. that he received for a couple of veal calves. He had no grain crops. He had a couple of pigs too. As for his stock, maybe it's little he'd have out of them coming home to his wife and childher, and his was a nice wife, thanks be to God. His sheep he brings by boat to the county of Clare, sells them at the fair of Ennistymon. Has to pay freight 3d. a head for sheep and lambs. His cattle and pigs he puts on the mail boat and sails them to Galway – the freight being 2s. 6d. for calves, and a shilling a head for pigs. And wasn't he sixteen days weatherbound in Galway last February, after the fair-day?

Mr. Concannon would produce no valuer, he felt perfect confidence in the commissioners.

This closed the tenant's case.

Mr. Thompson, of Clonskea Castle, county Dublin, sworn. Is the agent on the estate; succeeded his father, who had been agent for many years. Witness has in his custody all the rentals and leases of the estate from 1794. "The rental in 1800 was £2143, as fixed by valuation in that year. In 1812 the rental was £2668; in 1827, £2145 10s. 4d.; in 1846, £1937 17s. 7d.; in 1881, £2067; in 1885, £2067; the acreage of the islands being 11,288 acres. The lands are in the hands of tenants, with the exception of two croggeries which are in my occupation."

The learned chairman, Mr. Crean, B.L., inquired what a croggery meant.

Witness said that "croggery" was a very ancient name for fourths. The entire islands were divided into townlands, which townlands contained 4 or 6 quarters each, every quarter containing 16 croggeries, and every croggery containing 16 acres. Inishmore thus contained 4 townlands and 4t. × 6qrs. × 16crog. × 16ac. = 6144 acres. On Inishmaan there are two townlands, which contain 6 quarters each. On Inisheer there is only one townland containing 4 quarters. The tenants have manure and seaweed from the sea shore free of charge. The seaweed was very valuable in 1866, when the kelp made on the islands realized £2577, being £5 a ton. There is no kelp made now, owing to the fall in prices. For twenty years the value of a tenant's interest in a croggery varied from £30 to £90.

This closed the landlord's evidence, and the lay sub-commissioners in due time inspected the farms. The case came on for judgment, and the court reduced the rent from £3 18s. 6d. to £2 7s. 6d., being 39.75 per cent. reduction.

All the other cases were similar to the last.

On Tuesday, July 20, 1886, her Majesty's gunboat was moored at the New Docks, Galway, for the purpose of taking the Land Commission composed of Mr. Crean, Lieut. – Colonel Bayley, Mr. Rice and myself, to Aran. The voyage was one to be remembered. The wind, from the S.S.W., rose to a tempest, not a sail in sight. Nevertheless the vessel held on her course, though the wind was high against her, and she let drop her anchor in due time in the Bay of Kilronan. No mail boat from "Europe" arrived in the islands during the greater part of that week. To fix a fair rent was the object of fifty-four originating notices which now came on for hearing. Of this number two were dismissed on points of law, and forty-nine had their rents fixed, the sum of the old rents being £384, which was now reduced to the new or judicial rent of £231, being a reduction in favour of the tenants of £153, say forty per cent. This reduction, as a matter of course, was well received by the islanders; but the questions that are irresistibly forced on the mind are, can any reduction of rent improve their condition? And can any tenure of their farms, or any estate therein, however large, raise them from their condition of comparative poverty to that of wealth? And would it be of material benefit to them to sweep from the landlord the last farthing of his rent, and to grant the same to them? And would it not be for their weal rather that they had schools to instruct the young in the natural history of the fish, and in the ways of science connected with the deep sea fisheries, and in navigation and all its kindred branches, such as mathematics, spherical trigonometry, the use of the compass, magnetic needle, the constellations, and nautical tables, etc., together with all the trades incident to fishing such as carpentering, ship building, nail making, sail, net, rope, and line making?

BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS.

And ought not the young and the old to be familiarized with the name of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, and with her wonderful works in the cause of the Baltimore Fishery? And would it not be for the weal of the islanders, and of the nation, the Irish nation, that the islanders should be supplied, not for charity, with deep sea fishing appliances, as the Baltimore fishermen have been?