School: Gaigue (B.), Ballinamuck (roll number 13305)

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1. Plantation in the Ballinamuck District

   

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   Plantation in the Ballinamuck District
   In the thirties of the last century the people of the village of Ballinamuck were nearly all evicted and their houses levelled. The people were thrown out in the snow and the next day many were found dead at the sheltered side of the hedges, the women sometimes dead with the living infant at their breasts. The crowbar brigade then put ladders to the church to level it while the people collected in hundreds to protect it. The parish priest it is said forbade the people to resist and was prepared to see the little thatched chapel destoryed. Not so the young curate who also looked on. He told the landlords men that the first man who would ascend the ladder would never leave it alive. Then the landlord started to evict the little farmers around the district and would put several of their little holdings for a Protestant tenant who was then duly installed. This went on for some time until it is said the priest called some of the young men together and said that if nothing could be done they would soon have a Protestant church in Ballinamuck instead of a Catholic one. The men banded themselves

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Peter Duignan

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Gaigue, Co. Longford

   Informant

   Michael Grimes

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   86

   Address

   Kiltycreevagh, Co. Longford