emergencymen

Powerful image! Obviously the good "Dr." was a man of some substance in those days and it would not have been too easy to get him and his family out. It would appear that he was putting up a fight and either had broken out of the roof to repel boarders or they had broken in to get at him. clearly there is a man being manhandled down the ladder by the Peeler! the bushes on the roof and close to the house are interesting, was he planning a conflagration or was it just a form of obstacle?

I'm no expert on Scottish regiments but those seem to be Cameronians in the trews on the left? The tree trunk was probably intended as a battering ram for the doors should they be barricaded.

"The only serious attempt at resisting the execution of the law was made by "Dr." Tully, one of the leading local "agitators," to the tendency of whose harangues judicial reference was made during the investigation into the case of Mr. Wilfrid Blunt. Tully had a holding of seventeen acres at a rent of L2, 10s., the Government valuation being L4. He earned a good livelihood as a boat-builder, and he had put up a slated house on his holding. But in November 1884 he chose to stop paying the very low rent at which he held his place, and he has paid no rent since that time. As is stated in a footnote on page 153, vol. ii. of this book, a decree was granted against Tully by Judge Henn for three years' rent due in May 1887, and his equity of redemption having expired July 9, 1888, this recourse was had to the law against him. As the leading spirit of the agitation, Tully had put a garrison into his house of twelve men and two women. He had dug a ditch around it, taken out the window-sashes, filled up the casements and the doorways with stones and trunks of trees. Portholes had been pierced under the roof, through which the defenders might thrust red-hot pikes, pitchforks, and other weapons, and empty pails of boiling water upon the assailants. A brief parley took place. Tully refused to make any offer of a settlement unless the agent would agree to reinstate all the evicted tenants, to which Mr. Tener replied that he would recognise no "combination," but was ready to deal with every tenant fairly and individually. Finally the Sheriff ordered his men to take the place. Ladders were planted, and while some of the constables, under the protection of a shield covered with zinc, a sort of Roman _testudo_, worked at removing the earthern ramparts, others nimbly climbed to the roof and began to break in from above. In their excitement the garrison helped this forward by breaking holes through the roof themselves to get at the attacking party, and in about twenty minutes the fortress was captured, and the inmates were prisoners. Two constables were burned by the red-hot pikes, the gun of another was broken to pieces by a huge stone, and a fourth was slightly wounded by a fork. One of the defenders got a sword-cut; and Tully was brought forth as one too severely wounded to walk. Upon investigation, however, the surgeon refused to certify that he was unable to undergo the ordinary imprisonment in such cases made and provided. The collapse of the resistance at this central point was followed by a general surrender. After the capture of Tully's house, Mr. Tener writes to me, "I found it being gutted by his family, who would have carried it away piecemeal. They had already taken away the flooring of one of the rooms." Thereupon Mr. Tener had the house pulled down, with the result of seeing a statement made in a leading Nationalist paper that he was "evicting the tenants and pulling down their houses." Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (2 of 2) (1888) He wasn't really a doctor but was called this because he prescribed "leaden pills" (bullets) for greedy landlords... This eviction was part of something called "the Woodford Evictions". "Commons Debates - 15 April 1889 MR. JAMES STUART : I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether Francis Tully, who was sentenced to two consecutive periods of six months each in connection with his defence of his house at the Woodford evictions in August, 1887, has now been over six mouths in gaol; whether it is the case that his eyesight is becoming impaired owing to his imprisonment; and, whether, inasmuch as the two sentences were practically for the same offence, he would consider the advisability of extending some clemency towards him? *MR. A. J. BALFOUR : The Prisons Board informs me that the reply to the inquiry in the first paragraph is in the affirmative. The Medical Officer reports that the prisoner has lately had slight catarrhal ophthalmia, for which he is under treatment and improving daily, but that his general health could not be better. I am advised that the two sentences were not practically for the same offence." Here is another interesting article with the picture above; www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/48295/fear-and-loathing-... There are more publications; The Woodford Evictions, a thesis by Thomas Feeney The Woodford evictions : Report submitted to the Committee of the Property Defence Association ... 21st October, 1886, by Captain E.C. Hamilton. I am a historical researcher with insomnia... a very handy combination ;)

juffrouwjo thanks for that information! This is arguably one of the best images the NLI have put up so far and they are getting better and better. The extra information is really helpful and adds a dimension to each image!!!

Brian Mulligan My pleasure :) Swordscookie, I also don't think that they are gas mask bags but they sure do remind me of them. Interesting uniforms all around, they are also wearing bands over their shoulders. We need an expect on police history here to describe all the lovely details.

Shameful!

Eviction scene from the book: The Great Irish Struggle 1886:

May have been taken somewhere close to here The slight gradient and houses up the road align with those on the map....... Streetview

O Mac I think you are spot on. There's another photo, imho mis-labelled as "[T. Birmingham's house]", which shows the other two sides of the U-shaped yard. No sticks in the chimneys, which are in the wrong position for Bermingham's. And the water in the background just as in streetview. catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000044204/Image?lookfor=http:... Ed. - now on flickr...

Clare Library has another account of the eviction of Mathias McGrath and family. One interesting note was the following: The report mentions that a photographer arrived on the scene before McGrath was taken away, and he was allowed to take a picture of the ruined house and the Emergency men, with the sheriff holding his shield. More interestingly, he also took a photograph of McGrath, standing between two policemen. One wonders if this was Mr. French whose work can be seen in the Lawrence Collection in the National Library, Dublin. It is certain that French was present at the McGrath and some other evictions and his photographs (copies of which are in the Clare County Library with identification of the places and some of the people) have left us with a vivid record of the eviction procedures. However, there is no record of the photograph of McGrath. Is that Patrick McGrath standing between the two police in the photo above?

An excuse to link to one of my favourite shots ever:

I think this eviction is on the Vandeleur estate, at the far side of Clare from the O'Halloran girls at Bodyke.

Niall McAuley We either linked to it for one of our other eviction pictures, we had it already, or all evictions look the same. I reckon we saw it whenever you last trotted out your favourite pic above.

L_ROY_01769 is "T.Birmingham's house, Moyasta, Co.Clare with Battering Ram and soldiers outside", and appears to be the same house.

This looks like the same house as in this archive image, titled T.Birmingham's house, Moyasta, Co.Clare with Battering Ram and soldiers outside