jamessomers

Peelers and Bailiffs at Somers Fort

from National Library of Ireland on The Commons

• 12 older comments, and then…
• CASSIDY PHOTOGRAPHY said:

  A sad day.

• i-lenticularis (NO GRAPHICS) said:

  What a sad indictment on capitalism (or absentee landlords, or both).

• derangedlemur said:

  What amazes me is how long we took to outlaw ground rent. Maybe you should have published more of these pictures sooner. Still, at least we're better than the neighbours, who are only considering outlawing it now.

• beachcomber australia said:

  Oh dear - it is eviction time again. Sad and fascinating at the same time. 1888 according to this Trove find about the landlord, Mr James E. Byrne, "The Hermit of Coolroe", who died in 1898. - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/211842833

  WEXFORD. Death of the " Hermit of Coolroe." — Mr. James E. Byrne, better known as the " Hermit of Coolroe," died on Tuesday, Feb. 22 [1898], at Rosemount, outside New Ross. He was a bachelor, and had attained to nearly 90 years of. age. He was a most remarkable old man, who possessed an extraordinary amount of obstinacy and determination. He inherited the Coolroe Estate in South Wexford, and in the year '88 gained an unenviable notoriety by the wholesale eviction of his tenants, who were driven; by inability to pay exorbitant rents, to adopt the Plan of Campaign. One of the tenants' houses, known as "Somers' Fort," was fortified and defended by twelve armed men, but after a long struggle, and chiefly through the agency of the battering ram, it was taken. All attempts at reconciliation or reinstatement were unavailing so far as the landlord was concerned, and the tenants are still at the back of the ditches.

• beachcomber australia said:

  Full 1888 description - Read All About It ! - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/226677328 This report includes all the names of the 12 defenders - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/115458961