November 22, 2012

1912

Prepared for siegeAt a meeting of the Loughrea Town Tenants’ Association, the Chairman, Mr. P.J. Finnegan, said one of the principal objects of the meeting was to see how they could best protect a fellow tenant, and save her from the tyranny of a ruthless landlord. He referred to the case of Mrs. McGann, and he believed that if they considered for a moment the past associations of that lady, they would do all in their power to see her right.

Messrs. O’Loughlin and Delaney reported that they had waited on Mr. Golding, solr., for Mrs. K. Hyor, Dublin, in reference to the case, and on behalf of Mrs. McGann, they had offered a sum of £20, on the understanding that she would be allowed to dispose of her interest in the house.

Mr. Golding agreed to place the offer before Mrs. Hyor, but she, it would see, refused to accept it, as notice of eviction had been served on the Union on Saturday, and the eviction might take place any day. Several members advocated that measures be taken to offer stubborn resistance to the eviction.

Mr. M. Ward, T.C., said this was a case of a poor widow, losing all she held dear on earth, her husband, and he might say, her whole family. She ran into arrears, which unfortunately had increased, though the stubbornnesss of the landlord, and now, when Mrs McGann offered a settlement, which her landlady’s solicitor considered reasonable, the misguided lady living in Dublin rejected it.  

Now their Association was called upon to step in. Messrs. Broderick, Sweeney, Gurby and others having spoken, it was decided to take steps at once to resist the eviction. On Tuesday, large number of willing hands were at work barricading the entrances, and generally preparing a warm reception for the evictors.

1937

Sprinkling sheep bloodHow sheep are killed in farmhouses in Craughwell in order to celebrate the custom of sprinkling blood on “St. Martin” was told at Kinvara District Court on Friday, before District Justice W.P. Cahill.

Richard Tarpey and his servant, P. Skehill were summoned by Guard McNaught, Craughwell, with causing cruelty in a sheep they were slaughtering on the occasion.

Guard McNaught described how when he entered Tarpey’s yard at Ballyglass, he saw a sheep tied up by the four legs on a box. Its throat was cut, but it was not dead, as there was a tremor in the body. 

Dr. A.D. Comyn, solicitor, who defended, asked the guard if he were a farmer’s son, or if he were acquainted with the methods of the farmer. The guard said he was not, but he had a butcher, an expert witness, who would tell the court what he thought about the method employed in killing the sheep.

Dr. Comyn: We don’t want to hear that. If the guard ever saw a sheep killed in a country house, in order to “give blood to St. Martin”, he would understand how the people kill them in the country. I have seen them killed in this way in the country myself, and for generations sheep have been killed in this way. This was St. Martin’s Eve, and the sheep was killed in the ordinary way that sheep are killed in country homes – tying it up and cutting its throat.

Tarpey said he always killed a sheep for St. Martin’s Day and this was the way it was killed. This was the way he killed sheep all his life.The Justice, dismissing the case, said he was by no means giving his blessing to the methods employed in killing sheep. Farmers, of course, he added, have not the modern methods employed by butchers, but in the circumstances, he believed that Tarpey took all reasonable precautions not to inflict unnecessary punishment on the sheep.

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