1 Lunarton
Ahascragh
Ballinasloe 29:1:16
Memorial Re
Unjust Treatment
to tenant farmer for
having served his king
in the R.I.C.
Mahon Estate. To His Excellency Lord Wimborne,
May it please your Excellency, It is with great diffidence I beg most
respectfully to bring under your Excellency's notice the
following grave injustice meted to me by the Estates
Commissioners and their representative Mr. Tynan :- I served in the R.I.C. force for nineteen years,
having then to retire through chronic ill health on the
small pension of £25..13..9 per annum, retiring in June 1906,
having served the last nine years of my service in the
local police barrack here, Ballinamore Bridge. Some
months afterwards this house and holding of land was
put up for sale and I purchased the then tenant's
interest in it for £130. The holding comprises between eight
and nine statute acres half of it upland tillage, the other
half callow or bottom pasture. When I purchased in 1907, cattle driving became
prevalent in the locality, so that practically every
able bodied man in this and adjoining townlands 2 townlands participated in it. Owing to this the
landlords, &c, had to give the tenants the grazing farms or
ranches held by graziers, and for the same rents. Owing to my non-participation in the cattle driving and
to keep aloof from all their further disputes I neither sought
nor obtained any benefits in the grazing tracts newly acquired,
believing in the justice of the Commissioners when the
land would be finally divided by them, having suffered
much financial loss during the intervening years. In an interview, Mr Tynan, Estates Commissioners'
representative had with the tenants here, at which I was
not present, about a year and four months ago, the former
when enquiring for me was told by one of the tenants
that I was a police pensioner and did not want any land
I was informed casually afterwards by the same tenant
who made the remark and that Mr. Tynan said then
"I was not in his line" meaning, I presume, for a share in
the division of the land. I wrote to Mr Tynan when I heard of his
remark regarding me, stating I authorised no one to say
I did not want additional land, and requesting equal
treatment with the rest of the tenants, having made a
previous application to him for one of the new vacant
houses and farms at Sonnagh, near Ahascragh; but
I got no acknowledgement of either; but I still believed
justice would be meted to me at the final division 3 division here, but alas! I have been disappointed.
Mr Tynan visited this townland on Friday 21st inst
and gave additional land to each one but myself.
He gave almost three holdings - nearly three times as
much a I hold to a bachelor with no one to support but
himself and an aged mother, who is getting the old age
pension. The upland of one of these holdings is
distinct from the other two, separated nearly half a
mile from them, but is adjoining my holding, one
portion of it within seven yards of it. To another
tenant who is married for a number of years, and has
no family he has given some additional acres, this
tenant having a double holding or an economic one
without this addition, whilst I, with an uneconomic
holding got no addition. I also informed Mr Tynan my dwelling house was in a
bad state, the back wall of it projecting inwards and
outwards making it dangerous for habitation. Now, four dwelling houses have been vacated (by those
who have got new ones) each of which is better and
more substantial than mine, one of these situated more
centrally opposite my land than the hovel I dwell
in; but it has been given to my neighbour, who has an
excellent house already, and who will make no use of
it but pull it down, and this at a time when economy
is being continually preached. My dwelling is 4 is situated in close proximity to two filthy cess-
pools of my neighbours' streets, insanitary in the
extreme for myself, wife and two girls, nieces, to dwell;
whilst the vacant dwelling house aforementioned, abutting
and overlooking my land is situated on a clean, healthy
site, comparatively, and could be easily utilised in conjunction
with my land. I now most respectfully request Your Excellency, as
representing his Most Gracious Majesty will direct an
impartial investigation into my case; for my kith and kin
have done far more for His Majesty's Empire than ; my father
the late John Molloy, ex Sergt R.I.C. and my uncles, by their
loyalty in the fenian period of 67 contributed their share
in earning the title of R.I.C. for the force from the
late Queen Victoria - a sister's son of mine has volunteered
all the way from Newzealand (his name is private John
McDonnell) for the front; a cousin Martin William Molloy
R.I.C. Limerick volunteered and is also at the front;
whilst a reservist named John Molloy returned from the
United States and is also at the front, my cousin also - contrast
this action, Your Excellency, of my friends who were so
remote from the war theatre in volunteering, with my
neighbours who have been generously treated by the
commissioners two of whose sons of military age endeavoured
to flee to the United States when the shipping
was stopped at Liverpool, and Your Excellency will 5 will at least conclude that myself, wife, and little girls
should not be deprived of any of the habitations vacated
by my neighbours. Apologising to Your Excellency for tres-
passing so much on your precious time at this
critical juncture. I remain,
Your Excellency's most
obedient and humble servant. Peter Molloy To His Excellency
Lord Wimborne
Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland