Colonel O Callaghan evicted eight tenants

Colonel O'Callaghan Eviction Letter

Colonel O'Callaghan Eviction Letter

Colonel O'Callaghan Eviction Letter

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In November 1893 Colonel O'Callaghan evicted eight tenants for non-payment of rent and caretakers were installed to prevent reoccupation. In Spring of the following year, the landlord's cattle were put to graze on the evicted farms.

A series of cattle poisonings took place in Clonmoher during the summer and early winter of 1894. Colonel O'Callaghan's son, Captain George O'Callaghan, has left us this graphic account of the scene at Clonmoher: "On Tuesday the 3rd [July 1894], the place presented a deplorable appearance. Eleven beasts lay dead and dying. The dead carcasses were greatly swollen, and the torn appearance of the sward around showed how the unfortunate animals had suffered. One still alive had in its agony dragged itself down a hill and lay dying in a ditch into which it had fallen." In all, a total of sixteen cattle died under strange circumstances at Clonmoher.

The two-page laboratory report below,compiled for Colonel
O'Callaghan in February 1895 by Walter Thorp, attributes the cause
of death in the case of the particular bullock under examination to be due to arsenic poisoning.
 

 

Laboratory report

Daniel Ryan agrees to act as caretaker for the house of an evicted tenant.

Laboratory report

Laboratory report

Daniel Ryan agrees to act as caretaker for the house of an evicted tenant.

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Laboratory Report (Copy)

Copyright managed by the Library Council

Laboratory Report (Copy)
Copyright managed by the Library Council

Laboratory Report (Copy)

Copyright managed by the Library Council

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The Land Acts of the first decade of the 20th century enabled tenants to buy out their holdings, but negotiations between the Bodyke tenants and Colonel O'Callaghan broke down. In 1909 the Land Commission acquired the Bodyke section of the O'Callaghan estate compulsorily and tenants eventually purchased their farms. The proposal of tenant ownership, put to the meeting in Scariff in 1880 by Fr Murphy, had become a reality. Its implementation, however, signalled the end of the Big House and the landed estate in Ireland.