“No one would think from looking at him that he literally carries his life in his hand, and that if he were not guarded as closely as he is he would be shot in twenty-four hours.  He never goes outside the walls of the Portumna demesne without an escort of seven policemen—­two mounted men in front, two behind, and three upon his car.  He, too, as well as the driver, is armed, so the would-be assassins must reckon with nine armed men.  In the opinion of those who know the neighbourhood his escort is barely strong enough.  He was fired at a few weeks ago, and the horse which he was driving shot dead.  The police who were with him on the car were rolled out upon the road, and before they could recover themselves and pursue the Moonlighters had escaped.’  And this is supposed to be a civilised country, and is a part of the United Kingdom!

“Whereas it seems to us Lord Clanricarde is to blame is in not living, at any rate for some part of the year, upon his Irish property.  This nobleman represents one of the most ancient families in Ireland.  He is the representative of the Clanricarde Burkes, who have been settled upon this property for 700 years.  He draws, or rather drew, a very large income from it, and there can be little question that his presence would encourage and sustain smaller proprietors who are fighting a losing battle in defence of their rights.  These proprietors may fairly claim that the leading men of their order should stand by them in the time of trial.  Unfortunately, this assistance has not been invariably, or even as a rule, rendered by the great Irish landowners.  It is, indeed, largely because they have failed in their duty that the present troubles have come upon Irish landlords as a body.  If only in the past the great landowners had lived in Ireland and spent at least a portion of the incomes they derived from Ireland upon their estates, the present agitation against landlordism would never have reached the point at which it has arrived.  The absence of the landlords, and in many cases their refusal to recognise the legitimate claims of their districts upon them, has made it possible for the agitators who have now the ear of the people to bring about that severance of classes, and that embittered feeling of class against class, which is doing Ireland more injury at the present time than all the rack-renters put together.”

Those who plead for the landlords who have been so cruelly robbed and ruined are weak-voiced and reticent compared to the loudly crying advocates for the peasantry.  English tourists run over for a fortnight to Ireland, talk to the jarvies, listen to the peasants themselves, forbear to go near any educated or responsible person with knowledge of the facts and a character to lose, and accept as gospel everything they hear.  There is no check and no verification.  Pat and Tim and Mike give their accounts of this and that, bedad! and tell their piteous tales of want and oppression.