“Not at all against the tenants,” he replied, “as you can satisfy yourself by talking with them.  The trouble comes not from the tenants at all, nor from the people here at Portumna, but from mischievous and dangerous persons at Loughrea and Woodford.  Woodford, mind you, not being Lord Clanricarde’s place at all, though all the country has been roused about the cruel Clanricarde and his wicked Woodford evictions.  Woodford was simply the headquarters of the agitation against Lord Clanricarde and my predecessor, Mr. Joyce, and it has got the name of the ‘cockpit of Ireland,’ because it was there that Mr. Dillon, in October 1886, opened the ‘war against the landlords’ with the ’Plan of Campaign.’  It is an odd circumstance, by the way, worth noting, that when these apostles of Irish agitation went to Lord Clanricarde’s property nearer the city of Gralway, and tried to stir the people up, they failed dismally, because the people there could understand no English, and the Irish agitators could speak no Irish!  Nobody has ever had the face to pretend that the Clanricarde estates were ‘rack-rented.’  There have been many personal attacks made upon Mr. Joyce and upon Lord Clanricarde, and Mr. Joyce has brought that well-known action against the Marquis for libel, and all this answers with the general public as an argument to show that the tenants on the Clanricarde property must have had great grievances, and must have been cruelly ground down and unable to pay their way.  I will introduce you, if you will allow me, to the Catholic Bishop here, and to the resident Protestant clergyman, and to the manager of the bank, and they can help you to form your own judgment as to the state of the tenants.  You will find that whatever quarrels they may have had with their landlord or his agent, they are now, and always have been, quite able to pay their rents, and I need not tell you that it is no longer in the power of a landlord or an agent to say what these rents shall be."[10]

“Mr. Dillon in that speech of his at Woodford (I have it here as published in United Ireland), you will see, openly advised, or rather ordered, the tenants here to club their rents, or, in plain English, the money due to their landlord, with the deliberate intent to confiscate to their own use, or, in their own jargon, ‘grab,’ the money of any one of their number who, after going into this dishonest combination, might find it working badly and wish to get out of it.  Here is his own language:”—­

I took the speech as reported in the United Ireland of October 23rd, 1886, and therein found Mr. Dillon, M.P., using these words:—­“If you mean to fight really, you must put the money aside for two reasons—­first of all because you want the means to support the men who are hit first; and, secondly, because you want to prohibit traitors going behind your back.  There is no way to deal with a traitor except to get his money under lock and key, and if you find that he pays his rent, and betrays the organisation, what will you do with him?  I will tell you what to do with him. Close upon his money, and use it for the organisation.  I have always opposed outrages. This is a legal plan, and it is ten times more effective.”