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Visit Portumna

~ on the shores of the River Shannon and Lough Derg

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Tag Archives: Clanrichard

Wentworth and Links with Portumna

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by portumnacc in Uncategorized

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Clanrichard, culture, evil, landlords, plantation, wentworth

In 1634, the Earl of Strafford(Wentworth) held a council in Portumna Castle, in order to establish the King’s title to the estates of Connaught, which being negatived by the jury empannelled for that purpose, the Earl placed both the jury and the sheriff under arrest and sent them prisoners to Dublin.

Wentworth ignored Charles’ promise that no colonists would be forced into Connaught, and he raked up an obsolete title—the grant in the 14th century of Connaught to Lionel of Antwerp, whose heir Charles was—and insisted upon the grand juries finding verdicts for the king. One county only, County Galway, resisted, and the confiscation of Galway was effected by the Court of Exchequer, while Wentworth fined the sheriff £1,000 for summoning such a jury, and cited the jurymen to the Castle Chamber to answer for their offence. In Ulster the arbitrary confiscation of the property of the city companies aroused dangerous animosity against the government. His actions in Galway led to a clash with the powerful Burke family, headed by the aging Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde. Clanricarde’s death was said by some to have been hastened by the clash: Wentworth, not unreasonably, said he could hardly be blamed for the man being nearly seventy. It was however unwise to have made an enemy of the new Earl, Ulick Burke, 5th Earl of Clanricarde, who through his mother Frances Walsingham had powerful English connections: Clanricarde’s half-brother, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, by 1641 was to become one of Wentworth’s (who became Earl of Strafford in 1640) most implacable enemies.

It is from the remarkable series of Wentworth’s own letters that we learn best his aims and character. From his first appearance among his Council the gauntlet was thrown down. He made no attempt to be conciliatory, and he prepared for the great struggle against the ‘Graces’ by an attempt to make both the Council and the Parliament subservient to his will. His first demand was that a “voluntary contribution,” made in 1628, early in Charles’s reign, should be continued for another year, to meet the urgent costs of the army and the government. The earlier contribution had been made by the Catholics, but he warns the gentry that on this occasion the appeal would be to Protestants, and he advised them to save themselves by offering the contribution with a request for a Parliament in return. He made them “so horribly afraid that the money should be assessed on their properties that it was something strange to see how instantly they gave consent with all the cheerfulness possible.” The history of this contribution and of the ‘Graces’ with which it was connected leads us back into the previous reign. Even before the time of James I the experiments in plantations had resulted in a general sense of uncertainty and unrest all over the kingdom. No owner of land, whether he were an Irishman holding by immemorial custom and in complete ignorance of English land laws, or the old settler who now saw his property included in the vast tracts claimed on one excuse or another by the Crown, could any longer feel security for his possessions. In the universal fear of losing all they owned Englishman and Irishman suffered alike.

Thomas_Wentworth,_1st_Earl_of_Strafford_by_Sir_Anthony_Van_Dyck_Portumna

In Connacht a confiscation had long been threatened and as far back as 1585, when Sir John Perrot was Deputy, the gentlemen of the province had safeguarded their rights by entering into a pact known as the Composition of Connacht, which secured them in their properties. By far the largest landowner was the Lord St Albans and Clanricarde, whose vast estates about Portumna made him practically Lord Palatine over the larger part of Co. Galway. By some oversight, which it is impossible in the conditions of the time to ascribe simply to forgetfulness, the legal formalities required to make these arrangements binding in law were never carried out. The enrolments were not correctly entered, and though in James’s reign a sum of £3,000 had been paid by the landlords to the King for the completion of their patents, it was found that there were legal flaws in them which permitted the Courts to regard them as a dead letter. It was now proposed to take advantage of these flaws to carry out the general confiscation and replantation of the province.

The new plantations in Ulster, Wexford, and Longford gave urgency to the claims of the Connacht gentlemen to have their rights made clear; and early in Charles’s reign they approached him with a petition embodying their desires. Charles received the representatives graciously. He was intent on making himself independent of his English Parliament, and for this purpose he was anxiously looking elsewhere for the necessary funds to carry on his government. The result of the agreement made between him and the Irish gentry was the confirmation of certain privileges to the Connacht landlords, called ‘Graces,’ in return for a voluntary contribution from them of another sum of money, this time £120,000, to be paid in quarterly instalments spread over three years. The Graces originally contained fifty-one articles dealing with a number of matters relating to the better government of Ireland, such as the regulation of trade, the excesses of the soldiery and their support, the oppressions of the Court of Wards, the non-residence of landlords, and the maladministration of justice in the courts of law. But the two Graces [10] most eagerly sought after were those clauses concerning the surrender of titles in Connacht and Clare or Thomond, and for the recognition of a sixty years’ title to property, as settled by the Act, 21 Jacobi, but since brought seriously into question. The first of these Graces demanded the legal enrolment in Chancery of the surrenders of property made under James on the faith of his promise of confirmation of their titles, for which they had so long waited; the second made illegal the ancient and half-imaginary titles of the Crown to lands, such as had been made the excuse for the Wexford and other plantations, and confirmed the present owners in their rights.

Though Wentworth’s contribution to Irish cultural life should not be undervalued: it was under his patronage that the Werburgh Street Theatre, Ireland’s first theatre, was opened by John Ogilby, a member of his household, and survived for several years despite the opposition of Archbishop James Ussher. James Shirley, the English dramatist, wrote several plays for it, one with a distinctively Irish theme, and Landgartha, by Henry Burnell, the first known play by an Irish dramatist, was produced there in 1640.

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (13 April 1593 (O.S.) – 12 May 1641) was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632–39 he was Lord Deputy of Ireland, where he established a strong authoritarian rule. Recalled to England, he became a leading advisor to the king, attempting to strengthen the royal position against Parliament. When Parliament condemned him to death, Charles signed the death warrant and Wentworth was executed.

Marie Nash

22 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by portumnacc in Uncategorized

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Tags

Attygar, Avenge, Claggernagh, Clanrichard, Darcy Bob, Drumscar Thornfield, eviction, Famine, Marie Nash, Matthew Burke, Portumna, Workhouse

A sad poem relating to Portumna and the times of the Famine.

Marie Nash

1

In the gay years of my boyhood
One day I rambled down
Along the crumbling Old Street
of Portumna ancient town

2
A poor old woman met me,
She was withered lame and grey,
and as she struggled forward
she kept muttering away

3
I asked her for her history
and the favour of her name
if she was born here about
if not, from whence she came

4
A ray of light shot from her eyes
Like lightnings vivid flash
as she answered without pausing
Saying my name is Marie Nash

5 Since the gallant sons of Redmond
Burke spread desolation around
very ancestors were reared up here
on a small bit of ground

6
But as the clansmen of Clanrichard
took part in many a fray.
From the soul at Castlelat
back to Kinsale’s Red Bay.

7
Bound by the ties of friendship
ah: for a bit of land
They fought against cruel Saxon
At the chieftains dire command.

8
Poor slaves in a plantation
fierce war dogs on their lease
They killed and fought just as
They would, said poor old Marie Nash

9
But when the war years were over
Then Clanrichard claimed
that land bought by the blood and sweat
a tribute which he named

10
For England’s laws gave him that right
to make the tenants at his will
as they improved the stubborn soil
the rent was raised until
at length in my fathers life time
On a cold Novembers Day
the Sheriff stood before the door
and says come quit or pay

11
None of your whimpering blarney now
Come fork me out the cash
that day they tore out roof – tree down
says poor old Marie Nash

12
My father and my mother in the
Union workhouse died
They are resting in the new churchyard
their graves are side by side

13
To uphold the right of England
by Alma’s flashing wave
my noble brother died
I shall never see his grave

14
Twas not for love of England’s flag
that day of hateful strife
when high on basbians rugged cliff
he risked his limbs for life

15
Twas hungers pinch made him enlist
Oh God his ache was rash
Twas better for he starved at home
Says poor old Marie Nash

16
Now after years of work and want
A worn out beggar I
shall enter soon the workhouse
and a paupers death to die

17
But Darcy Bob and Matthew Burke
and the most noble Ulick John
to answer for their wickedness
before God’s throne are gone

18
and when the book was opened
they were asked I’m very sure
to explain their noble robberies
and oppressions of the foot

19
The verdict then recorded
which no earthly court can quash
for Clanrichard had no interest there
says poor old Marie Nash

20
So lonely now and homeless
are the broad fields of Gortrea
while Claggernagh and Thornfield are desolate as they
undisturbed the graziers bullocks sleep
Mid the ruined walls of Drumscar
altho’ a few homes still survive
midst the hills of Attygar

21
The older clan is going now
and ah; ’tis almost gone
the emigrant ship and workhouse
and that work too surely done
but on the fearful final day
mid fire and thunders crash
God shall avenge the ruined homes
say poor old Marie Nash

Another Marie Nash tale
When I grew, in our house it was always a test of your pronunciation

Marie Nash had seven asses drawing ashes out of Marie Nashes ash hole.

Say that fast!!!

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