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Executive Times |
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2008 Book Reviews |
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The
Killing of Major Denis Mahon: A Mystery of Old Ireland by Peter Duffy |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click
on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Troubles If
you’ve not read much about the great potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s, a
fine book to consider is Peter Duffy’s The
Killing of Major Denis Mahon: A Mystery of Old Ireland. Denis Mahon was a
landowner in Country Roscommon who leased part of his land to a total of
12,000 people who struggled to make a life on the land. When the potato
blight removed their main source of sustenance, they died, were sent to
workhouses, emigrated, or found some way to survive. On his way home from a
meeting in November 1847 to discuss funding for a workhouse, Mahon was
ambushed and killed. Duffy relates the context of this murder, explores the
political situation in Ireland and England, relates the trial of those
accused of Mahon’s murder, and along the way presents a compelling story of
the great troubles of that time. Here’s an excerpt, from the end of Chapter
5, “The Supernumerary Portion of the Inhabitants,” pp. 106-8: But the most draconian
limitation was the infamous Quarter-Acre (or Gregory) Clause. It prohibited
any and all relief to those who possessed more than a quarter acre of land,
targeting the class of small farmers who, it was believed, were most apt to
trick relief officials into providing them with help that they didn't
deserve. (The government was constantly worried about being the victims of the
devious Irish.) Introduced by the Irish landlord MP William Gregory, the
clause was intended to ensure that only the truly destitute would seek help.
A Tory representing Dublin city who would later fritter away his fortune in
gambling debts, Gregory believed that "where a man held a large piece of
land—half an acre, one, or two or three acres—he was no longer an object of
pity." Many parliamentarians supported the clause because they believed
it made sense to force small farmers to give up all but a tiny portion of
their land, which would push them into wage-laboring workforce where they
belonged. The Gregory Clause easily passed the House of Commons by a vote of
117 to 7. The
entire legislation would travel to passage on the strength of its most popular
components, its anti-landlord animus and its elimination of state
expenditure. With nothing else in the offing for Ireland, the Repeal MPs were
left with no choice but to back the measure. Daniel O'Connell, who Balzac
claimed had "incarnated a whole people," gave his last speech in
Parliament begging for something, anything, to be done for Ireland, an
ignominious end for a landmark figure. "If you do not save her she can't
save herself," he said. In fact, both supporters and opponents agreed
that the amended Poor Law would be painful. The Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Charles Wood, believed that Ireland would have to suffer a "purgatory
of misery and starvation' before it could "emerge into a state of
anything approaching to quiet or prosperity." Major
Mahon responded to the prospect of ballooning poor rates by agreeing to Ross
Mahon's plan to pay for the passage of his tenants to a distant land, a
strategy followed by other Irish landlords like Lord Palmerston,
Lord John Russell's foreign secretary, who owned property in County Sligo. Ross Mahon pointed out that it was the most
economical avenue available to him. The agent calculated that it would be
cheaper in the long run to pay transatlantic fare for his tenants—a one-time
charge, after all—than it would be to pay the increased poor rates under the
Poor Law Amendment Act for the same tenants. It was even cheaper than
evictions. According to Sections 11, 12 of the amended Poor Law, any tenant
who "shall have occupied some tenement" within a particular
electoral division—two of which were largely within the Mahon estate—for a
three-month period in the three years before applying for assistance would be
eligible for indoor or outdoor relief. An emigration plan, while removing all
poor rate costs, also had the advantage of being a socially acceptable to
Catholic leaders on the Mahon estate. No less a representative of the people
than Father Henry Brennan, whose Kilglass parish was populated by hundreds of Mahon
tenants, had urged such an option in a public letter. He called for
the local landlords to offer seed, enlarge holdings, and "send off to
foreign countries the supernumerary portion of the inhabitants," exactly
Major Mahon's strategy. The
landlord made it clear that he thought "the 'first class' for us to send
is those of the poorest and worst description and who would become a charge
on us for poor house, 'outdoor relief,'" a phrase of such novelty that
he gave it quotation marks. But Ross Mahon knew that the plan would work only
if it was "extensive"— that is, if it truly cleared the property.
Yet in the few weeks after informing the land agent that he would fund an
extensive plan, Major Mahon began pulling back on the scope of the
undertaking, citing money problems. Once again, Ross Mahon expressed his
frustration at not being allowed to fulfill his job duties, saying he could not "offer
service" to the major if he wouldn't follow his recommendations. The
major's response to this second, veiled threat of resignation does not
survive. But Ross Mahon did not resign. Instead, as spring arrived, the two
began arranging a scaled-down emigration plan, preparing to send roughly a
thousand tenants to the distant shores of the place they always described in
their letters as "America." My mother was a Mahon born in
Roscommon in 1907, and my father’s mother was a Duffy from nearby Mayo. I had
this personal connection that led me to reading The
Killing of Major Denis Mahon. Once there, I learned much about the
famine, injustice, and the troubles of those difficult times. Steve
Hopkins, February 21, 2008 |
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Go to Executive Times Archives |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the March 2008 issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The Killing of Major Denis
Mahon.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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