ctively deterring and discouraging other tenants from paying
their rents. He took a great part in promoting the refusal to pay which
led to the famous evictions of last year. As to these, it seems the
tenants had agreed, in 1886, to accept a proposition from Mr. Head,
remitting four-fifths of all their arrears upon payment of one year's
rent and costs. Mr. Sheehan, M.P., a hotel-keeper in Killarney,
intervened, advising the tenants that the Dublin Parliament would soon
be established, and would abolish "landlordism," whereupon they refused
to keep their agreement.[3] Sir Redvers Buller, who then filled the post
now held by Sir West Ridgway, seeing this alarming deadlock, urged Mr.
Head to go further, and offer to take a half-year's rent and costs. If
the tenants refused this Sir Redvers advised Mr. Head to destroy all
houses occupied by mere trespassers, such as Griffin, who, if they could
hold a place for twelve years, would acquire a title under the Statute
of Limitations. A negotiation conducted by Sir Redvers and Father
Quilter, P.P., followed, and Father Quilter, for the tenants, finally,
in writing, accepted Mr. Head's offer, under which, by the payment of
L865, they would be rid of a legal liability for L6177. The League again
intervened with bribes and threats, and Father Quilter found himself
obliged to write to Colonel Turner a letter in which he said, "Only
seventeen of the seventy tenants have sent on their rents to Mr. Roe
(the agent). Though promising that they would accept the terms, they
have withdrawn at the last moment from fulfilment.... I shall never
again during my time in Glenbehy interfere between a landlord and his
tenants. I have poor slaves who will not keep their word. Now let Mr.
Roe or any other agent in future deal with Glenbeighans as he likes."
The farms lie at a distance even from this inn, and very far therefore
from Killorglin, and the agent, knowing that the tenants would be
encouraged by Griffin and by Mr. Harrington, M.P., and others, to come
back into their holdings as soon as the officers withdrew, ordered the
woodwork of several cottages to be burned in order to prevent this. This
burning of the cottages, which were the lawful property of the
mortgagee, made a great figure in the newspaper reports, and
"scandalised the civilised world." The present agent thinks it was
impolitic on that account, but he has no doubt it was a good thing
financially for the evicted tenants. "You will s