Belpatrick, Co Louth
In 1901, farmer John Dunne (66) and his farmer son (27) were living in a tenement in Wood Quay in Dublin. Why would two farmers be living alone, together in Wood Quay in the centre of the city?
This is a story of some of the Dunnes who lived in Belpatrick in the second half of the 19th century and who are probably family members of Paddy Dunne.
A grave stone in Rathkenny, Co Meath Old Cemetery was erected by Luke Dunn of Belpatrick to the memory of his father, Patrick Dunn, who died 31 Dec 1808 (aged 76) and his mother, Mary Reynolds, who died in 1795. The grave is that of Luke’s brothers James, John, Patrick and William and his daughter Bridget.
Some forty years later, the Irish Valuation Office decided to value land and property for the purpose of levying rates (taxes) to fund the provision of the Poor Law. The valuation, which came to be known as Griffith’s Valuation, took some two decades to complete and valued land and property throughout Ireland. In January 1854, Griffith’s valuation published the valuations for Collon, including Belpatrick. The records show several men named Dunne holding land or other property in Belpatrick.
The name James Dunne appears several times, this probably means James had several different holdings. Other sources indicate that James may have had holdings of more than 100 acres. The names Luke, Christopher, Christopher Jnr., and Patrick all appear as landholders. Patrick Carolin is listed as a landholder, and we will return to this later. All these men are tenant farmers renting from a landlord. The landlord for each is Captain Edward Singleton, although some of them are also subletting to another farmer. Griffith’s Valuation lists the name of the landholder only, it does not show members of the family or others who may be living on the farm. It could be expected that each of the men listed had families.
In 1855, the Ardee Convent Building fund received subscriptions from James Dunne, John Dunne, Pat Dunne and Patrick Dunne all from Belpatrick. It seems likely that the Dunnes are all related. The exact relationship is harder to determine.
1854 Griffith Valuation, Belpatrick
The Famine and Evictions.
The Famine in Ireland is often associated with the year “Black ’47”. But the Great Famine (An t-Ocras Mór) extended from 1845 to at least 1852, and localised famines continued throughout the century. While large numbers of people left the land in the first half of the 19th century, the Famine was accompanied by an enormous displacement of people and this continued for several decades. Much of the displacement was the result of evictions of people who could not meet rents. Between 1841 and 1911 the population of county Louth decreased by more than 50%, from 128,000 persons to 63,000. That movement of people was to the cities like Dublin and to Great Britain, the USA and Australia.
Despite the size of James’ Dunne’s farm, it was of poor land and he had been declared insolvent as early as 1856, having difficulty meeting the exorbitant rents on many occasions, and having cattle confiscated from his farm on one occasion.
In 1886, landlord Capt Singleton instigated an eviction against James Dunne. After the intervention of other parties, including the parish priest, the eviction failed.
Again in 1888 Singleton instigated evictions against several of his tenants including James Dunne.
Evictions on the nearby Massarene estate had drawn attention to the activism by the Land League and a ‘Plan of Campaign’ against ‘rack-rent landlords’. On Singleton’s estate there was no ‘Plan of Campaign’ but the evictions drew attention when 80-year-old James Dunne was evicted and left sitting on a chair at the side of the road, dying of exposure over night.
The Coroner’s jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against the agents, Dudgeon and Emerson. The cause of death in the registration of deaths reads: “The effects of shock and exposure to cold, Ten hours, Homicidal – Information received from Thos. Jos. More, Coroner for Louth”. The judgement against the agents, Dudgeon and Emerson was appealed and appears to have been overturned.
It was commonplace after an eviction to put a ‘caretaker’ in place. The caretaker ran the farm but was not a tenant. James Dunne’s farm had several caretakers, that were ‘planters’. Twelve years after the eviction and death of James Dunne, John J. Dunne, the caretaker was evicted from the same farm by representatives of Capt Singleton. J.J. Dunne had left the country and was working as a docks labourer in Liverpool.
In the 1901 census, there was only one remaining Dunne in Belpatrick, Catherine Dunne.
In 1908 the Evicted Tenants Restoration Committee met in County Council chamber in Dundalk. They received a letter from Nicholas Dunne, son of James, seeking the restoration of one of his father’s farms to himself and one to his younger brother, John Thomas. One farm was restored to Nicholas but none to John Thomas. By 1911, Nicholas and John Thomas were working one of their father’s farms.
The fate of the Dunnes in Belpatrick was similar to that of many poor tenant farmers – they lost their farms and were forced to go elsewhere to find work and live – to Dublin, or Liverpool, the USA or Australia. John and Paddy Dunne were two such farmers – moving to the city to find work and having their families die there from disease. Paddy’s activism in the Irish National Foresters, whose primary purpose was to provide benefits to those out of work due to sickness, is perhaps a reflection of his families experience. His nationalist activity may have a similar root.
