THE HANDSTAND

AUGUST 2004


Our Local Historian Billy Kirwan has been on the prowl again:


brownsford castle,near
inistioge....
Evictions in 1868, colonial ireland after the famine.
(Brownsford castle -- this castle, in ruins, near Brownsford House once belonged to the Barons or FitzGeralds who owned the castle and lands in the townland of Brownsford. Location: Dysartmoon parish. )

A scene in Brownsford,Nov.1868.
I would I were in heaven, far away from wicked men,
I would I were in heaven, said the little boy again.
Upon a hillside dark and drear, he rested all alone.
The evening winds swept by him with a dark and sullen tone.
The clouds of dark November hung like midnight in the sky
And the storm-wrath was shrieking, yet he had no where to lie.
And all alone he sobbed and sighed, where one he roamed in glee
Like a burst of gladsome sunshine chasing shadows from the sea. Then the crystal streams were laughing, flowery bank and meadow fair,
And the golden corn was waving - heaven's bounty mirrored there.
But now the friends of childhood in death's icy chain are bound,
For the agent and the bailiff made a wilderness around
- Ah! the little boy is dying - and yet we thought he smiled,
Soothing the light that's playing on his face so soft and mild.
O you would think it was an angel, on that lonely mountain-side
That came down there to sorrow for the ruin far and wide.


The horrific evictions by the landlords in 1849 reached an all time high. Over 13,384 poor and desolate Irish families,survivors of the famine were put out of their homes. Worse still it was often a native Irish landlord who with his police escort and bailiffs tore the thatch off the cabins and then set them on fire. In 1850 there were 19,949 families put out and so it continued for some years in reduced numbers. In this particular village of Brownsford evictions were carried out in subsequent years under the Irish landlord Pierce Francis Garvey. The Garvey family were from Annaghs, and one ancestor had become a successful wine merchant in Spain, in a business that continues today in the ownership of his descendants.

Garvey Cream Sherry
Price: $7.99
What a deal! Full flavored, rich and warming, this wine has zip and length that even the more expensive, heavily advertised brands lack. Lovely as an after dinner drink, but inexpensive enough to make Sherry cake with. (Gary Westby, K&L Champagne and Sherry Buyer)

By the mid 13th century large quantities of Spanish wine were being shipped to England though the trade fluctuated enormously over the following centuries as relations between the two countries ebbed and flowed. As a consequence other markets in Europe and the new world were sought out and developed by Spanish traders. The popularity of sherry enjoyed a huge boom in the mid 19th century. It was a business that attracted many outsiders including William Garvey from Ireland alongside Spaniards such as Pedro Domecq and Manuel Gonzales all of whose names are still with us today.


During the famine and after, Pierce Garvey was the landlord of Brownsford Castle townland and the surrounding area. ( a townland represents one of the smallest geographic units in Ireland, and vary in size anywhere from a few acres to over 3,000 acres. The average size of a townland in Kilkenny is probably between 300 and 350 acres, and their boundaries often follow landownership patterns). His tenants had no rights whatsoever to their properties - houses which they had built themselves after finding employment on his land.

Among many other landlords after the famine he looked for increases in rent, in this case an increase of one third was levelled on his tenants.The village was in fact on land that the tenants had made valuable for him by their long and patient toil. But now, in November 1868, when snow blizzards were blowing across the hills, Garvey decided to evict most of his tenants. The landlord, the police under the charge of the resident Magistrate, Bodkin, and Inspector W.J.O'Hara of Thomastown with his crow-bar brigade carried out their cruel deeds.

The work of demolition continued until 20 families had been left homeless, the bare walls of their cabins were all that was left standing. Articles of furniture had been flung out on the road, the cries and screams rent the air and these poor unfortunates sought shelter with kind neighbours, in byres with the cows, and frequently the only shelter available was the charred and shattered walls of their former homes.

The sequel to this cruel work can still be seen today in the walls that surround the farm and castle that were built from the cabin homes.

One morning after these deeds a half-dozen families walked up Brownsford Hill and descended en route to New Ross where they boarded a ship destined for Quebec. Many curses were uttered on this landlord Pierce Francis Garvey. In later years one exile, revealing his love for the place, wrote back to a former neighbour in Brownsford asking him to send out to America just one stone of the cabin he was born in.This report was made by Mrs. Ellen Dunphy, a member of one of the evicted families


picures and information from the Rosbercon Parish History compiled by James Murphy, published by James Murphy in the Millenium Year 2000.