DESTRUCTION OF IRISH INDUSTRIES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1278, 27 August 1886, Page 3

DESTRUCTION OF IRISH INDUSTRIES.

“ The convenienny of ports and harbours which nature bestowed so liberally on this kingdom,” wrote Swift 50 years before the time of the Irish volunteers “ is of no more use to us than a beautiful prospect to a man shut up in a dungeon ” It was hardly an overstrained comparison ; England had laboured to destroy the trade of Ireland, and with complete success. Her first great blow was struck at the Irish cattle trade. As early as the reign of Charles 11, landowners took alarm at the influx of Irish cattle, and laws were passed by the English Parliament forbidding Ireland to export to England live stock of any kind, dead meat, and even butter and cheese. Deprived of tbeir natural market in England, Irish breeders turned their attention to the woollen manufactures. Three-fourths of the island became a sheepwalk, and its unequalled pastures aq.d the care bestowed in stocking them resulted in the production ot an excellent quality of wool. English, Scotch, and. even foreign manufacturers, were attracted to the country, capital was rapidly invested, and in a few years the Irish woollen industry gave employment to thousands of hands. English manufacturers began to tremble for their supremacy, and vehemently petitioned tbe English Parliament to protect their interests Faithful to tha maxim that a colony existed only for the benefit of tbe mother country, the Routes lent a ready ear to complaints of injury dene to English trade, and in 1G93 a Parliament was summoned at Dublin with tbe declared object of destroying the Irish industry. The Lord Justices in their opening speech in formed the Irish people that England claimed the manufacture of woollens as their monopoly, and was imperiady pleased that the sister island should cease from weaving them and tarn their attention to linen and hemp. The Irish Parliament reluctantly agreed to lay heavy duties on the export of woollens. Even this concession failed to satisfy; and in 1699 England framed an Acs prohibiting the export from Ireland of woollen fabrics. The industry was ruined, capital left the eountiy, and multitudes of the Protestant population followed it. For many years there was a drain of the best blood, industrially speaKing, of Protestant Ireland ; and 10,000 or 12,000 emigrants of that religion left the country in a year. As late as 1773, 4000 emigrants sailed from Belfast alone. National Review.