THE EVICTIONS AT BODYKE. The Siege of Pat MacNamara's Cabin.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 217, 27 August 1887, Page 3

THE EVICTIONS AT BODYKE. The Siege of Pat Mac Namara's Cabin.

In the valleys of Bodykc the sun shone biightly after the rain, and the soldiers of the Welf-h Fusiliers engaged in protection duty turned out in their scarlet uniform without their greatcoats. In obedience to the recommendation of Mr Michael Davitt in his speech at Bodyke on Monday, when he asked the men of the countryside to attend to-day to watch the evictions and to see that no one was bludgeoned, there was a great gathering this morning in the vicinity of Bodyke of fanners, boys, and labourers, some of whom had come from considerable distances. Contingents arrived from places as far as Ennis, and New-market-on-Fergus, and Bodyke village was as busy as on a fair day, or more so. Many priests were there, not only of the locality, but from parishes round about, and the reverend gentlemen took the liveliest interest in all the proceedings, several of them marking their opinion of the proceedings by vigorous condemnation of all concerned in them. Father Murphy, the parish priest of Bodyke, a kindly and gentlemanly cleric of the old school, was prominent among those who attended at the scene of the eviotions early In the morning, attended by his curate, Father Hannon, whose courbeay and consideration in affording visitors, I and especially Englishmen, all information required as to the condition (in worldly sense) of his charges, was above all praise. Mr Davitt drove over from Scariff, as did Mr Cox, M. P., and Mr Matthew Kenny, J.P., with other smypathisers. The soldiers marched out from Forfc Anne with the police at eight o'clock this morniug, and shortly before ten reached the house of Patrick Macnamara, a tenant holding about twenty acres of land at a rent of Ll4, but for which he had formerly paid a rack rent of L2'2. The tenant was an old man, and his Fon and three daughters and a cousin named Johanna Kennedy were in the house, the tenant remaining' outside. Every preparation had been made to sustain a proI tracted siege, or, at any rate, a siege of ' gome hours, by the propping up of the front of the house with the trunk of a large tree, while the doorway was filled with other logs of timber, and the windows with bushes. The inside of the house also was barricaded by the erection of a " backing " of timber for the walls at the front and ends. The iron ;pots in which the potatoes are usually cooked had been utilised during the morning in the preparation of stirabout or weak porridge of Indian meal, while buckets of dirty water and other offensive liquids were plaoed in readiness to be used against the first intruder. The fortification of the front- of the house availed the tenants nothing, however, for after a short consultation between the sheriffs agent and the emergency men, ifc was decided to leave the front of the house alone, and nob to waste time in pulling out the protecting timbers. Amid the jeers of the largely-augmented crowd, therefore, the sheriff's assistants went round to the back, and with their pickaxes attacked the vulnerable part of the wall, which was Built up mainly with

turf and limestone. The country people" who, to the number of over a thousand, had been attracted to the spot, disposed themselves on the tops of the dykes, in the branches' of trees,'and such points of vantage, and many sat in groups on the side of the hill opposite the house. Several venturesome " boys" had mounted the branches of some tall beeches, which came within the cordon of police, aud were promptly ordered to come down. One of them refused for some time, until asked by Colonel Turner. His reply was characteristic of the feeling in the locality against theirarmedguardians, 4< I'll come down for the officer, but not for the police. " And he thereupou graciously consented to jump to the ground, and to retire outside the prescribed limits. Meanwhile the men with the pickaxes had been at work, and the soft pliable material in which they were operating showed signs of giving way. At last one of the picks penetrated the wall, and the orifice was no sooner made than a stream of hot scalding water issued from it. But the sherifP.s men very agilely stepped aside. A few rapid blows enlarged the hole, and soino of the stirabout was flung out on the assailants of the cabin. For ibout three minutes there was an exciting time. Blow after blow shattered the weakened wall, and bucket after bucket of hot meal and water and •sewage water was laincd on the heads and on the clothes of the unlucky emergency men. Through the breach could be seen the figures of three young women and of Frank Macnamara. son of bhe tenant, bringing up cans and pails of their liquid ammunition, and firing them with telling effect on the forms of the assailants. The crowds on the hillside yelled with delight at every volley from within the breach, and cheeis and cries of encouragement were continued Avhile the fusillade lasted. A tile of police were ranged opposite the breach immediately after the h'i\st volley, and orders were apparently given for them to enter the breach first, for immediately the hole was enlarged sufficiently, the police rushed through in a body, and the sheriffs men were kept back by one of their number until the constables had secured the inmates. Then the bailiffs followed. The scene within, on the entry of the police, can only be described by themselves or by the tenants, who, under the leadership of the young woman, Johanna Kennedy, had maintained such a determined defence of the cabin In a subsequent inteiview, Miss Kennedy stated that the police used undue violence on entering, and that they .sei/gd her by the throat, one of the constables at the time stating that he would like to knock off their heads with his baton. Her cousin Frank was beaten. and dragged out by the police, while, his sisters were also roughly handled. Johanna herself was about to be seized by the throat by a constable when one of his comrades, more soft than the rest, asked him to desist. The whole five inmates were placed under arrest, and Frank Macnamara, a lad of about eighteen years, handcuffed, all being chaiged with obstructing and assaulting the sheiiffs officei*, anc£ with throwing not only hot water but albo some corrosive fluid, which one of the emergency men complained had been tin own on his clothes. The young man, as he was led out, exclaimed "(Jho^is fgr the plan of Campaign" and " God sa\e Irelanu." The girls were, IiOVA ever, released, and Frank Macnamara was placed handcuffed within a double file of police and soldiers, and ultimately taken to Tulla. Mr Davitt proceeded to the house immediately the e\ietion was completed, and took notes of the statements of all the inmates, and complimented Johanna Kennedy on her spirit in leading the defence of her cousin's home. He said, "If we had many more such women as you, we should never fear for our country." " I do my best," she replied modestly, and explained that she was only repaying an old scoie in acting as she did. Her paiunU, she said, were put out of their holdings a little way over the hill, under circumstances of great cruelty, as long ago as 1837, years before she was born, but the recollection of it had always stimulated her with hostility towards all who would treat others in the same way. With this incident, the siege of Pat Macnamara's cabin ended, the tenants afterwards retaking possession. The expeditionary column then moved off to the house of Henry Murphy, about 200 yards distant The house, like Macnamara's cabin, was approached from the rear. The wall, however, was stouter than that of Macnamara, and crowbars had to be brought into use, the work of penetrating the wall taking a considerable time. Theie was a small window at t> c gable end of the house, just over where the crowbar men were at work, and from this the wife of the tenant could be seen flinging out canfuls of meal and water on the men below. The leader of the gang, however, managed to protect himself with an umbrella, but one of them was scalded on the face by the steaming stuff. When the wall had been pierced the opposition of the inmates ceased, and Murphy and his wife and six young children trooped out quietly. The work of eviction ceased for the day at Murphy's house, and the whole force retired to Fort Anne, taking their prisoner, Frank Macnamara, with them. All the tenants who have been turned ont of their holdings during the present eviction cam paign have since returned to them.