The Arrival of the Land League Hut

Some twelve months ago Mr. RT Carew D.L., Ballinamona, evicted one of his tenants named Morrissy, who resided at Ballygarron, and who refused to pay what he considered an unfair rent. The eviction created greet excitement at the time, inasmuch as Mr Carew himself superintended the eviction proceedings. The Case was reported to the Central Branch of the Land League, after which it was rumoured that a tenant had been secured to take possession of the vacant farm, but on the night before the morning on which the incoming tenant was to arrive the place was found to be on fire, and up to the present no tenant has been secured for the place. During the past twelve months Morrissy and his family have undergone considerable privation and hardship, but his case was not lost sight of, and on Monday last a very substantial token of appreciation of the sacrifices he has made in the national cause presented itself in the shape of material to build a wooden hut, the present of the Ladies Land League.

For some days previous, through the agency of the Tramore and Ballymacarbery branches of the Ladies Land League, arrangements were made on the most extensive scale for not only the reception of the hut material, but for the erection of the structure with all due expediency. It is not only creditable to the farmers of the district that they to a man volunteered their services, but the spirit they manifested in bringing in their vehicles of every description to the city to meet and cart the hut material to the place where it is to be erected testified to the warmth of sentiment existing in that district of the county.

The ladies of the Tramore and Ballymacarbery branches of the Land League in waggonettes, followed by about 500 tenant farmers, all following in procession, arrived in Waterford, and proceeded to the Bridge. A halt was made when a deputation crossed it and took possession of the hut material which arrived by rail on Saturday. Its Arrival on the Waterford side of the river was greeted with tremendous cheering, waving of hats, and handkerchiefs. A halt was there made for about half an hour, awaiting the arrival of the Waterford Total Abstinence Band. A procession was then formed which numbered not less than a couple of thousand persons, the band leading and playing ‘God Save Ireland’. On reaching the Quay clock, opposite Barronstrand street, the Thomas Francis Meagher Fife and Drum Band fell into rank, immediately after the other band, and so the procession moved along, each playing attentively as they proceeded around the Mall, along Beresford street, and out to Ballygarron where the material for the hut was deposited on the farm of Mr Michael Corcoran, who has kindly given a site on his farm for the erection of Morrissy’s temporary dwelling. The proceedings were exceedingly orderly and quiet.