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| GLENVEIGH, COUNTY DONEGAL. -This nobly romantic glen, whose mountains cast their shadows on the clear waters of Lough Veagh, in Donegal, is famed for the majesty of its scenery, but is best remembered in Irish history as the scene of the most relentless landlord persecution of "tenants at will" in modern times. The splendid castle which rises in the left middle ground, as presented in the picture, was erected by John George Adair, a Queen's County aristocrat, who purchased the Glenveigh property in 1858-59. From the first, he seems to have hated the people among whom he settled, and the aversion was mutual. The poor cotters were mainly the lineal descendants of the heroic clansmen of Tyrconnell, who, on the defeat of their chiefs in the reign of James I, were driven in the highlands and the seacoasts to struggle for a wretched and precarious livelihood. A quarrel began in 1860 about shooting over the tenants' grounds. This was followed by the importation of Scotch agents and contractors, who were as harsh toward the inhabitants as their "worthy" employer. Finally the manager, or steward, James Murray, was killed, and this put the climax on the situation. Adair never rested until he "cleared" the whole "property" by process of eviction. Those of his victims who did not die in the poor-house emigrated to America, and such was "The Doom of Glenveigh." |
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