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From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: [IRELAND-OLD-NEWS] !! News of Ireland- Iowa Newspaper The Gazette, Sep 1848 #2
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 19:54:17 -0600


cont....

The Gazette
published Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Sep 14, 1848

The following letter, from a member of the press, who has visited Tipperary,
gives a rather important detail of the feeling which prevails in the south
of Ireland:
"After having traversed the greatest part of both ridings of the county of
Tipperary, I halt at this little village, situated at the foot of the Galtee
mountains, and on the borders of the county of Limerick, to give you a brief
abstract of the result of my observations. Rebellion I found not. I have
said that I did not find rebellion- that is true. I did not see an army of
insurgents, or any thing that gave indication of the actual existence of
civil war; nevertheless a rebellion does exist- if the whole of the south of
Ireland is not at this moment plunged into all the horrors of a civil or
rather a servile war, the reason is to be attributed not to the
disinclination of the people to rise up in arms, but solely to the want of a
proper opportunity, and of bold, able and trusted leaders. This is no hasty
impression or idle guess-work. It is a deliberate conviction, founded on the
most satisfactory evidence. Every mile I've travelled, every person I
conversed with, every fact bearing on the subject which has come under my
obsdrvation- all have served to impress indelibly on my mind the truth of
the statement I have made. Let no man "lay the flattering unction to his
soul" that the spirit of disaffection has been crushed; true it is that the
wise and salutary precautions of the government have saved the country form
convulsion for the present; but the winter is fast approaching, the season
for a bivouac will have passed, the troops must be drawn into winter
quarters, and then the hour for mischief will have arrived. I have heard it
stated, and the statement seems probable, that the leaders intend to remain
passive until the winter sets in; that they are quite satisfied, for the
present, with harrassing the soldiery, and frightening the government; but
that they are steadily biding their time. Much, however, will depend upon
circumstances. In the course of my wanderings, I have met with a great many
country gentlemen, and all of them agree in thinking that the rebellion is
not extinguished- that it still smoulders, and they look with considerable
apprehension to he coming winter. Certainly it is unreasonable to calculate
that all the wild theories which have been propounded by the anarchists and
Jacobins- the visions of wealth, happiness, and independence which been held
out to the misguided people, it is unreasonable to suppose that these
congenial theories have taken no root, or that hte people after such golden
dreams, will sing back without a struggle of some kind, into their former
position. The absentees are fast returning to the country, and there are at
present a great number of resident gentry in teh county of Tipperary. I
trust their presence may serve to check the existing spirit of
insubordination in all quarters. I have heard that there has been no
surrender of arms worth speaking of, under the proclamation- the
constabulary are busily engaged in searching for them, and to-day I met a
large force in the neighborhood of the town of Tipperary, engaged in that
business, but with little success. The conduct of the Roman Catholic clergy,
in the present crisis, have been most praiseworthy, and I have heard it
commended by their bitter political opponents. On last Sunday, Dr. Howley,
the parish priest of the town I have just mentioned, delivered a most
impressive discourse to his flock, on the criminality of the club system,
and I have authority for stating, that it produced the very best results.
The police in this county are extremely vigilant. Patrols scour the country
every night, and all persons found out at unreasonable hours, are searched."



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