1869 – Nurney Evictions (Patrick Nolan et alea)

In August 1869, on the townland of Cloneen in Co. Carlow (near Nurney and adjacent to the Ballytarsna townland), “Two bailiffs, a sheriff, and eight police, armed with rifle, bayonet, and crowbar, made their appearance one morning about eleven a.m., tore off the roofs of the cabins, and forced out the unresisting and defenceless inhabitants, without giving them time or place to prepare or partake of dinner. Many poor Creatures were compelled to locate themselves in ditches, sheds, or under covered planks. Several families found refuge in an old cowshed on a neighbouring gentleman’s land, with a roof extemporised from the thatch of the levelled cabins. In this hovel there harboured every night, for a considerable period: Patrick Nolan, with wife and six children, of both sexes; Ellen Kinsella and son, 21 years old ; Johanna Neale and daughter, 22 years old; Kate Tuite (born on the property), 55 years old, with two children, a boy and a girl, from 11 to 13 years old; and Kitty Byrne, a young woman of marriageable age.”

Following are the names of the families evicted from the townland of Cloneen in 1869 when the landowner, for reasons of his own, refused to renew the tenant leases and evicted all tenants:

• Patrick Nolan, six in family
• Kate Byrne, no children
• Ellen Kinsella, one son
• John Brien, four in family
• Patrick Kinsella, two
• John King, four
• Daniel M’Lean, three
• Patrick Murphy, five
• T. Murphy, two
• Kate Joyce, Anne Moor
• M. Rogers, two;
• Margaret Storey and son
• John Tuite, wife, and daughter
• Thomas Walshe, five
• John Carey, wife, and two children
• Anne Clarke, James Tuite, three
• Gregory Byrne, two.

The above information was brought to my attention by someone named Anne in Australia who, despite  not having any Nolan family connection, responded to the website’s appeal for information on early Nolan families.

You can read here the full Newspaper Accounts of the Nurney Evictions which appeared in “The Freeman’s Journal” on 28 August 1869 and on 23 October 1869.  These transcriptions were found online within the “Trove” database maintained by the National Library of Australia. Click here to view the Trove search results for “Nurney Evictions” .

Roger Nowlan webmaster