The Evictions

In April 1861, landlord John George “Black” Adair gathered a large force of over 200: soldiers, a team of 10 called the ‘Crowbar Brigade’ from County Tyrone hired to demolish cottages and a large police force from Roscommon and Leitrim. Over 3 days, a total of 47 families were evicted from their homes and left to wander the roads seeking shelter wherever they could. Of the 244 people evicted, 159 were children. 11,602 acres of land was seized. On the following Friday, 43 heads of the evicted families applied for admission to the Workhouse in Letterkenny.

The first family to be evicted was that of recently widowed Mrs McAward who lived near the plaque at Lough Barra. A Derry newspaper of the time carried an eyewitness report:

‘The family of the Widow McAward was the first to face the terror of the Crowbar Brigade. The Sheriff, accompanied by Adair’s new Estate Manager, approached the house where the poor sixty year old woman lived with her six daughters and one son and long before the house was reached, loud cries were heard, piercing the air and soon the figures of the poor widow and her daughters were observed outside the house where they gave vent to their grief in strains of touching agony…The scene became indescribable. The bereaved widow and her daughters were frantic with despair. Throwing themselves on the ground, they became almost insensible, and bursting out in the old Irish wail – then heard by many for the first time – their terrifying cries resounded along the mountains for many miles. They had been deprived of their only shelter – the little spot made dear to them by association of the past – and with bleak poverty before them and with only the blue sky to shelter them, naturally they lost all hope and those who witnessed their agony will never forget the sight.’

Over the next two days, the evictions continued unabated. Another story told of ‘one old man, near the “four score years and ten,” on leaving his home for the last time, reverently kissed the door posts, with all the impassioned tenderness of an emigrant leaving his native land. His wife and children followed his example, ere those familiar old walls gave way before the crowbars, and in agonised silence, the afflicted family stood by and watched the destruction of their dwelling.’

When Adair’s work had been completed, a deathly silence descended over the entire valley. Some of the dispossessed sought refuge with their families, others ended up in the workhouse. None got their farms back and most eventually emigrated to America or Australia, becoming known as The Derryveagh Diaspora. 

Even by the standards of the day, it was an outrageous act. An official investigation was held and the issue was raised in the British parliament but no action was taken against Adair. He remained in the area and died in 1885. It was often said that the reason for the evictions was Adair felt that the small impoverished cottages spoilt the view from his mansion home or that the residents often sabotaged his ability to hunt.

Adair’s widow had a large rock inscribed in his honour with the words: Brave, Just and Generous. Local legend has it that lightning later struck the rock, shattering it to pieces.