between this place and Achill
Point cannot certainly be accused of a tendency to gad about. Almost
everybody blames their dull determination to remain at home. They are,
I doubt, neither good fishermen nor good farmers--at least, I know
that they neither catch fish nor pay their rent. Neither on Clare
Island, Innishark, Innisbofin, nor Innisturk is there any alacrity in
making the slightest attempt to satisfy the landlord. That these
little tenants are only removed by a hairsbreadth from starvation at
the best of times will be gathered from the facts that Clare Island
with 4,000 acres, some of which is let at 10s. per acre, with common
grazing rights "thrown in," is called upon to support nearly seven
hundred souls. A glance at the picturesque outline of the island will
tell of the proportion of "mountain," that is moor and bog, upon it,
and it is at once seen that unless there is either good fishing or
some other source of supply the land cannot keep the people. No better
proof can be given than that of the greatest tenant, who pays 55l. a
year for some five hundred acres. In Innisbofin and Innishark are at
least 1,500 individuals, nearly all very small tenants, either on the
brink of starvation or pretending to be so. It is nearly as impossible
to extract any rent from them as from the twenty-three families on
Innisturk, an island belonging to Lord Lucan, whose rents are farmed,
so far as Innisturk is concerned, by Mr. MacDonnell, the sub-sheriff,
who is said to have a bad bargain. Lord Lucan, of course, receives his
150l. yearly from his "middleman," who is left to fight it out with
the people, and get 230l., the price at which the land is let, out of
them, if he can. Just now he is getting nothing, and the situation is
becoming strained. The people pay no rent, the sub-sheriff, is not
only losing his margin of profit but cannot get 150l. a year out of
them. They said they liked him well enough but would not pay a
"middleman's" profit, whereupon he offered to take the exact amount
he contracts to pay to Lord Lucan, and forego his profit altogether;
but this proposition, after being received with some amusement, was
not declined exactly, but, in American language, "let slide." And
nothing has been or can be done. For if it were attempted to evict the
Innisturk people the evictors would be accused of hurling an entire
population into the sea.

The more that is seen of the people of far Western Connaught the more
dist