The pre-famine period was one of extreme poverty for those at the bottom.  Father Mathew said “if you wish to seek out the poor, go to Bantry”…

This is shown in the following extract from the journal of Asenath Nicholson an American Missionary who visited Bantry in 1845 and found a wild dirty sea-port with cabins built upon the rocks and hills, the people going about, not with sackcloth upon their heads, for this they could not purchase, but in rags and tatters such as no country but Ireland could hang out.   I found some deplorable cabins and looking into one, the sight was appalling………I saw a pile of dirty broken straw, which served as a bed for family and pigs; not a chair, table, or pane of glass, and no spot to sit except upon the straw in the corner, without sitting in mud and manure’.

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Crookhaven,+Co.+Cork/@51.4684001,-9.7260407,11z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x48458598cbd7f471:0xa00c7a99731a1a0

Godwin Swift letters Crookhaven 1757

Extract from letter of Godwin Swift (Customs Man), 16th May 1757 from Crookhaven

‘Now with regard to the place and provisions: you are to know that you see nothing here but mountains of rock (not cliffs) and yet those rocks are more dear to poor people or strangers as the lands within 2 miles of Dublin.  There is here undoubtedly great plenty of fish, yet the people are so lazy they’d rather live on salt mackerel and potatoes then give themselves the trouble to take fresh fish.  There is no garden stuff here, very bad mutton and lamb, and no beef, not a tree or even a shrub within 8 miles of the place….

30^th June 1757  ‘…nothing but rocky mountains around us for 20 miles, where not even a slide car can go the road, nor any other cattle than little horses…

Original Book Cornell University, New York

Prom the Genealogical Table given at p. 4, it is clear that
Cuchonnacht na Sgoile O'Daly, who died at Clonard, in 1139,
was the first man of the O'Dalys who was celebrated for his
learning. Prom his period forward poetry became a profession
in the family, and the Corca-Adaim sent forth poetical
professors to various parts of Ireland. About the middle of
the twelfth century Eaghnall O'Daly settled in Desmond, and
became chief professor of poetry to Mac Carthy, king of Des-
mond. Prom him, no doubt, the O'Dalys of Muintir-Bhaire, in the south-west of the County of Cork, are descended ; but their pedigree has not been preserved by the O'Clery's or Mac Pirbises, and it is to be feared that it is irrecoverably lost. Dr. O'Brien, indeed, asserts in his Irish Dictionary (voce dala), that the O'Dalys of Munster are descended from…

Scart, off Bantry/Cork Road.

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Scart+Bawn,+Co.+Cork/@51.6534995,-9.44243,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x48450a62a3e042d3:0x18527287bfa37acc

Cool-na-Long, Gearhameen:

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Durrus,+Co.+Cork/@51.6208836,-9.5478897,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x48459fe7ccd270df:0x231e3744ac95441a

Genealogy of McCarthy (Muclagh/Clann Tadhg Ruaidh-na-Scairte) family of Scart (Durrus/Bantry), West Cork, later Cul-na-long, from 1185 AD including descendants of Father/Reverend Daniel McCarthy from Samuel Trant McCarthy, High Sheriff Co.Kerry, Srugrena Abbey 1912 intermarried with O’Learys Incigeela, Mccarthys Kilcoe, O’Donovans, O’Mahonys Dunbeacon, McCarthys Dunmanway, Blairs Bantry/Coolculaghta/Blair’s Cove among others, 18th century family members in France.

From Judge Samuel Trant McCarthy’s General McCarthy History.

The Castle was in the townland of Scart around a mile from Durrus Cross adn the family moved to the then new Castle at Cul-na-Long, Gearhameen, Durrus s till well preserved. Their lands partly came into possession of Sir. Walter Coppinger (the Coppingers are of Hiberno-Danish descent) who went into possession when they defaulted on the mortgage c 1640 these would be the eastern end Caheragh and Ballycomane. His land was forfeit due to rebellion and eventually came into…

Why does economics seem to matter so little in Northern Ireland?  The biggest political debate in the UK’s contemporary history – whether or not to pull out of the European Union – is now taking centre stage in British politics and will stay there for most of the next two years. It is basically about two things: national sovereignty and national economic self-interest. An answering debate is starting in Ireland, initiated, inter alia, by a thought-provoking book of essays, Britain and Europe: The Endgame – An Irish Perspective, published recently by the Dublin-based Institute of International and European Affairs¹.

A key conclusion of the chapter on Northern Ireland, by the economist John Bradley (who has written extensively on both the Northern and cross-border economies), is that NI faces two broad choices in the potentially tumultuous period ahead: one is to muddle along with “agendas crowded by the mistrust…