THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT POST THAT I HAVE MADE IN YEARS. Yesterday, I posted a whimsical post about my Great, Great Grandfather being arrested for an assault on March 10th, 1866. I thought it was just an eccentric part of our family history. I was wrong. I wanted to know more about this story and I found an everlasting tragedy that altered lives for generations. Thomas McNulty was my Great, Great Grandfather. He, his wife, Anne Mulligan and the rest of the family lived in the townsland of Callow, in the parish of Killasser, County Mayo, Ireland. Being a tenant farmer, he had to pay rent to an absentee landlord through land agents. The landlords were typically English/Welsh and sent unscrupulous land agents to extract high rents. If you couldn't pay, you were evicted. Our GGGrandfather assaulted the land agent, Michael Walsh, from Borehamleigh, County Essex, England. Although the charges were dismissed, soon thereafter, our family was evicted from Callow and moved to the townsland of Doonmaynor. Upon further research, I found out, that this was not an anomaly. The west of Ireland was hit by the 1879 famine, a combination of heavy rains, poor yields and low prices that brought widespread hunger and deprivation. The McNulty's were not spared. Soon thereafter, the McNulty's were to be evicted again. Tenants began to form associations called Land Leagues to fight the injustices of the absentee landlords. In our family's case, a big anti-eviction meeting was held in Doonmaynor on June 13, 1880, to protest against the evictions of four families, including the McNulty's. The estimated crowd of 3,000, was led by the Killasser fife and drum band. The National Land League erected huts in a field across the street (now a community center) from the church. The field was known at the time as "hut field". The families were accommodated in the huts for some time, but most of them later emigrated. All of the McNulty children emigrated to Philadelphia, while their parents lived the rest of their life in the hut field. Please read about the Land War of Ireland. This had a direct impact on our family and was the cause of their emigration to America. Below is a photo depicting an eviction and the current location of "hut field".
