January 11th, 1846 A priest writes to the Repeal Association about "extermination" on the Vandeleur estate in west Clare.
Father Michael Meehan describes the eviction of eight families 44 people just before Christmas. Their homes were then levelled. "The persons fortunate enough to be left undisturbed on the land, and who are in any way connected or related to the ejected tenants, use every effort to hush the complaints of the exiles, lest the landlord may take anger and turn more of them out."
Father Meehan notes that Crofton M. Vandeleur's estate comprises 64 square miles. If leases were granted on the easily reclaimable bogland, Kilrush would not he swarming with hundreds of idle ejected tenants. "Mr Vandeleur, like every other rich man, can go to the Continent when, in April or May, want begins to appear and to moan in the highways, as happened in the summer of 1841" leaving the government and the middle classes to feed the poor.
January 13th Commenting on the Kilrush evictions, the Freeman's Journal asserts "The law of landlord and tenant, as it now exists in Ireland, must be altered." It penalises the humble and the weak because they are weak and humble. The peace of the community will continue to be shaken until the spirit of justice is infused into the law.
"These laws urge the landlords into unfeeling exactions and stimulate the outraged into criminal resistance."
The Journal goes on to argue that land reform is in the interests of both tenant and proprietor. The landlord is less to be blamed than the odious system on which his power is constructed. The paramount evil afflicting Irish society is the despotic authority with which the law invests the owner of land.
A "good landlord" story. Since the failure of the potatoes, Thomas Brehon, of New Ross, Co Wexford, has arranged for each of his 20 workmen to purchase two shillings worth of bread for their families every week.
The master of Tullamore workhouse disposing or a humbug finds that the manufacture of starch from diseased potatoes is altogether unprofitable. Meanwhile, "the application of destitute strangers is becoming more frequent".