1851 - 1855 AD 

1851 AD In the Census taken this year, it was recorded that there had been 132,433 known deaths in Co. Cork in Southern Munster alone, and 309,000 people were still in the Poor Union Workhouses situated throughout Ireland, while many more were still trying to gain entry into there to have any chance of surviving, while many of the others had been able to emigrate.

      The Irish population was now at 6,552,385, down from 8,000,000 in 1841 AD, which would have by now been over 9,000,000 with normal growth, and of these 2,000,000 were still speaking the Irish Gaelic language. In Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster there were now 158,746 people still surviving, which was a 22% decline in the population there over the last 10 years. Although the Famine was over, 2,500,000 Irish men, women and children were gone from Ireland altogether, either by Famine itself, the Diseases that followed or forced Emigration, to survive, Another 250,000 were to emigrate from Ireland this year alone, with future emigration to remain high until the end of this Century. From this year until 1891 AD the Irish population would further decline to 4,700,000, which would be a 28% decrease overall while the percentage of decreasing numbers in the 4 Provinces in Ireland at this time was in the Connacht Province 28.6%, in the Leinster Province 15.5%, in the Munster Province 23.5% and in the Ulster Province 16%. Co. Cork in Southern Munster would see a 32% decrease in the population there to 649,000 people, while up until 1891 AD 425,000 people would continue to emigrate from there. There were 70,000 people still left in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province with close to 200 more leaving there every week of this year, and up until 1881 AD altogether 100,000 would be forced to emigrate from there. 3/4 of the emigrants since 1846 AD until this year had gone to the United States of America, while the rest had gone to British North America, and only 19,000 had attempted to make the great long journey south to Australia.

     The number of individual land holdings in Ireland had also now fallen by amalgamation from 690,000 in 1841 AD, to 570,000, with those holding onto smaller 1- 5 acre blocks down from 310,436 to only 88,083, those holding onto 5 - 15 acres from 252,799 to 191,854, while those on 15 - 30 acres had increased from 79,342 to 141,311, and those with 30 plus acres also increasing from 48,625 to 149,000, which was due to the Land Lords in Ireland clearing their Estates of the great number of families under the previous legislation that had been put through in 1847 AD. Also assistance had been denied to anyone who held a 1/4 of an acre, who were then forced to give up their tenanted land to try and avoid Starvation. The proportion of the population in Ireland who still could not read was 59.5% and for those who could not write 35.7%.   

     From now on there was to be a decline in agricultural tillage, as most of the Irish land was now to be used for cattle grazing, and only in the west did any of the small farmers survive, as during the pre - Famine period early marriage had bought about increased subdivision of the land as there was no other prospects of employment. (As time went on during the balance of the 19th Century AD only one son would inherit the use of the tenant farm, usually postponing his marriage until his father died, while the other sons and daughters had to turn to emigration to resolve their individual situations, which also lowered the birth rate in Ireland. 400,000 acres in Ireland was also put under wheat from this date up until 1901 AD, while a further 2,000,000 acres went into grazing pasture.  

      Overall Irish Illiteracy was 47 % with the ability to read and write at 33%, and 6.7 % of those in Scotland who were also Irish born with 18 % of these living in Dundee and Glasgow, while 733,866 men, women and children from Ireland had also emigrated to Britain. The Irish emigrants going to America, were especially to form a strong Irish Nationalist movement there, due to the previous Centuries of harsh treatment meted out to them in Ireland by the ongoing British Conservative Governments, and also because of their continuing oppression that was to still occur in Ireland in the many years that lie ahead.  

August 1st: The Land Lord's Irish  tenants were now accepting 31 year leases or even longer automatically, and they were also debarred from claiming compensation for disturbance or improvements, while the Land Lords could also still object to the purchaser, prohibit public advertising to sell, refuse strangers to enter their Estates or non - adjoining farmers, which all diminished the value of the departing farmer’s interest in the land, that is if he could actually secure a sale. Refusal of the Land Lords to sanction the sale of a yearly tenancy was now also another grievance.

     The British Government's Ecclesiastical Titles Act, now created further sectarian strife as the non - Catholics in the Ulster Province were uneasy being connected with an association such as the Irish Tenant League, which also included members of the Irish Catholic clergy, while Charles Gavan Duffy one of the "Young Irelanders," who was committed to Irish democracy, was counting on turning it into an Irish National movement to secure self - government for Ireland and the Act was to also revive the fortunes of the Ascendancy Episcopalian Church of England / Ireland who began to carry out missionary work among the Irish population in the Connacht Province quite successfully.

      Miss Jane Ross wrote down the Derry Air at Limavady in Co. Derry in the north - east of Ulster Province were it was being played by a passing fiddler.  

     Father Theobold Mathew of Temperance fame refused to be appointed a Bishop / supervisor.  

    The great house of Downhill in Ulster, which was previously built by the flamboyant Frederick Hervey the English Earl of Bristol and the AScendancy Church of England Bishop in Derry, which originally cost 80,000 pounds to build, was destroyed by fire.

   John O Donavan's "The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland" up to 1616 AD were published this year.

1852 AD The British General Elections were held for the Westminster Parliament in England, but only one Irish Tenant League candidate from the Ulster Province was successful, with even the progressive Land Lord there, William Crawford, losing his seat in Co. Down in the south - east of Ulster, while the Members who were supported by the Irish Tenant Leagues in the other Provinces were quite successful.

     Brought forward from this year until 1869 AD in the British Westminster Parliament were to be a series of Irish Land Bills to try and correct the rural problems in Ireland, but the British Lord Lieutenant in Ireland always made sure that any concessions to the Irish tenants were always defeated, although two were passed for different reasons, and the Irish Tenant Rights Party went into decline and there was now no real purpose for any political action in Ireland itself, but the Constitutional Nationalists who wanted to bring about reform by "democratic means for Ireland, with no violence, carried on with their just cause, but they had no party or program and little support. 

     There were now also further stimulus for rural agitation, as there were now moves made by the Land Lords to rescind the deductions in the previous rent for the Irish tenants.

   Cornelius O Brien, became the Liberal M.P. for Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province again until 1857 AD, and a new Courthouse was built there at Lifford in Ennis.

     Isaac Butt, the son of an Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland clergyman, who was also a Conservative young barrister, finally came to be convinced that the British Conservative Governments really neglected and mismanaged the affairs of Ireland, and he became the M.P. for Harwich in the British Westminster Parliament and later on the M.P. for Youghal in Co. Cork in Southern Munster until 1865 AD.(Previously he had made his debut in Irish politics in a debate against Daniel O Connell "The Liberator," over Repeal of the Immoral Union due to his Conservative outlook.

December: Stanley / Lord Derby who was now the Tory Prime Minister of the British Conservative Imperial Government in England was prepared to make concessions, but the Irish Tenant's League would not compromise, and they brought in their own Bill, which the British Conservative Tory Government also refused to accept, so they then joined in with their Opposition, the Whigs, the Peelites, and the Radicals, and brought down Lord Derby's Tory Government this year and Lord Aberdeen, was put in to replace him as the British Peelite Prime Minister until 1855 AD. John Sadleir and William Keogh who were two of the Irish Tenant League elected members in the Westminster Parliament went over to his side and also joined his Ministry, going against their previous pledge not to do so and Lord Aberdeen continued on in the same vein as Lord Derby had anyway, and despite this they stayed in Government with him, which was to split the unity of the Irish Tenant League over the next 7 years, and their membership subsequently declined. Those among them who still stayed loyal to the tenets of the Irish Tenant League maintained their independent opposition, while they continued to push the cause of the Irish tenant farmers in Ireland in the Westminster Parliament in England.

     William Ewart Gladstone, a Scotsman who would prove to be an outstanding Statesman, who was now the British Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Conservative Peelite Government was to introduce separate Income taxation in Ireland for the first time, and Lord Clarendon the new British Lord Lieutenant to Ireland finally overruled Sir Charles Wood's / Viscount Halifax's normal Poor Rate.

   2/3rds of the 105 Irish M.P.s at this time, who were now in the British Westminster Parliament in England, were still to be from the Landed Gentry / Land Lord families. 

   Charles Gavan Duffy the "Young Irelander" now became the M.P. for New Ross in Co. Wexford in Southern Leinster until 1855 AD, and during this period he continued to push for land reform compensation and eviction protection for the Land Lords'  tenants in Ireland and he was to have a Bill pass the British House of Commons twice, which was also rejected twice by the unelected Conservative British Ascendancy controlled House of Lords who always had "total veto" over any legislation in England.  

   Terence Mac Manus, who had also been transported to Van Diemen's Land / Tasmania in Australia by the British Conservative Imperial Government for his part in the 1848 AD Irish Uprising, escaped from there, just as his colleague Thomas Francis Meagher had previously done who had gone to America and joined the American Union Army where he became a General during the American Civil War.  

   A sign of the growing influence of the Irish - American population in America occurred, when the first St. Patrick's Day Parade was held this year in New York.

   In an attempt to revive their lagging fortunes, the Irish Tenant League held a Conference in Dublin this year.  

   Moore Hall situated on the east shore of Carra Loch in Co. Mayo south of the Ballintober Abbey in the mid - west of the Connacht Province was constructed this year, which would be eventually burnt down in 1923 AD, and it is now only a ruin.

   George Bernard Moore the novelist was born there this year, and when he later died he was interred on an island in the Loch.  

   Archbishop Paul Cullen persuaded John Newman the former Ascendancy Church of England Theologian from Oxford who had become a Catholic priest, to set up the Catholic University College in Dublin.       

    James Stephens the previous United Irishman and Jeremiah O Donovan of Rossa, were now openly espousing the cause of Irish Independence and this was to see the actual birth of the "Irish Fenians" who as the Fenian Nationalist militia vowed to guard the shores of Ireland.    

1853 AD John Mitchell, another of the "Young Irelanders" from the 1848 AD Irish Uprising, now also escaped from exile in Australia where he had also been transported by the British Imperial Conservative Government to Van Diemen's Land / Tasmania from Bermuda, to get him and his influence out of Ireland, but he too made his way to America where he founded a newspaper in support of Irish Independence from the ongoing tyranny of the British Imperial Government.

   F.E. O Connor from Co. Cork in the Munster Province was the leader of the Chartists in England.

   Sir Samuel Ferguson gave English readers stories from Ireland written in English and George Petrie was to put together a collection of 1,000 Irish Airs. 

   The Book of Armagh previously under the charge of the Mac Moyre / Maor (Sons of the Keeper of the Book) Family since 1002 AD, which was now in the custody of the family of Arthur Brownlow was given up to the custody of the Trinity College in Dublin.

   The Belfast shipyards in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province were started this year, which later were taken over by Harland & Wolf where the Ascendancy would continue to prevail with 10,000 non - Catholics employed and 200 Catholics..

1853 AD - 1855 AD The outbreak of the Crimean War with Britain forced the price of Corn and Butter up.

1854 AD There was now an increase in the economic situation existing in Ireland, as the remnants of the Famine finally withdrew altogether, and the time of the "Young Irelanders" was now also coming to an end, and Irish tenant evictions from off of the Land Lords' Estates were to decline and the Catholic Archbishop Paul Cullen now also began moves to try and encourage greater ties with Britain as before his original appointment to Ireland he had been living in Rome for the previous 20 years where the general Catholic clergy were living in horror of the events carried out against them in the French Revolution, and he now withdrew the support previously given by the Catholic clergy to the Irish Tenant's League. This was in anticipation of "naively" believing that he could obtain better relations with the British Conservative Peelite Government for the population in Ireland, like so many unfortunates had done before  him. Another Reform Bill was brought forward.

   The Dublin Catholic University was opened in St. Stephen's Green in Dublin in Southern Leinster under the authority of the Pope with John Henry Newman the former English Prelate and Theologian as its first rector, but it had no endowments and its degrees were "not to be recognized."   

    300  Gold artefacts were unearthed this year by workmen at Mooghaun / Meghane in Co. Clare near the Inchiquin O Brien's Dromoland Castle in the north - west of the Munster Province, while they were laying the railway tracks to Ennis, which included gorgets, torcs and fibulae and there was a probability that these gold pieces of art had been buried there from the ancient Mooghaun Fort, which is the largest stone ring fort of it's kind in Ireland, measuring 1500' x 1000' where it has existed for over 2,000 years situated now in the grounds of the Dromoland Castle.

     William Smith - O Brien, originally also from the Dromoland Castle, who had been a Land Lord himself in Co. Tipperary in the north - east of the Munster Province, had also been transported to Australia for supporting the Irish tenant farmers against the harsh measures of the Land Lordsand his life had been spared due to his brother Lucius' Ascendancy Establishment connections and he was now finally to be released from British custody.

    Sir Horace Plunkett who was to pioneer the Agricultural Co - Ops in Ireland was born at Gloucestershire in England.

   William Ewart Gladstone, the Scottish M.P. who would play a big role in Irish reform, was still the British Peelite Chancellor of the Exchequer and he kept Ireland in line with the tax in Great Britain. 

     Renan, a Frenchman, commented at this time that, "The Celts were essentially feminine in temperament, shy, gentle, giving full reign to the play of sentiment and imagination, proud, loyal, and with a strong sense of justice, deeply committed to personal loyalties and to their Family to such an excessive degree that it had stifled all attempts to attain a more complex social and political organization." 

   Nathaniel Clements the second English Earl of Leitrim, died, whose Estate was on the previous territory of the O Raghnalls / O Reynolds from the Gaelic Milesian Irian Conmaicne Magh Rein Muinter Eoluis / Eolais Sept on Lough Rynn at Mohill in Co. Leitrim in the north - west of the Connacht Province that had been confiscated by the English Galls in 1621 AD and Sydney William Clements became the English third Earl of Leitrim who would finish up with 90,000 acres in 4 Counties who was against William Gladstone's attempt to bring in land reform and he was to clear his Estates of the tenants and by 1870 AD was to be the most infamous Land Lord in Ireland.     

1854 AD - 1855 AD Finally cattle prices were up in Ireland, and 2/5ths of the cattle were previously eating 1/3 of the Potato crop, but are by now fed on grain, although they had been fed 5,000,000 tons of Potatoes from a 15,000,000 ton Potato crop, and the Land Lords' Irish tenant farmers were now consuming grain also instead of Potatoes.         

1855 AD Thomas Scott, a land agent, acting for the Land Lord, Thomas l. Cave, increased his rents on the Irish tenants on his Estate by 50 %, although he had purchased the land from the incumbent Audley Estate near Skibbereen in Co. Cork in Southern Munster.

     Up until now 1,000,000 Irish people had emigrated, and the Potato crop was half of the size of the crop in 1844 AD, and from now up until 1879 AD there was to be 30  families in Ireland still evicted per year, and the Land Lords' Irish tenants became more secure, as the Land Lords wanted to avoid what they considered were the evils of long - leases to non - resident middlemen, and were to give short leases to the Irish tenants instead, but they also introduced Fines, which were in reality an extra year’s rent for granting them 21 - 31 year leases.

     Charles Gavin Duffy the "Young Irelander," was now in total despair of it all, and he emigrated to Australia, were he was to become the Premier of the State of Victoria and possibly the original true Father of Federation there, and was even to be knighted later on by the British Imperial Government in 1873 AD for his contribution to Australia.

   Alexander M. Sullivan took over as the editor of The Nation newspaper in Ireland, continuing to keep the Irish Nationalist cause to the fore for Irish self - government against all the odds,  while James Stephens and John O Mahony who had also been involved in the Irish Insurrection of 1848 AD had eventually settled in Paris, were they had by now decided once again to push for an Irish Revolution as the only way to remove the oppressive authority of the British Imperial Government.  

    Timothy Healy was born this year at Bantry in Co. Cork in Southern Munster, who would also become strongly involved in Irish affairs.

    John "Black Jack" Fitz Gibbon the hard - line anti - Catholic, who was the main British Conservative Government "Placeman" in Ireland held another inquiry this year, to try and stop the increase of Irish Catholic advancement in Ireland.

   The Donnybrook Fair, which had been originally founded way back in 1204 AD was suppressed by the British Peelite Government's Dublin Castle authorities.  

   William Ewart Gladstone, the Scotsman, who was the British Peelite Government's Chancellor of the Exchequer continued to keep Ireland in line with the tax in Great Britain, which saw Irish taxation rise by 2,000,000 pounds a year.

    O Brien the English Marquis of Thomond, died this year.

    James Edward Butler, became the English twenty first Earl of Ormonde until 1919 AD, who was the son of John the previous English twentieth Earl of Ormonde.

   Charlotte Bronte / O Prunty / Ua Proinntigh  who had been born in 1816 AD whose Irish Family originated in the east of the Ulster Province, died this year. 

   Lord of Aberdeen the Peelite British Prime Minister was out of office and Viscount Palmerston / Henry Temple an Anglo - Irish Land Lord was in as the new Liberal British Prime Minister until 1858 AD.

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