1876 - 1878 AD

1876 AD Dairymen were now also on the decline in Ireland, which was due to the further change to beef production using rented cows.

     The I.R.B / Irish Republican Brotherhood Supreme Council frustrated with Benjamin Disraeli and the British Imperial Conservative Government's attitude to the Irish Home Rule Question, now withdrew their support for any chance of ever obtaining Irish Home Rule by democratic means under the Immoral Union.

   The Catalpa, an American frigate was sent this year by the Clann na Gael / The Organization in America, to rescue the exiled Irish I.R.B. / Fenians from off of the West Australian coast and take them to America were they were to reinforce the ranks of the Clann na Gael there in their push for Irish Freedom.

    The percentage of the population of Ireland now migrating up to 1921 AD was to America (78%,) Australia (7%,) Canada (7%,) England (8%.)

    Less than 800 Land Lords now owned 1 / 2 of all of the land in Ireland, with 300 of these owning (33.7 %) while (13.3 %) of the "Absentee" - Land Lords owned (23 %) of the land, and only (36.6 %) of these, actually lived in Ireland, but even then not on their Estates. 

     James Larkin, the future highly respected Irish Labor leader was born this year in Liverpool in England, and he was later to make a lasting impact on the social well - being of Irish workers until his death in 1947 AD.

.    Giant remains were found in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province and they were sent to London and found to weigh 2 tons and were 12' high with a 6'6" breast span and 6 toes on the right foot.

1877 AD There were now to be 3 further bad agricultural Seasons ahead for the tenant farmers  in Ireland, which would create increased pressure once again to try and reduce the rents paid to the Land Lords who still had their Estates in Ireland who were to be reluctant to do so, which naturally made matters worse once again in the rural areas.  

     D.H. O Kelly who had married two English women, and was to be the last one of the O Kellys to be the Dal Cuinn Ui Maine Chief of Screen, was interred in the graveyard below the Rivers Shiven and the River Suck in a vault, and is also commemorated outside of Ballygar in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht by a round tower. The River Suck is the boundary of Co. Galway and Co. Roscommon, which divided the Dal Cuinn Ui Maine O Kelly country at Screen, from the Anglo - Irish Talbots. Aughrim Castle is also a burnt ruin there in Ballygar, which was the old seat of the O Kellys, who after their defeat at the battles of Athlone and Aughrim by the Dutch General de Ginkel had  finished them off as the true Celtic Gaelic Milesian Chiefs there. Nearby at Glinsk, there is also a ruined Abbey and a church with an effigy of the Anglo - Norman William - Liam Garbh - the Rough de Burgo, whose sister had killed his infant son in a quarrel, so he had put her astride a wild horse with weights tied to her feet until her body split in two.   

    By now Michael Davitt the future founder of the "Irish Land League," who only had one arm, had spent the last 7 years of his life in English prisons for his part in the Irish Republican cause, and he was released this year and went to America also, where he joined up with John Devoy the leader of the Irish - American Fenian Association, known as the Clann na Gael / The Organization and while there he became impressed by the land schemes carried out there by Henry George and would return to Ireland in 1879 AD to try and introduce the means of returning the land of Ireland back to the Irish population where he would be assisted by Charles Stewart - Parnell the young non - Catholic Land Lord from Co. Wicklow.

   John O Connor - Power the M.P. for Co. Mayo in the mid - west of the Connacht Province, was expelled by the Irish Republican Brotherhood / I.R.B for continuing to support the "Irish Home Rule Party," as he still naively believed that there was hope that the British Imperial Conservative Government would eventually introduce Irish Home Rule by "reason and argument" democratically.

July: Finally in desperation of any chance of change to the situation in Ireland under Benjamin Disraeli and the British Imperial Conservative Government under a democratic system, the Irish Home Rule group were forced to continue on with their "Obstruction" tactics in the British Westminster House of Commons in England and they decided now was the time to deliberately abuse the rules of parliamentary procedure, and hold up it's normal business to try and gain attention for their Home Rule cause. Joseph Gillis Biggar, the previous non - Catholic merchant from the Ulster Province, who had been the first to begin the "Obstructionism" had since become a Catholic, but he too had been expelled from the I.R.B./ Irish Republican Brotherhood for continuing on with his stand to try and naively achieve Irish Home Rule still by constitutional means.

       Charles Stewart - Parnell the young non - Catholic Land Lord from Co. Wicklow in the south - east of Southern Leinster was elected the President of the Irish Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, instead of Isaac Butt, and was to hold this position until 1891 AD, while Isaac Butt remained the leader of the Irish Home Rule Parliamentary Party, as the majority of the Irish Home Rulers still supported him although the young Charles Stewart - Parnell always stood out as future leadership material.  

   The Irish - American Clann na Gael / The Organization in America was affiliated to the I.R.B. / Irish Republican Brotherhood, and Jeremiah O Donovan of Rossa who had previously received documented unusually cruel treatment at the hands of the British Imperial Governments in their prisons in England was now in a position there at the Head Centre of the American Fenians.

    Timothy Michael Healy from Co. Cork in the south of the Munster Province, who had been educated by the Christian Brothers at Fermoy there, and who was the Parliamentary correspondent for The Nation newspaper, was to also become involved in the Irish lands rights issue.  

      The remains of John O Mahony, the original Fenian, were also brought back from America for burial, but Cardinal Paul Cullen refused to allow him to be buried in any of the Catholic cemeteries in the Dublin area. 

   Sir Arthur Guinness / Lord Ardilaun reopened St. Stephen's Green as a 27 acre park dedicated to the people of Ireland.

   Those representing Tory democracy and Liberal radicalism were now also urging educational and electoral reform to be bought in for Ireland.

1878 AD January: A Conference was held in Dublin by the Irish Home Rule Party members, who were still under the leadership of Isaac Butt, while Ireland was in the grip of another bad season with crop failures, evictions, low prices, starvation and bad weather, and the Irish tenant farmers'rents continued to remain at the same high levels, which only further inflamed the rural situation.

      John Devoy the leader of the Clann na Gael in America, made overtures to the followers of Charles Stewart - Parnell for a New Departure Strategy, with proposals to be developed by him and Michael Davitt who was to return to Ireland in 1879 AD in an attempt to gain Irish National Independence and Irish land ownership demmocratically for the people of Ireland themselves and to this end the Fenians would eventually agree to back off once again, allowing the Constitutionalists to try and obtain self - government by political means. This meant that both of them would combine to support the Irish tenant farmerss against the Land Lords, who held Estates in Ireland, but Charles Stewart - Parnell would not commit to it, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood / I.R.B. also rejected it so Michael Davitt had to go back to concentrating on rural agitation, from which the I.R.B. also held aloof, although they did not forbid their members from participating in it, and many of the Fenians where to join join his Irish Land League and of the 7 office holders in it, 4 were to have Fenian origins.          

      Thomas Mac Donagh, the poet, playwright and Irish Patriot, was born at Cloughjordan in Co. Tipperary in the north - east of the Munster Province this year, and he would grow up to become a tutor at the University College, and would also be among those who would sign the "Proclamation of Irish Independence" in the Irish Easter Rising that was to come in 1916 AD, declaring for the Irish to govern their own Country, and for which he would be then "executed" by the British Imperial Coalition Government at that time.

   Thomas / Tom J. Clarke who was at this time 21 years of age, went off to America were he joined up with the Irish - American Fenians of the Clann na Gael there, and he would later return to Ireland to keep alive the old Irish Republican ideals by setting up a shop as a headquarters in Dublin where he would become known as "The Old Republican."

    Sydney William Clements the infamous third English Earl of Leitrim who held 90,000 acres in 4 Counties in Ireland carried out wholesale evictions on his Estates in Co. Donegal  in the north - west of the Ulster Province.

April 2nd: Michael Heraghty, Michael Mac Elwee and Neil Shields killed the infamous Land Lord, Sydney William Clements the third Earl of Leitrim at Crateagh Wood near Milford in Co. Donegal.

   The British Conservative Government in England under Benjamin Disraeli passed the Intermediate Education Act to encourage secondary education with grants based on performance only.

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