I am now in my seventy seventh year. ( In my youth) I lived with my parents in a small thatched cottage in the parish of Ballintubber.
Our Land lady, Miss Johnston, was a Belfast woman. Robert Pidgeon was Land agent for her estate. With the rents high, lands bad, and the people poor. there was no prospect in the future.
The farms of the 'small tenant farmer' were but a few acres of land and their dwelling houses were wretched. At the end of the kitchen were tied, the cow, calf and ass. The sow and bonhams slept in a corner nearer the fire, the children in the centre. The room at the back of the kitchen fire was the sleeping apartment of the parents and family. The windows