Land war and eviction in Derryveagh, 1840-65

the long version

The Derryveagh Evictions, more popularly known by their misnomer, the Glenveagh Evictions, could be the story of any part of rural Ireland in the post-famine period. That they occurred on the scale that they did and at that particular point in time is at once easily understood, because, just as the corriter's potatoes were blighted, so also were the fortunes of many a landlord who then fell prey to the 'land jobbers'. The tenantry may have bewailed their plight during pre-famine days but theirs was to be the unenviable future of rack-renting, insecurity and eviction at the hands of a new aspiring landowning class that stalked the Incumbered Estates Courts seeking easy and quick fortunes. The Derryveagh Evictions were one of the more harrowing episodes of this period. -- Publisher description