Guth & Tuairim, Meitheamh 1981

Seo litir a i'y-'.l :::foc' i ns 11 1'he Tioes i Londain ar 1.3/9/1390. Ta muid f:lor bhufoch do Thomas 0 CuireeJ.n as zn tSeascan Beag a t hug an coip duinn. 7 STAIR The potato blight and public works in Q..1eedore. To the Ed; tor of The Times Sir, - The :·otato blight. is an indisputable fact, I n Gweedore it is estimated that but one-fourth of the crop >Till be saved. It is true that the loss of the potato crop in Donegal vrill not cause as acute distress as it did in 18SO. The people are in a more subntantial condition. Reduced rents, improved means of coffilrunication, . better earings in Scotland and England, and increased industrial ~~ork, have combine(', to give t hem a power of reserve which they did not possess ten years ago. The outl ook is nevertheless gloomy enough, and t 11e present condition of things is most disappointing~ 'vlhen t Has in Chfeedore a r:lonth ago I though I had never seen the country look so prosperous. The people were al< full of hope. They were better fed, better clad, better housed, more fu.lly occupied vrith vrage-earning work, and possessed more property in the Hay of stock and sheep t han had been t he case during the past seven years . Poor the people certainly were; but it was an endurable poverty, and they were beginning to make headway against the load of debts which have so long oppressed them. Even then, however, there were ominous signs of the doom which wad' pending, and within the last month t he blight has rapid~ spread , ru1d destroyed the cr"p on ohich the people l argel y depend for food. It is the very poor who 11i ll, of course, at once suffer most acut el;n but all uill feel the strain of the sudden loss of a great food su~ply , and it is estimated that one-fifth of the population of Gweedore will be able to hold their o;m and need no help, but that four-fift hs '"ill suffer more or less from the loss of their crop. It is most di sappoi nt:;_ng to se.e a Deople 1-1ho have long made a brave struggle aga' nst calamity, and >rho wer e just atta:~ning comparative prosperity, sti-uck again by a disaster so great as the potato blight. The questi on is, hm.;ever, what. is to be done? There are four things on which t he Donegal people depend in crises like the present - 1, credi t; 2, chari ty; 3, public works; L,, i ndustrial employment. 1. Credi t. - The Donegal peasants, unfo;.·tunately, subsist largely on credit, and the bills for meal and the November reZlts are paid when the wage-earners return home in the late aut umn from faro-hiri ng in Scotland ana the Laggan. During the long period of distress between 1879-85 debts accumulated, Of recent years great efforts have been made to clear them off, and in t he good year 18t39 considerable progress was made in t his direction. I find on i nquiry that t he indebtedne:Js of t he people of Gweedore t o the shopkeepers still amounts ,•_.hovrever, on an average to .£10 per family. An increase of credit is therefore out of the que:Jtion and could not be advocated. 2. Chari t y. - All of us who are i nterested b t he uelfa:re of the people and t he development of the country are deter'nined, unless absolately compelled, to w.a.ke no appeal s t o t he char i t y of t he public for gifts v1hich, ho1-1ever satisfactory t o the donor, are injur ious to the reci pient. Thank goodness , t he Donegal peopl e never ask for charity, but onl~r for work. 3. ?ublic Works. -The Government received last year a vote from Parliament of £600,000 to provide the means of trru1sit in the congested districts of Ireland. Part of this money will, I believe, be . applied to the construction of a short railway in Gab1ay and to the extension of the line from Donegal to Killybegs, in county Donegal. The bulk of the remaining money will be devoted, it is anticipated, to the promotion of light railways, piers, and harbours in the congested districts of Donegal . The grand juries will be called together to consider and pronounce upon the various schemes which are being pro~oted. It is not my purpose to enter here into any discussion as to the expediency of narrow or broad gauge r ailways ; but it is certain that, in order to fulfil the object for which the money was granted, a railway, whethe~ narrow or broad gauge, should pass through Glenties, the Rosses, and Gweedore, t he heart of the congested dis tricts, where there exists a crowded agricultural population wi th scarcely any means of the transit of produce and goods, There are those, and I am among them, who consider that the sea-board population of congested Donegal would be better served by giving t hem sea co~n~~ication with the great centres of industry by means of good serviceable and commercial piers and harbours, rather than by raill-rays, whi ch, notHithstanding high freight charges, will be a heavy burden on the country to keep up. This Letter, which was written by Alice X. Hart (Mrs. Ernest Hart) will be continued next month. Cumann Sacair CaiHn{ Ghaoth Dobhair (Cul-6 chl'e) Sr l.:l 0 Donnell,ilaryRose Doherty, Br:ld Gallagher,Marie Greene ,31le Grecne , ~la i.re Coyle , Noirfn S>~eeney , Haura l·:c Gee, (Tosach-6 chle )Caroline Duffy ,Angel & Doohan,Anne Curr an, Ha l·fc Bri::le Fiona l>Jc Bride Caitlfn Gallagher , :rarion He Bride. Ar l ea:nuint 6 lth. from a complete breakdown, having been abandoned by the E.S. B. after erection in 1970. They also set the wheels in motion to have a harbour built at To"ry. Bred and grocery supplies, which were always thretened by storms in the past, was another matter that was sucessfully solved by trawler transport. Car! is obviously a man of action and he has now formed a group of Swedes, friends of Tory, interested in the welfare of Tory and has also produced a brochure illustrated with some of his wonderful paintings, giving us on the one hand, a vivid picture of a prosperous Tory and on the other an island that had to be evacuated because of Government neglect. Finally the Islanders have written their own three Act Drama which embodies all we are saying here in this account. They wrote it out of frustration in trying to get some Drama books from the Mainland. Surely there is pride, respect and strength here. Drama, poetry and painting. There is no Ga,ltacht area can compare with this record. But the Government, through the mouth of the Minister for the Gaeltacht, says, "SCRUB IT". AN TATHAIR DIARMUID QPEICIN. C.I. _,.. Ard Na gCeapaire TAKEAWAY 10·30 am to 12·00pm Fresh Fish available i1uintir rhora{