"the question is how reliable are they? "
They are relaiable as confirmation that they probably happened aand that the information contained within is acceptable as an account of what happened to the community
"Your assumption that the allegations against Lord Leitrim are true are based on your prejudice against his class,"
That is an assumption on your part about me - I don't think we've ever met or discussed the matter
I have neen con
versant with the situation following the famine in Ireland for most of my life, from family background and from studying the period
There is little argument that that period was brutish and inhuman and that the consequences for the people of Ireland - that is beyond dispute
That landlords behaved as is claimed of Leitrim is part of the local history o my chosen home - common knowledge
Who knows the truth of the 'droit du seigneur' accusations, and when it comes down to it, what does it matter if a landlord took women based on an acncient right or just an exercise of power?
Either way, the woman endes up raped - in a period that talked about girls being "ruined" by such behaviour that was a catastophic event to someone who would quite possibly be ostracised for 'allowing' such things to happen to her
The Magdalene Laundries were full of raped girls
There can be no dobt that people in power debauched women at a whim - is seems an awfull fuss is being made about whether they did it formally, as of right - either way, they took advantage of their positions
I can't file at present, but there are a large number of songs on the same subject all similar in their description of Leitrim's behaviour
Jim Carroll