IRELAND ITS SOCIAL STATE. 157 



Can it be wondered at that, when living accounts 

 of fights like this, and of many others worse and far 

 more barbarous, could be heard from eye-witnesses, 

 breaking the law should be thought little of ? I can 

 remember how the horror of the stories I heard 

 fastened itself on my imagination in early youth : 

 such as the burning of the Shea family in the county 

 Tipperary, the murder of another family at Wild 

 Goose Lodge, and many others. 



Whilst such things as these are present in men's 

 minds, not as matters of history, but as realities, a 

 country cannot be peaceable ; everything in the way 

 of outrage seems possible and easy. 



Then wherever men have the idea of outrage in 

 their minds, intimidation is sure to present itself as 

 advantageous. In fact, in Ireland, in any difficulty, the 

 first resource of many is intimidation. The frequent 

 threatening letters we read of in the papers are a 

 proof of this, though ninety-nine out of a hundred 

 are rubbish only attempts to frighten. The threats 

 are by no means always threats of outrage, but of all 

 kinds of indefinite wrath, loss of favour and of help, 

 which the unhappy offender will or shall encounter. 

 Many will threaten, and try to intimidate, who never 

 really intend to commit an outrage. Then the people 

 are curiously afraid of each other. Again and again, 

 when I have suggested to a man that he should do 

 something that was likely to be unpopular with some 

 of his neighbours, I have had the answer, " How 



