THE CELTIC SYSTEM 1 93 



" There are no farms held in rundale for some years past; I 

 remember when it was the practice. [Yet] farms are a good deal 

 subdivided among the members of a family which is a bad sys- 

 tem." 1 



In Roscommon there was more of rundale, and again we are 

 told of the custom which produced it : — 



" Are there many farms held in common or in joint tenancy ? " 

 " Yes, a good many." " What is the condition of the people 

 occupying them ? " '' Principally very poor persons. There 

 are none others in my neighborhood. . . . [The system] is 

 decreasing . . . it is very much the habit of the lower orders 

 to divide their holdings, and give to their sons and sons-in-law 

 a portion of their holdings, which leaves the holding little enough 

 to support them and pay their rent. . . . " ^ 



The best account of the getting rid of rundale was given by 

 Marcus Keane, Esq., who was land agent for about 60,000 acres 

 in or near county Clare. This large area was owned by twelve 

 proprietors (principally by three), but was occupied by a great 

 number of tenants. Few holdings were larger than fifteen acres. 

 Since Keane had occasion to divide "many thousand acres," there 

 must have been relatively more of rundale in county Clare than 

 in the northeast of the island. His description of the situation 

 and of his own activity is as follows : — 



" The farms were hitherto (and are up to this day, where the 

 changes have not been made) held by tenants in several different 

 divisions scattered over the district, some . . . being as far as a 

 mile distant from other divisions. In some cases one man held 

 so many as ten, twelve, or fourteen different divisions, and it has 

 been my business to go through the estates and divide them out 

 again, giving each tenant his holding in one lot of a convenient 

 size and extending to the high road. . . . [At first there was 

 opposition] but of late the people themselves wish to have the 

 changes made. . . . There was one case of a large farm of 1000 

 acres held among 200 tenants nearly, and they gave me much 

 opposition. It was two years before I completely satisfied them 

 all and satisfied myself. . . . And among the tenants upon 



1 Pari. Papers, 1845, xix, nos. 130, 99, 131. 2 ibid., xx, no. 430. 



