2 9 



Kelp burning was formerly carried on on the island to a 

 considerable extent. This product of the sea, fresh out of the 

 strong, deep waters of the North Atlantic, was rich in iodine, 

 and found a ready market at remunerative prices in the great 

 chemical works at Glasgow, to which port it was conveyed by 

 the Sligo steamer calling off the island. But the demand for 

 kelp has fallen off, and prices have become so low that it is no 

 longer produced, and the island can export little now except 

 lobsters, as it is difficult to get a quick market for perishable 

 fresh fish, such as mackerel. 



There are about fifty houses or families and about 350 or 360 

 inhabitants on the island. In 1841 the population was returned 

 at 391 males and 200 females, and at that time there were 

 eighty inhabited houses. Speaking of the social condition of 

 the people, he said — There is not a policeman in the place, and 

 there seems to be little or no social distinction as among the 

 people themselves. Till lately there was a " King " of Tory, 

 so called because the other islanders acknowledged his authority 

 and bowed to his decisions in the settlement of disputes ; but 

 since the decease, now some years ago, of the last monarch, the 

 authority in such matters seems to have passed into the hands 

 of the resident Catholic curate, the island being in the parish of 

 Cloughnahuly, on the mainland of Donegal. The parish priest 

 here, Rev. Mr. M'Fadden, has two curates, each of whom, it is 

 said, takes about a six months' turn on the island and then on 

 the mainland. 



The people pay no taxes. A few years ago the grand jury of 

 Donegal proposed to levy county cess on the island — a gross 

 injustice, as the people make, practically, no use whatever of 

 the roads and bridges of the mainland, and they have none of 

 their own to keep in repair. This unreasonable demand was 

 not persisted in. The rent question is different. The rental 

 of the island, including one penny per annum for the grazing 

 of each sheep, used to be about ^"240 a year. When good 

 prices were no longer obtainable for kelp the people were 

 unable to pay their former rents, and made, through their 



