Bloodless Revolution

By Mike O'Sullivan

The biography Bloodless Revolution considers the period 1878 -1885 in Sligo, Ireland, through the editorials and articles of Edward Gayer proprietor and editor of the Sligo Champion newspaper. Edward was invited to take on the challenge of turning the moribund, establishment-led newspaper into an organ for Irish Nationalism in the West of Ireland. In particular it was vital that he tackle the pernicious Organism which so dominated all aspects of the administration of the area. Over a 5 year period Edward worked his way into the political establishment such as Poor Law Guardian, member of various local committees and Town Councillor.

From 1879 onwards Edward became a main player in the promotion of the Irish National Land League and in particular his personal goal to ensure land agitation was constitutional and non violent.

Mike O’Sullivan examines how Edward set out to instil courage in the people of Connaught to withstand the many injustices inflicted by the British Administration and land owning establishment, and to have hope and confidence in a free Ireland. Edward’s Nationalist campaign through which he championed Catholic equality and justice for the people, was pursued through a reorientation of the Sligo Champion newspaper which became a voice for fairness for the Irish people and independence for Ireland.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike O'Sullivan
• Release date: May 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370072101

Mike O'Sullivan

Mike is an Irish novelist and poet, married and living in Herefordshire England. He was born in Dublin and spent his school years in Cork. In primary school Mike needed to get by the eagle-eyed headmaster who looked hard at his long essays designed to hide the words he could not spell. This carried on further up the line when at UCD the Professor of English likened Mike to another who could not spell, George Bernard Shaw. But Mike made the connection, he did not have to be a genius at spelling.He moved to London in his twenties and has worked in a wide range of industries – music and cosmetics, in oil exploration, mining, insurance, catering, City Finance and Management Consultancy. Mike uses that experience in his novels. When he first arrived in London Mike fell in with a group of three other Irishmen debating the philosophical process of making a million or finding a job that was more like pleasure. Mike found the job, but it would take too long to explain his philosophy here. Mike says that in a sense he had a plan for life and so far it has been working out.His novels often start with an individual battling the system but without a plan of how he or she will cope. Mike believes that social systems and institutions are usually rigid when it comes to change or quick decisions and therefore the individual can become trapped. It takes effort, some courage and guile to walk out into the wider world of individual thinking. He shows that an individual can focus enough to even the odds and come out on top. He often uses humour and comedic situations to make his point leaving the reader to consider the underlying philosophy if they wish. A key element of Mike’s writing is the Irish skill of fast paced conversation as Mike’s overall aim is to entertain his readers.

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Bloodless Revolution

By

Mike O’Sullivan

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Bloodless Revolution

Ireland’s Land War 1880’s

Edward Gayer Irish journalist 1820-1884

Foreword

Since 2004 when I wrote this history of my great grandfather Edward Gayer, the owner and editor of the Sligo Champion newspaper from 1878-1884, the Irish Land Wars have come under the spotlight from professional historians. Many academic books have been published on the politics of the time and the principal characters involved in the limelight on the path to Ireland’s Independence.

Edward Gayer was born in Limerick in 1920 the son of a classical school teacher. I traced his roots through Sir Robert Gayer, Sheriff of Buchinghamshire who refused King William 111 entry to his house when he came to visit unannounced, Sir John Gayer, Lord Mayor of London who was confined to the Tower of London for a year for refusing to finance King Charles 1’s war in Europe and Elizabeth daughter of King Edward 1.

By way of continuing the family traits, his daughter married Michael O’Sullivan a man who was mainly responsible while Supervisor of Customs and Excise at the Tullamore Distillery for keeping the distillery open when he defended the distiller J E Williams in a trial aimed at breaking up the business. Michael was later praised for his efforts in the House of Commons by Herbert Asquith, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, later Prime Minister. Michael was also a cousin of General Michael Collins.

Edward Gayer was also a citizen of the United States of America and this was to save him from the normal prosecution and jail sentence handed down to other outspoken Irish Nationalist newspaper editors.

The story for me is that the Edward 1 was given Ireland as a wedding present by his father Henry 111 and Edward Gayer a follower of Daniel O’Connell tried to wrestle it back. He threw his life into the fight and it killed him. This is not an academic work. I want to demonstrate one man’s wit and wisdom, his belief in the cause of Irish freedom on a human level in his weekly newspaper and his daily living.

Bloodless Revolution

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Overview

How Gayer met the challenges.

Chapter 2 - 1878

The Sligo Champion every Saturday.

Chapter 3 - 1879

Protests; land and rents; Freemasonry; State Trial of Davitt, Daly, Killeen.

Chapter 4 - 1880

Gayer joins the Land League, the greatest Irish protest movement against invaders since Brian Boru in 1014. Gayer prosecuted.

Chapter 5 - 1881

Coercion; Martial Law; Belmullet Affray; the Land Act.

Chapter 6 -1882

Bogus ‘outrages’ & spies; Davitt; National League; Wood-Martin.

Chapter 7 - 1883

Famine; land courts reducing rents; Nationalist MPs elected.

Chapter 8 - 1884

Landlords beat the drum while tenant farmers wait for the advantage to pass to them. Gayer begs the people to keep their nerve.

Chapter 9 - 1885

Gayer’s Legacy.

Illustrations

Contents

Ireland’s Provinces and Counties in 1898.

Chapter 2

The new printing business established in 1878.

Map of poverty in Ireland eve of famine 1841.

Chapter 3

Davitt, Daly, and Killen committed for trial Sligo Assizes 1878.

Monster meeting announced Sligo Champion December 20 1879.

James Daly addressing meeting outside Sligo Town Hall 1879.

Chapter 4

Riverstown Meeting announced in Sligo Champion January 3 1880.

Monster meeting Ballinamore announced in the Nation June 19 1880.

The Sligo Champion – Truth Conquers.

The Courthouse Sligo c1996.

A threatening letter printed in the Sligo Champion December 11 1880.

Another Riverstown meeting announced Sligo Champion December 1880.

Chapter 5

Eviction West of Ireland March 1881.

Serving Notice on his tenant May 1881.

Chapter 6

No Rent poster.

Decisions of Fair rent assessment - Arthur Hamil QC, County Court Judge May 1882.

Decisions of the Land Commissioners Boyle Court, October 1882.

Example of Wood martin’s plagiarism in his History of Sligo.

Chapter 7

Some land case decisions Sligo Sessions May 1883.

Difficulty of mountain farming 1880.

Emigrating from Queenstown (now Cobh).

John Street Sligo location of Sligo Champion Offices 1883.

Courthouse Buffalo when Edward was Clerk to the Bankruptcy Court early 1870s.

Main Street scenes Buffalo.

Sligo local fairs October 1883.

Some decisions of Sub Commission 8 Ballina November 2 1883.

Connaught Land Court Claremorris Courthouse.

Chapter 8

Some land Court decisions by Mr. Roche January 1884.

Photograph of family evicted by their landlord.

Chapter 9

Commemorative cross for Edward Gayer in Sligo Old Cemetery.

Appendix 1

Some information on population, land, and social conditions.

Appendix 2

List of Land League meetings, speakers and platform officials.

Appendix 3

International, national, and local personalities of Sligo during Gayer’s time.

Introduction

In the Ireland of the late 1870’s and 1880’s when oppressive restrictions by the British Administration denied Irish Catholics land ownership or even fair dealings for the Irish leaseholders of land, the Irish Nationalist leaders organised Land League protests and non-cooperation with the authorities to force changes in the law. The aim was to legalise purchase of land by anyone including Catholics and Nationalists and to reverse a trend started with the Norman conquest of Ireland in 1170. Gayer saw it as ‘a bloodless revolution.’

There was intimidation from both Irish and British sides. Organised intimidation by English Landlords supported by the British Administration, the military, police, and a network of spies and agitators that resulted in arrests and imprisonment without charge or trial, leading to mass evictions, starvation and more emigration to America. The Land League organised boycotting, withdrawal of labour and mass protests.

The Land War was the first step in separating English Landlords from Irish land. It became a slow process of attrition on the then lawmakers and gradually the organisation began to believe it could succeed. The organisation of the Land League was critical in keeping up the momentum. Gayer was at the forefront of this from the time he took on the Sligo Champion in January 1878. It took forty three years more to achieve independence. In Sligo the strands that held the Administration together were more difficult to untangle than other places. So Gayer and his newspaper stood out. He was the first leader to be arrested and prosecuted in the State Trials (1881) widely reported in Ireland, the UK and the USA. Unlike the others, Parnell the Irish leader included, Gayer was not successfully prosecuted and left the court as he had arrived with marching bands and a carnival atmosphere. People began to believe more in him. He served Sligo and surrounding counties for seven years before his death on 29 December 1884. Then he was largely forgotten. All that remains for now is his gravestone in Sligo’s old cemetery. So who was he really?

Research throws up little. He was like a man waiting in the shadows. His father ran a classical school at 39 William Street Limerick. He became an ardent follower of Daniel O’Connell. It is assumed he attended his father’s school, maybe even taught there. He reports that he attended many of Daniel O’Connell’s monster meetings on Catholic Emancipation (1843). He witnessed the funeral of Daniel O’Connell from Thomas Street Dublin on 5 August 1848. Between that date and his marriage to Catherine Collopy on 14 October 1866 when he was forty six and she was thirty five there is nothing recorded on his movements. In Buffalo NY he is listed in the directory of Buffalo as clerk in the Bankruptcy Court in 1870/1872. He was secretary to the Catholic Union and lived at 141 Eire Street. He contributed to the Catholic Union newspaper writing as Dublin Correspondent. The editor Father Cronin said he wasn’t paid for it. He was secretary to St Joseph’s Temperance League in Buffalo.

He arrived back in Ireland in 1875 and lived in Dawson Street. He became President of St Andrews Temperance Association. He was invited to take over the Sligo Champion and did so in January 1878.

He was well organised. He had a new American printing press, the backing of the clergy and the Nationalists of Sligo. He was brave, took risks with the sensibilities of the authorities, saved from harm by his wit and charm and he had unbelievable self-confidence.

When he spoke on platforms he spoke of Prime Ministers and Chief Secretaries not so much British newspapers that were carrying on a campaign against his kind of Nationalism. But he did on one occasion ask God for forgiveness for reading the Daily Express.

He was fully aware that any action on a mass scale, as was the case in the Land League meetings and boycotting tenants who took over a farm where a tenant had been evicted, would be described in London as intimidation. But whereas in London it would be seen as against the law, which in fact it wasn’t, it was meant to be intimidating in Ireland. It was this intimidation which came to his rescue when he was formally charged with intimidation himself. He would have been under no illusion as to the imminent nature of the violence which surrounded such mass intimidation, or even the danger to individuals who ignored warnings of betraying their fellow countrymen as he saw it. But as a newspaper editor who wanted to continue to be in the position to give out information and pass on advice to the masses, Gayer had to balance what he said. He believed in and wanted Irish Independence. He knew the authorities could jail anyone advocating such revolutionary talk. But he did not remain silent. He talked about achieving Irish Independence peacefully!

He was fifty seven years old, married with an eight year old daughter who had spent over six years in Buffalo, New York, where she was born and nearly two years in Dublin. He took over a failing newspaper called The Sligo Champion. He would have known before he arrived that the Sligo Tory and Orange factions had a vice like grip on all levels of life and they could determine all outcomes. So Gayer’s aims might have been clear enough. Less clear was the profile of his backers. And even more shadowy was his past.

Gayer said that the three objectives for his newspaper were i.) ‘It will be zealously defensive of the cherished religious convictions of the great majority of our countrymen and ii) a faithful exponent of their political principles. iii) its columns will be opened to the advocacy of those National measures which are now prominently before the public, and which it is to be expected will tend to elevate our political position as well as advance our national prosperity.’

How carefully these objectives were chosen. Putting religion first set out a clear distinction from what he purposefully termed Protestant Ascendancy. Arguably history documented that religious conviction had not always produced charity in others – as in the cases of the Spanish Inquisition, Cromwell’s barbarity, William 111’s bigotry in the Penal Laws and their followers in Ireland in 1878. Gayer wanted people to confront the British Administration, their officials and landlords with their religious differences. He might have tried to differentiate their culture too if it hadn’t been trodden into the very soil they tilled and which was no longer theirs. Supporting the political principles of the majority amounted to calling for Irish Independence. He always expressed the belief that this was possible. He promised to push any national movement in his columns. The most prominent of these was land security. His first action was to bring the price of his newspaper down from 3d to 2d.

Bloodless Revolution

Chapter 1 Overview

How Edward Gayer, the Irish Nationalist and Land League leader fought the British Empire Administration in Sligo in the 1870’s/1880’s.

During the 1870’s/1880’s in Ireland, Irish Nationalist newspapers made the only written comment on Irish life which did not originate from London publishers or the Tory Press. Nationalist newspapers were the main source of information across Ireland. But they became a target for British Government suppression when they took to the road of expressing Irish values and expectations, especially when more and more people, whose expectations once raised tried to achieve higher status. In the firing line editors stood out. Editors became the focus of attacks by the Tory press, officialdom and a system of ruling the country for centuries which classed the Irish in the main, as a nuisance. Laws in place for nearly two centuries had reduced the Irish people to an uneducated property-less underclass. Those who sometimes raised their heads to rebel with violence were ruthlessly put down and lessons handed out to discourage thoughts of Irish betterment through violent rebellion. However given the rules there seemed little chance of betterment by other means. So the vast majority of the population went on suffering. Suffering was part of daily life. Editors thought they could change this. And in doing so they became the new heroes. When Edward Gayer took over ownership of the Sligo Champion he became an official target and a local hero.

It might be imagined that Gayer could see an uphill struggle. His adversaries were many and powerful at all layers of daily life. And if some (in the British Administration or larger estates) could relax, it was because they could rely on those more officious lesser beings who kept the Irish in their place, until they chose to evict them. Even British who had no official power could still cause trouble. There were organisations which might be considered secret and subversive other countries but considered perfectly acceptable institutions in Ireland like the Free Masons and its younger sister the Orange Order, both organisations anti-Catholic and anti-Irish.

Britain and Ireland in the 1870’s/1880’s had a semblance of democratic political choice. But, as Bernard Shaw pointed out after one 1850’s General Election, less than 500 people elected half the Members of the House of Commons. And there was no election at all to fill the House of Lords. This could not under any stretch of the imagination be considered democratic. Even these elected Members were elected by a small elite of the voting population. Additionally in Ireland the Irish voter was intimidated under real threat of being evicted and thrown out with his family onto the open road unless he voted for a particular candidate. Democracy was for all intents and purposes non-existent. Yet these were the rules under which Gayer was to fight. And what seems strange is that he thought he could win under such circumstances. What is even stranger is that he succeeded. But how did he do it? The answer is both complex and subtle.

In the hundred and fifty years or so leading up to Gayer taking over the Sligo Champion in January 1878, Catholics had been persecuted in Ireland in every possible form imaginable. True, the penal laws were not carried out in the full spirit in which they had been passed, but throughout that time Irish Catholics had been subjected to every indignity it was humanly possible to inflict on a nation. During that time Irish Catholics who made up the overwhelming majority of the population, at various times could not vote, could not buy land, apply for any official vacancy, own a horse worth more than £5, could not practice Catholicism, could not be educated at home or abroad, or could not run a business. Over time public pressure and political conscious of sorts had led to many of these laws being repealed, the most important new Act being the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, (This Act allowed Catholics to practice their religion). The protests which led to the Bill being passed were led by Daniel O’Connell who became an inspirational leader to a nine year old Gayer. Many of the Irish schools can trace their establishment back to that date. Persecution of the Irish in Ireland was not just the prerogative of the British Administration in Ireland. English institutions, the Protestant Church, the military, Police, land owners, Free Masons, mainstream political parties, the English press, the business community pressurised the population in England to consider the Irish as a bad lot and to believe that they deserved all that they got which was rough treatment. A whole tradition of misinformation put out about the Irish was published every day in the English Press. Nothing at all was left out if it somehow cast a sleight on the Irish character. As Woodham-Smith said in the Great Hunger ‘English newspapers represented the Irish, not as hapless famine victims (during the 1840’s) but as bloodthirsty desperados. Punch for instance published cartoons week by week depicting the Irishman as a filthy, brutal creature, an assassin, murderer, begging for money on the pretence of buying food only to spend it on weapons.’ Chambers Information for the People published in Edinburgh in 1842 described the Irish – ‘Their character includes much quickness of apprehension and ingenuity, considerable natural eloquence and wit and affections much warmer than those of most European nations, but is generally acknowledged to be deficient in reflection and foresight and liable to a peculiar irascibility which often attacks a mercurial and upon the whole amiable character. The upper and large portion of the middle classes being of Saxon descent are not much different from the same classes in Great Britain.’ My own experience of the continued process of not being able to cleanse the Irish character in English minds carried on this fine tradition of misunderstanding. I was asked by a potential mother in law who was more than troubled by her daughter acquiring an Irish name if I wouldn’t change my Irish name to an English one for her sake. Even in very recent times an English publication called the World in 2002 and the World in 2003 took a particular stance on Ireland. This publication forecasts a brief economic position of every country on the planet, so I have purchased it since the 1980’s because I understood it gave a measured global view on the future year. However in the two years mentioned above it omitted Ireland from their forecasts because it would have showed that the Irish average earnings were higher than in the UK. The editor of the magazine was a Conservative MP.

Gayer pointed out in his columns that the Irish in Ireland should have the same opportunity as the Irish in America and continually gave examples of Irish success there. He set about trying to get higher profile for the Irish in Ireland. History may have been against him. His ancestry may have been against him. The institutions were definitely against him. The ’Names’ behind the institutions targeted his downfall. The odds were against him. In the end it was only death which claimed him. But before he died he took on all of the odds. First were the ‘Names.’

The ‘Names’ were his greatest challenge. And it wasn’t always the top name in the County who was the most powerful in every situation. Gayer’s strategy seems to have been simply to aim for Irish independence in stages. He had to raise the level of expectation of the poor, find them causes and leaders they could support and at the same time look for weaknesses in the system to weed out corruption, prejudice, malice and English Protestant dominance. The proof of this strategy was in his editorials.

The main man in County Sligo was Colonel Cooper. He could use all the tools of the Administration. These tools included;-

The Grand Jury – oversaw public works contracts. Members were almost exclusively Protestant and land owners. Col. Cooper was Foreman.

The Poor Law Guardians – administered the Poor Law. There were 68 members of the Board, 34 selected, 34 elected. The Catholic/Nationalist minority could always be out voted by Protestants. Col. Cooper was Chairman.

The Corporation - was in Gayer’s time run by Nationalists, but their funds came to them via the British Administration which was not sympathetic to their causes.

The Harbour Commissioners - were drawn from the wealthy merchants in the town Catholic members were a tiny minority and had no power.

Magistrates – were mostly Protestant and land owners.

Police – were officered by Protestants and Orangemen in the main. There were some Catholic constables.

Army – was British.

Militia – was Protestant.

The members of these official bodies who were Protestant were not merely Protestant by religion and independent thereafter. They were mostly signed up to the Conservative (Tory) Party (politically not sympathetic to the poor), the Orange Order, or/and the Free Masons – both anti Catholic. So the fact that someone was Protestant normally put them in a camp which was as Edward Gayer saw it, anti-Irish. It was not uncommon for the ‘Names’ to be members of more than one of the important power wielding bodies. And as evidence of their anti-Irish stance those with titles such as Colonel, Major, and Captain were officers in the Militia, and the aim of the Militia was to stop the French liberating the Irish. Another significant point is that these establishment bodies were able to fill official job vacancies with their own kind. Gayer continually drew attention to this in his newspaper columns. Most of the ‘Names’ were descendants of Cromwell’s soldiers whose first act under orders on arriving in Ireland was to slaughter the majority of the inhabitants and take over their land and property. Colonel Cooper’s family had a history of being in charge of Sligo. The Grand Jury list of 1817, names ES Cooper Esq MP as Foreman. In July of 1878 the Foreman was Col EH Cooper. His address was given as Markee Castle – which was the land of the O’Connor’s whose family produced the last Irish High King. Also many other families appeared on the list of ‘Names’ in both 1817 and 1878. This therefore points to the success of these families holding onto power over County Sligo and the native Catholic Irish. And to complete the ‘Names’ circle which started with Colonel Cooper, Gayer noticed that the London-based Daily Express published a list of Orangemen who attended a meeting in December 1883 which stated that Colonel Cooper presided at the meeting. Also in attendance was a battery of the same family names which appeared on both Grand Jury lists of both 1817 and 1878 (see Appendix page 336).

In the grand scheme of British Administration, Ireland was a place in which every conceivable trick to retain dominant could be played out without any comeback. The land was British owned. The institutions, the business and the power were distinctly British. But whereas the British population in the 21st century do not see the land as a cause to pursue (currently 0.6% of the population own 69% of the land) the Irish of the 1880’s saw land ownership as their future security. According to Chamber’s Information for the People published in Edinburgh in 1842 the Population of Great Britain in the 1841 Census was 18,540,628 or 69 % of the total population of Great Britain and Ireland and the Population of Ireland was 8,205,382 or 31% of the population of Great Britain and Ireland. Yet in the House of Commons Great Britain was represented by 500 MP’s or 82% of the seats and Ireland by 105 or 18% of the seats. Put another way an English MP represented 37,081 people while an Irish MP represented 78,146 people. In Ireland the total number of electors was 109,945 or 1.34% or the population. This was hardly democratic. So although history will tell us there was a Government; there were ministers; there were members of parliament; there was debate, decisions taken, wars fought, and it was all carried out in the name of democracy, there was no democracy. Behind this myth was a feudal system whose public voice was the House of Lords. They were basically the landlords, the ‘Names’ in each locality whose families had ruled Ireland and England for centuries and some since the Norman invasion.

In Ireland the ‘Names’ were responsible for overseeing one of the most terribly and heart-breaking times of Irish social history, the Great Famine. Not that any pity was shown in the main to the Irish Catholic tenants of Protestant landlords. Between 1847 and 1850, 50,000 tenant families were evicted (assuming five children and two parents in a family, this makes a total of 350,000 or over 4% of the population of Ireland). Long after the British were replaced by an Irish elected Government I had a taste of what it is like to be evicted from a house considered home. My own family eviction from our home in Co Meath when I was eight years old, the eldest of five children was dramatic enough for us. We were taken-in by the local postmaster until we could transfer to my father’s family home in Cork, (a move I never regretted). This experience, traumatic though it was, watched over by neighbouring nuns and condemned by the Parish Priest from the pulpit turned out, after some minor inconvenience, to be a great opportunity for our family. It could under no circumstances be held up as an indication of what it was like for families evicted in the 1840’s. In our case there were people on our side who could offer immediate and practical help. And we ended up in superior accommodation with greater opportunity for us all. But in the 1840’s those who were evicted from their humble if not cruelly inadequate accommodation, were thrown onto the open road. There they lived in ditches, being moved on by nearby landlords, soldiers and police. Anyone who helped them lived under the threat of being evicted themselves. Besides those who might want to help them were themselves trying to hang onto their homes and were only a step away from eviction. For the individual evicted family, surviving on the open road was a catastrophic, helpless and starving, life without hope.

Gayer lived through the Great Famine. He had seen the suffering at first hand and he held the ‘Names’ responsible for it. When starvation again threatened in the 1880’s he published descriptions of the sufferings. One of the reasons the Irish tend to pass over the Great Famine is that it evokes too many desperately painful times and rage. For those who fled Ireland there was more pain. There are descriptions by American observers of Irish paupers reaching New York with clothes so threadbare that they were considered to be naked, an appalling state for anyone to reach a new country, to walk along strange streets for the first time. In the Great Hunger, Cecil Woodham-Smith describes scenes on the ‘Larch’ which set sail from Sligo in 1847 with 476 passengers of whom 158 died at sea and 106 were landed sick including the Captain and 6 crew. It had taken 9 weeks (63 days and nights to reach New York). ‘The few that were able to come on deck were ghastly, yellow looking spectres, unshaven and hollow cheeked, not more than 6 or 8 really healthy and able to exert themselves.’ It is indeed hard to bear thinking about. The ‘Names’ inflicted this punishment on them.

Gayer did not expect any better treatment. Colonel Cooper was Foreman of the Grand Jury and Chairman of the Poor Law Guardians. His agent was deputy Chairman. Gayer fought hard battles getting elected to the Poor Law Guardians against manipulative cheating employed to keep him out. But eventually he faced the Colonel across the table. Colonel Cooper had been appointed County Lieutenant of Sligo with the approval of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland who in turn was appointed to the job with the approval of the British Prime Minister. So in terms of Empire Administration Colonel Cooper’s position could be said to be two down the line from the Prime Minister leader of the British Administration in the Westminster Parliament. This did not deter Gayer from a stinging confrontation with Cooper at the first opportunity. It must be added that Gayer did so with considerable charm even though he objected to the Colonel being there at all. Because the Sligo Town Hall is still standing it is possible to sit in the room where their two philosophies clashed, the dominant British Empire rule by iron fist and the confident, independent spirited Irishman. Gayer was leader of the action in Sligo to have the first two Nationalist MP’s to represent Sligo elected to the House of Commons, Thomas Sexton and Nicolas Lynch. This was a tremendous sign of change away from the Colonels.

It could be assumed therefore that Gayer was a marked man. He spoke from the platforms of Land League meetings. He was Vice President of the Sligo Branch of the Land League (Thomas Sexton MP was the President). He saw others including editors arrested and imprisoned for speaking out from Land League platforms. He was himself prosecuted. At these meetings the Land League speakers allowed reporters present called ‘Castle Reporters’ who were given seats on the platform to record speeches for the Administration at Dublin Castle. Gayer’s prosecution for sedition took place at a time when Parnell, other MP’s and leading Land Leaguers were awaiting trial on similar charges. Gayer’s trial gave him national and international profile and made him a local hero. On the day of his trial he was accompanied to the Sligo Courthouse by Thomas Sexton MP, a huge cheering crowd and marching bands. The Crown Prosecutor proved no match for Gayer’s Dublin attorney and the charges were thrown out. Gayer played by the rules, stacked as they were against the Irish, and he won. This should not have been a surprise. He had a habit of winning.

In the Sligo Champion and on Land League platforms Gayer always chose his words carefully. But he did not shirk from what had to be said in forwarding the Nationalist cause or Land League objectives. He even challenged the authorities to find anything he said to be against the law, and this in the face of the Government’s determination to deter such speeches by arresting people on ‘suspicion’ and keeping them in jail only to release them without charge months later when their businesses, if not their health, might be ruined. What kept Gayer free and apart from the arrests was his American citizenship.

Gayer was the right man for Sligo. It would not be stretching the imagination to assert that the Sligo Champion was his ‘cover’. His eloquent editorials could be hard hitting. They focussed readers on the issues and on how to tackle them; religious bigotry; British rule by force of arms; official corruption, especially in the justice system; biased legislation in support of landlords who were British, Protestant and rich; the certain future of near slavery for the Catholic population if they failed to improve individual opportunity. True, Catholics could by the 1880’s practice their religion but because they were Catholics they were still kept out of power and influential jobs. In fact it was near impossible for a Catholic to secure any official job. There was still a strong will by the British Administration to keep the Irish Catholics under control by poverty, uneducated and without opportunity. Gayer’s lead in successful public protests which achieved their aims paved the path for the titanic protest of land security and ownership. And he charged into the fray of land security in big way.

Gayer organised the Sligo Land League into a potent symbol of powerful but peaceful protest. One of his speeches was quoted in a report by the Westminster Government on the Land League to demonstrate that the Land League did not encourage violence. However Gayer considered the Land League was at war – though he insisted its operations should be conducted peacefully. Several times during the ‘war’ victory swung around to first one side and then the other. Landlords formed themselves into an opposing group to fight the Land League and canvassed English politicians and newspapers as well as the British Administration in Ireland. There was wholesale intimidation on both sides. It was considered perfectly reasonable by the Land League, and it was certainly lawful, to gather five thousand tenant farmers to peacefully protest when an evicted tenant’s farm became occupied by another tenant, and Gayer advocated such protest. Doubtless the incoming tenant felt intimidated but it was lawful and peaceful intimidation.

Gayer considered the Land Act of 1881 a triumph for the protesters even though there were many loopholes to bail out landlords. But it turned the tide. As he kept saying in his newspaper it would only turn the tide if the tenant