This page was created by John Huebner.  The last update was by Dawn Duncan.

Star of the Sea : A Postcolonial/Postmodern Voyage into the Irish Famine

Resident Landlords

Sweeney and Lambeck mention and define two groups of landlords. The first group of landlords was the “resident landlords [who] lived in Ireland, on their estates.” This group of landlords, obviously, rented the land to their tenants and made money out of it. But one thing that is very important to know about this type of landlord, as Sweeney and Lambeck mention, is that some of them did not only have an interest on improving the economy of Ireland but also, they had interests on helping their tenants. Joseph O’Connor, for instance, in his novel, Star of the Sea, gives a good example of resident landlords who had goodwill toward both Ireland and the tenants. Lady Verity, the wife of Lord Kingscourt, is depicted in the novel as being generous to the tenants. The author of the novel informs the readers that “Lady Verity was beloved by the tenants of Kingscourt. She visited the sick … and set up a laundry for the use of the tenant women, so that even in bad weather, they might have somewhere to wash clothes” (53). Furthermore, her son, David Merridith, later after his parents died, also displays a love of Ireland and its people, especially the poor, who in this case are tenants. The chapter titled "The Unpaid Account" outlines David Merridith’s dreams, which included to help Ireland in general and the poor (O’Connor, 247). Landlords who showed sympathy toward their tenants are what Trueman in his Historical Learning Site called “The Great Famine of 1845” calls “good landlords.” They were the landlords, as he and O’Connor argue, who were willing to choose bankruptcy instead of evicting their tenants who could not afford to pay rent.

But just as there were good landlords among the resident landlords in Ireland, there were bad landlords as well. Trueman states that “the majority of landlords in Ireland showed no sympathy for those who worked their land.” O’Connor as well does a good job in the novel of depicting the bad landlords. Commander Henry Blake, a resident landlord, is a good example of bad landlords who did not care about the lives of their tenants. Everything about him seems to be bad. For example, O’Connor mentions that ‘[in Blake’s estate,] ninety of his tenants had died already and his agents were evicting families who had fallen into arrears. They would simply burn out the people” (54). This quote gives a glimpse of how Blake treated his tenants in comparison to how Lady Verity treated hers and others who were evicted. Furthermore, Harriet Martineau, in her letter called "Irish Landlords and Irish Potatoes,” claims that “[landlords were] throwing their farms, spending their money in buying cattle instead of paying wages, and employing, perhaps, on a dozen-farms, a couple of herdsmen” (112). In this case, it is clear that some landlords were pretty much after satisfying their needs, disregarding the needs of the tenants.

Works Cited
Martineau, Harriet. "Irish Landlords and Irish Potatoes." Letters from Ireland (2001): 110-114. Print.

O'Connor, Joseph. Star of the Sea. Orlando: Harcourt, 2002. Print.

Sweeney, Colm, and Susanna Lambeck. "Irish Potato Famine and the Murder of Landlords." Nov. 2014. Enjoy Irish Culture.com. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Trueman, C N. "The Great Famine of 1845." 25 Mar. 2015. The History Learning Site. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
Researcher/Writer: Kalai Laizer
Technical Designers: John Huebner and Ashley Hacker

This page has paths: