An Archaeology of a Famine-Era Eviction

Recent archaeology in Ireland has provided abundant new information about the history of the island's people and their culture. Archaeological research is distinguished by its ability to examine longterm trajectories of cultural change, with the parameters of study often encompassing several centuries. Because of the discipline's ability to investigate huge segments of time, many believe that archaeologists are unable to examine specific, unique events. The realities of archaeological research may, indeed, often prohibit the fine-grained interpretations available to local historians, but archaeologists are often afforded rare glimpses of unique occurrences. The opportunity to investigate specific events is enhanced when archaeologists use a multidisciplinary approach that combines excavated data, written accounts, landscape details, and other sources of information.¹ A case in point is a recent series of excavations at Ballykilcline in northern County Roscommon, where archaeologists were able to examine the remains of a cabin whose residents were forcibly evicted in the 1840s. This investigation provides new information about the actual process of "ejectment" in both its general characteristics and its local manifestations.

Ballykilcline was a townland of about 160 acres (65 hectares) located on the eastern shore of Lough Kilglass. In 1841, almost 500 people lived there as tenant farmers. The Mahons of Strokestown Park House, located about five miles, to the southwest, held a lease to Ballykilcline until May, 1834, when they were unable to renegotiate a new arrangement with the crown. The townland reverted to the administrative control of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works, and Buildings. Upon taking control, the commissioners discovered that the townland was divided into "seventy-four distinct Tenancies."² Two cabins, associated with the Nary family, were the subject of archaeological excavations during five summers from 1998 to 2002.