“Yes, it is a fine country for hunting!”
“Was it ever put down here, the hunting?”
“No, indeed! Sure, the people wouldn’t let it be!”
“Not if Mr. O’Brien told them they must?” I queried.
“Mr. O’Brien; ah, he wouldn’t think of such a thing! It brings money all the time to Athy, and sells the horses.”
As to the troubles at Luggacurren, he was not very clear. “It was a beautiful place, Mr. Dunne’s; we’d see it presently. And Mr. Dunne, he was a good one for sport. It was that, your honour, that got him into the trouble”—
“And Mr. Kilbride?”
“Oh, Mr. Kilbride’s place was a very good place too, but not like Mr. Dunne’s. And he was doing very well, Mr. Kilbride. He was getting a good living from the League, and he was a Member of Parliament. Oh, yes, he wasn’t the only one of the tenants that was doing good to himself. There was more of them that was getting more than ever they made out of the land.”[24]
“Was the land so bad, then?” I asked.
“No, there was as good land at Luggacurren as any there was in all Ireland; but,” and here he pointed off to the crests of the hills in the distance, “there was a deal of land there of the estate on the hills, and it was very poor land, but the tenants had to pay as much for that as for the good property of Dunne and Kilbride.”