The Eviction of Tim Hurley, Castleview

From 'United Ireland' 30/10/1886 

Thrice at the mill that Hurley held
The Peelers' columns failed,
And crowbar-bearing blackguards
From the fierce encounter quailed.
For overhead was garrisoned
By gallant hearts and true,
Resolved to fight to death against
The base evicting crew.

In vain through door or window frame
They scrambled or they burst
Once in, the competition was
Who should be out the first.
Like rats on whom the trap has closed,
Possession they had got.
Within a welcome greeted them,
Uncomfortably hot.

Though the Royal Irish Constables
Are not afraid of rain
And bailiffs bear a washing
In the hope of drink or gain,
Though they are not unaccustomed
To dirty weather, still
They did not like the shower
That came tumbling down the mill.
For the atmosphere betokens
Scalded shins and broken bones
When it rains down boiling water
And it rains down paving stones.

'They might bear with equanimity
A rain of "cats and dogs"
But not of broken bottles
And not of heavy logs.
The bobby and the bailiff both
Do much respect their skin,
Bo they came out much quicker
Than they had entered in.
But to prove to all spectators
That they were not afraid,
In the yard they executed
A military parade.

And there they marched and counter marched
In measured martial tread,
Though the grand effect was injured
By the laughter overhead.
But when they threatened vengeance,
And stamped and swore and cursed,
Came the short and stern defiance,
"You may go and do your worst"
Till, like that mighty monarch who
Marched up and down the hill,
The bailiffs and the bobbies both,
Evacuate the mill.

And long they'll tell the story
Of the milling that they got,
And the dreaded Hurley burley
They encountered on the spot.
By many a peasant fireside
The story will be told,
To make the weak-kneed resolute
To make the cowards bold;
Of Saunders' fort and Hurley's mill,
Their names will live in rhyme,
Who taught the noble lesson
That submission is a crime.
Who held their humble homesteads,
With gallant hearts and true,
And set a brave example of
What Irishmen should do.
 

Clonakilty District Past & Present  - A Tourist guide to the area -[158 pages, forward dated 1959] The guide was published by the Southern Star Ltd for the Clonakilty C.Y.M.S.

My thanks to Henry McFadden for providing this information.