2. William Smith O’Brien’s Letter to the Mining Company of Ireland

This letter is dated 29 July 1848 and was written in the village of The Commons on the morning of the Young Ireland Rising which was led by O’Brien.

‘Mr William Smith O’Brien presents his compliments to the Directors of the Mining Company, and feeling it incumbent upon him to do all in his power to prevent the inhabitants of the collieries from suffering inconvenience, in consequence of the noble and courageous protection afforded by them to him, takes the liberty of offering the following suggestions:

He recommends that for the present the whole of the proceeds arising weekly from the sale of coal and culm be applied in payment of men employed by contract in raising coal and culm.

He recommends that a brisk demand be encouraged by lowering the price of coal

and culm to the public.

In case he should find that the Mining Company endeavours to distress the people by withholding wages and other means, Mr O’Brien will instruct the colliers to occupy and work the mines on their own account; and in case the Irish revolution should succeed, the property of the Mining Company will be confiscated as national property.

On the contrary, if the Mining Company observes a strict and honourable neutrality, doing their utmost to give support to the population of this district during their present time of difficulty and trial, that then their property shall be protected to the utmost extent of Mr O’Brien’s power.’

In the history of The Commons and Ballingarry, its mining tradition, and the 1848 Rising during the Famine, the above short letter which you have just read is of exceptional interest for the following reasons:

Dated 29 July 1848, it was written in The Commons on the morning of the Rising by the leader of the Young Ireland Rising, William Smith O’Brien, M.P. for Co Limerick. It was written at a time when O’Brien had other pressing concerns with Crown forces closing in on him and his supporters, intent on their arrest.

The letter was written to the Mining Company of Ireland who controlled mining in The Commons. It directly relates to the contemporary situation of the miners who were suffering distress as a consequence of the famine. The letter shows how O’Brien on arriving in Ballingarry and The Commons grasped the problem of poor sales for coal and culm due to lack of demand during the Famine.

The letter offers a practical and sensible solution: for the present, pay the miners the whole proceeds of what they mine and lower the price of coal and culm to the general public.

Then the letter takes a dramatic turn. It states that if O’Brien found that the Mining Company ‘endeavours to distress the people’ by withholding wages and other means he would instruct the miners to work the mines on their own account. This would have been a sensational challenge to the status quo. If followed through it would have meant that the miners would seize control of the mines and employer-employee relations, so strongly weighted in favour of the employer, would be turned on their head.

Even more radical was to follow: O’Brien wrote that if ‘the Irish revolution should succeed’ the property of the Mining Company ‘will be confiscated as national property’. There are two notable aspects to this sentence. Firstly, it confirmed that O’Brien was embarked upon the overthrow of British rule in Ireland. Secondly, it suggests how a revolutionary new Irish state might have funded itself amidst the destitution of the Famine – by nationalising the property of non-cooperating entities whether they were companies such as the Mining Company of Ireland or landlords so that the rebels could live off the land, something O’Brien had not been prepared to contemplate earlier in the week of the Rising. This was explosive thinking for its time which Marx and Engels who wrote The Communist Manifesto in Brussels in 1848 would have acclaimed. The idea of nationalising the mines would be canvassed from time to time in the following century.

On the other hand, if the Mining Company supported ‘the population of this district’ during ‘their present time of difficulty and trial’ then, O’Brien stated that their property would be protected by him. This was typical of the fair and balanced approach taken by O’Brien to Irish issues for a number of decades. But in 1848 the disastrous handling of the Famine by the British government had driven O’Brien and the Young Irelanders to raise the standard of revolt in a Rising.

At O’Brien’s prosecution for High Treason, this letter was put forward in evidence against him by the Attorney General. It is on p. 475 of the very lengthy published Report of the Trial of William Smith O’Brien for High Treason. The letter was highly damaging to O’Brien.

In the letter O’Brien praises the people of Ballingarry and The Commons as ‘noble and courageous’ in their protection of him. That sentiment was reciprocated in the community’s view of O’Brien.

This letter is the first item displayed for visitors in the exhibition in Famine Warhouse 1848 since it opened in 2004 as a national heritage museum and visitor attraction. It can be found framed in the entrance hallway. 

By Dr Thomas Mc Grath, Historian.