Robert French - Peelers and Bailiffs at Somers Fort

An eviction or rather a destruction at Somers Fort, Coolroe. When I first saw the title I thought of a military fort in the fastnesses of Donegal but looking at the construction of this substantial farmhouse and the challenges it imposed on the attackers it is easy to see why it was called a "Fort"! Wexford is not one of the counties that has featured much here for evictions which leads me to believe that this may be an exception. Certainly Mr. French was there and got lots of shots of the action!..Based on researches by BeachcomberAustralia ( /photos/beachcomberaustralia/ ) (who points us to contemporary accounts of the events at Coolroe ( http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/115458961 ) ), and location hunting by O Mac ( /photos/91549360@N03/ ) , we're able to confidently date and map this image. As with other images in the 'eviction' series, what we see here are the defences taken to prevent the tenants from being forcibly removed. The article which BeachcomberAustralia links gives us the names of the defenders and other protagonists. Seemingly the homestead is still known as Somer's Fort ( https://www.google.ie/maps/@52.2516454,-6.8400379,3a,15y,281.97h,90.47t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDj1GocFbE36WLr6LvwPv7Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 ) , and was seemingly converted to holiday rental accomodation at some point ( http://web.archive.org/web/20061109120659/http://www.somersfort.com:80/history.htm ) ........Photographer: Robert French..Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection ( http://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000313414 ) ..Date: Catalogue range c.1880-1900. Likely August 1888...NLI Ref: L_ROY_02491 ( vtls000044263 ) ..You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie ( http://catalogue.nli.ie )