ROMANCE OF IRISH DESERTED VILLAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17575, 27 June 1925, Page 9

ROMANCE OF IRISH DESERTED VILLAGE.

j CAEBY WHOSE FAMILY* ONCE OWNED IT. LOXDOX, May 6. The once nourishing condition of i now deserted village in the South of Ireland was recalled at Tranmere, near Waterford, on Saturday, when a cab driver, who is a member of the family that formerly owned the village, and was then one of the richest and most powerful in the country was lined for drunkenness and reckless driving. He is George Malcomson. and the now deserted Village is Portlaw, eleven miles west of Waterford. The Malcomsons’ cotton and woollen factorv still stands there, and old inhabitants recall the time when it was never closed, night or day, and every child in the village, some 3000 in ail, was employed there. In those days the Malcomsons had their own cotton fields in the Southern States of America, ran their own ships across the Atlantic, exporting cloth and importing cotton, issued their own leather money, which was recognised legal tender, and kept a pack of hounds and a little army of servants. Then came the American Civil War, and as their interests were bound up with the South, they backed them with their last shilling against the North, and lost. ! French nuns now occupy the Malcomson mansion, and Portiaw is almost a deserted village, with . where once were over 3000.