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|f_annotation=<span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">S</span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Terry Alts were a secret society named after Terry Alt from Corofin, a protestant army pensioner and an ardent loyalist. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">He had come upon the scene of an assault on a man in Corofin, and was, by co-incidence, dressed similarly to how the victim described his assailants. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Locals picked up on the irony, resulting in all violent attacks being attributed to the innocent Terry Alt. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Terry Alts were one of many clandestine societies founded in Ireland from 18th Century on, all involved in agrarian agitation in pre-Famine Ireland. They tended to have colourful names such as, the "Whiteboys", "Oakboys", "Rockites", and "Ribbonmen". </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">These agrarian societies all had their own characteristics and specific origins, relating to fair rents, traditional access to common land or payment of tithes to the established church and other similar issues. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Terry Alts movement was begun in 1828, in the Corofin area and raged through the rural communities of Clare until 1831, escalating in the first half of that year. The origins of the society can be traced back to the collapse of the tillage system after the Napoleonic Wars, and an increase in cattle rearing, which resulted in labourers losing their means of making a living. These unemployed labourers, suffered serious distress in 1830 when the potato crop failed and they were forced to borrow money from strong farmers. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Disputes arose with regard to the repayment of these loans which took the form of high rents, and in retaliation, labourers grouped together to protect their rights. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Collectively known as the Terry Alts, they engaged in terror activities against strong farmers. The labourers levelled field walls of cattle owners, intimidated strong farmers, maimed livestock and attacked landlords in search of weapons. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">They demanded land to be rented to them at a fair price and achieved a high level of success. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The nocturnal activities of the Terry Alts peaked during the period January - May 1831, resulting in 19 homocides. The murder in January 21st, 1831 of land agent William Blood even caught the attention of the authorities in England. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The arrival of General Arbuthnot and martial law in late May of that year saw a decline in unrest. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">A judicial commission was established under justices Jebb and Moore. Viewing the agitators as common criminals, they were dealt with accordingly, with 119 prisoners convicted, 21 condemned to death, with the rest either transported or jailed. </span><span size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" data-mce-style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Law was restored but almost nothing was done about the causes of the unrest</span>
|f_annotation='''TERRY ALT’S JIG.'''  AKA and see “[[Mountain Brow (The)]].” Irish, Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. 'Terry Alt' was the name for a secret agrarian reform movement of 1828-1831 in Ireland, one of the pre-famine rural revolts.  According to one account the members took their name from an actual person named Terry Alt, from Corofin, County Clare, an ordinary man who had the misfortune of being miss-identified as the perpetrator at the scene of a local assault. Although he was a pensioner and a loyalist he was dressed similarly to the attacker, and subsequently he was accused of other assaults in the area. John Barstow, a traveller writing in 1836, though that the name was chosen "...perhaps (more) out of sport that malice, when on their predatory attacks, being in the habit of crying out, "Well done, Terry! Well done, Terry Alt!"<ref>Quoted by James S. Donnelly Jr., '''18th-19th Century Social Perspectives''', 18th-19th Century History, Features, Issue 4 (Winter-1884), vol. 2 [https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/the-terry-alt-movement-1829-31-by-james-s-donnelly-jr/]. </ref>.  Dr. George MacNamara, in his article "Inchiquin, County Clare"<ref>'''The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth Series''', Vol. 31, No. 3, [Fifth Series, Vol. 11] (Sep. 30, 1901), p. 207)</ref> records:
<blockquote>
''At the eastern end [of Inchiquin], in the townland of Anneville, quite close to the road''
''from Corofin to Kilfenora, under a large and spreading ash 4 (and another''
''smaller one) is a holy well dedicated to St. Inghen-Baoith, patroness of''
''the parish of Kilnaboy. A few yards from the well, on the other side of''
''the road, once stood the cottage of the famous Terry Alt. He was a most''
''harmless and inoffensive individual, a protestant and a great admirer''
''of the Government, and had nothing whatever to do with the secret''
''organisation called after him, which for so long convulsed the district'',  
''except in so far as, through the joke of one Richard Ensko, a shoemaker''
''of Corofin, he involuntarily, and much to his annoyance, gave the society''
''his name.''
</blockquote>
The movement was fueled by a combination of a disastrous harvest in 1829 and difficult recovery period, all due to poor weather, rising land values and subsequent increase in rent burden, and a great deal of political activity.
<br>
<br>
The 'depredations' of the Terry Alts, like other agrarian reform groups like the Whiteboys, Rockites and others, were undoubtedly exaggerated although did include beatings and intimidation, house-robbery for guns and ammunition, burglary, and five or six deaths. What was striking to contemporary observers, however, was not the clandestine nocturnal activity but the daytime gatherings of wall-breakers, diggers and sod-breakers who left their mark on pastureland, cheered on by large enthusiastic crowds.  Military and judicial intervention suppressed the movement in County Clare, which peaked in the Spring of 1831 and also effected parts of south Galway, much of Limerick and a smaller portion of Tipperary. The movement was a dramatic example of class-solidarity and class conflict in the pre-famine period.
<br>
<br>
Frank Roche printed the tune as "“[[Mountain Brow (The)]]" in 1912.
|f_printed_sources=Kennedy ('''Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Jigs & Quicksteps, Trips & Humours'''), 1997; No. 182, p. 43. 
}}
}}

Latest revision as of 23:46, 24 June 2021


Back to Terry Alt's Jig


X:1 T:Mountain Brow, The T:Terry Alt’s Jig M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig K:G D|DGG Gdd|edB (d2 B)|DGG Bdd|edB AFD| DGG Bdd|edB gfe|dBG AGA|BGG G2:| |:B|def gfg|agf edB|eef gfg|agf (e2d)| def gfg|agf gfe|dBG AGA|BGG G2:|



TERRY ALT’S JIG. AKA and see “Mountain Brow (The).” Irish, Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. 'Terry Alt' was the name for a secret agrarian reform movement of 1828-1831 in Ireland, one of the pre-famine rural revolts. According to one account the members took their name from an actual person named Terry Alt, from Corofin, County Clare, an ordinary man who had the misfortune of being miss-identified as the perpetrator at the scene of a local assault. Although he was a pensioner and a loyalist he was dressed similarly to the attacker, and subsequently he was accused of other assaults in the area. John Barstow, a traveller writing in 1836, though that the name was chosen "...perhaps (more) out of sport that malice, when on their predatory attacks, being in the habit of crying out, "Well done, Terry! Well done, Terry Alt!"[1]. Dr. George MacNamara, in his article "Inchiquin, County Clare"[2] records:

At the eastern end [of Inchiquin], in the townland of Anneville, quite close to the road from Corofin to Kilfenora, under a large and spreading ash 4 (and another smaller one) is a holy well dedicated to St. Inghen-Baoith, patroness of the parish of Kilnaboy. A few yards from the well, on the other side of the road, once stood the cottage of the famous Terry Alt. He was a most harmless and inoffensive individual, a protestant and a great admirer of the Government, and had nothing whatever to do with the secret organisation called after him, which for so long convulsed the district, except in so far as, through the joke of one Richard Ensko, a shoemaker of Corofin, he involuntarily, and much to his annoyance, gave the society his name.

The movement was fueled by a combination of a disastrous harvest in 1829 and difficult recovery period, all due to poor weather, rising land values and subsequent increase in rent burden, and a great deal of political activity.

The 'depredations' of the Terry Alts, like other agrarian reform groups like the Whiteboys, Rockites and others, were undoubtedly exaggerated although did include beatings and intimidation, house-robbery for guns and ammunition, burglary, and five or six deaths. What was striking to contemporary observers, however, was not the clandestine nocturnal activity but the daytime gatherings of wall-breakers, diggers and sod-breakers who left their mark on pastureland, cheered on by large enthusiastic crowds. Military and judicial intervention suppressed the movement in County Clare, which peaked in the Spring of 1831 and also effected parts of south Galway, much of Limerick and a smaller portion of Tipperary. The movement was a dramatic example of class-solidarity and class conflict in the pre-famine period.

Frank Roche printed the tune as "“Mountain Brow (The)" in 1912.


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Kennedy (Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Jigs & Quicksteps, Trips & Humours), 1997; No. 182, p. 43.






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  1. Quoted by James S. Donnelly Jr., 18th-19th Century Social Perspectives, 18th-19th Century History, Features, Issue 4 (Winter-1884), vol. 2 [1].
  2. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth Series, Vol. 31, No. 3, [Fifth Series, Vol. 11] (Sep. 30, 1901), p. 207)