It was of course considered "dangerous" that close to Dublin the fertile valleys and bleak moorlands of Wicklow should still remain to a great extent in Irish hands. Proposals were made to start a fresh plantation there. But the designs of Falkland, the Lord Deputy, found an unexpected check in this. The Commissioners for Irish Causes wrote to the Privy Council advising against any further plantations.[1] Those already undertaken had not yet been properly completed; they were causing general exasperation; they had been much practised by the private aims of many particular persons; every Irish landowner was beginning to feel that his turn might come next.[2] Falkland wrote protesting violently against these views. But James followed the advice of the Commissioners and for the moment a stop was put to confiscation.
Yet the Irish were not left unmolested. Falkland persisted in his designs on at least part of Wicklow. His dealings with Phelim O'Byrne, son of the famous Pheagh Mac Hugh, are some of the most discreditable transactions in the history of Irish officialdom. They are set forth at length in Carte's Ormond, and are dealt with both by Miss Hickson and Mr. Bagwell. As however they did not result in any sweeping confiscation and plantation they need not detain us here.[3]
- ↑ Cal. St. Paps., 1623, p. 427.
- ↑ Cal. St. Paps., 1624, p. 306, for the fears of the "holders of land within the English Pale."
- ↑ Much of Wicklow passed however at this time into English hands, partly as having been the property of freeholders who had died in rebellion in Elizabeth's reign, partly by the attainder of some of the chiefs in her time, partly as being of old the property of the Crown. The barony of Shilelagh seems to be an example of the latter case. Part of Phelim O'Byrne's lands were seized, and later on passed into the hands of Strafford.
