Does the passing down of farmland in Ireland matter more than love.?

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marie m

The Irish, are, historically, a disposessed people; we have a racial memory of being tenants and slaves in our own land until the relatively recent past. The ownership of land was, and is, seen as bestowing power and privilege on the owner. There is also a huge emotive side to the ownership of land, however small.

There is a social history of land being handed down to the favourite son, or the eldest son, or maybe even a brother or nephew; and the strong feelings this could and did arouse in large farming families. Leaving the farm to one child was sometimes used by a parent to "get back" at a child who disappointed the parent in some way.

It's a good point, though!

Smokeabella

Your question carries a very sweeping generalisation of the farming communities. While it may well be true in a minority of cases it isn't true in the majority.
Years ago it may have been this way, but in more recent times no.
Now if we were going to talk about why priests can't marry and about the land the church owns you may just have a point......

Orla C

Yes, there were people who married strategically for land, it was more important to them than love. It's not really any different to someone hooking up with a local businessman or celebrity in order to get ahead. I don't think marrying for land instead of money is very common anymore in Ireland, because there are other ways of getting ahead now.

starrygirl

No
well maybe with some people

dolly k

yes its true, it still goes on hence the saying rich irish famers.. i know some that would never ever marry for fear of their land being passed on to a different name through marraige..what happens in most cases is the ones in the family that went off and got married end up inheriting the land anyway because they have a next generation through their kids, then the kids sell it off and when they do it is usually worth a fortune

rosie

yes, watch the field, it's based on a true story.

it could do, my dad had only 3 girls me being onre of them and left everything three ways to us and his land was in his name for five generations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

Charlene

Ever watched Gone with the Wind?

"There's no gettting away from it if you're Irish...this love of the land ... the land you live on is like your mother bla bla bla...."

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