Bennett's of Ballinacurra Descriptive List (Ref. B609)

B609/

into business relations with him. Bennett again experienced difficulties in the Cork market in this year. On 21 December Bennett met with Messrs Phillips and McMullen of AGS and was ‘taken aback’ that they found his response to workers’ demands for more pay ‘too severe & uncompromising’. B609/9/A/38 Diary, 1918. On 28 February Bennett received notice from the Food Controller to stop malting. He notes ‘the high wages makes carrying on with no incomings during idle season a very heavy drain’. From March he again worked for DoA in Dublin, and met Mrs Esther McNeill socially several times. His entry for 6 April notes ‘Saw E. & knew it was a gone case with me’. They married on 15 June. He notes her comment of 18 June ‘after 3 days of matrimony “it might have been so much worse”’. On 26 August he came to agreement on wages and conditions with dockers. He notes the armistice ending the war on 11 of November, recording ‘solemn thoughts over the events of the last four years and deep gratitude to the Almighty for our great victory’. B609/9/A/39 Diary, 1919. On 15 January Bennett records wages fixed with maltsters based on arbitration, noting they will ‘raise weekly outgoings to an enormous extent’. On 7 March he notes the death of Molloy, ‘a faithful servant always at work and the last link with old days as he has worked in Charleston garden for over 50 years’. In June he went on a month long cruise with Esther in his yacht ‘Verve’. On 28 September a Mr Webster’s house was raided for guns. Hunter left the Cereal Station for England in September. On 6 November Bennett notes the continuance of very dry, drought-like conditions. B609/9/A/40 Diary, 1920. Bennett records many incidents of violence and unrest educated man to come into business to assist me’. In early July he raced at Clyde week, and on the 10 th was presented to the king and queen on the royal yacht. On 31 August he estimates yearly profits of nearly £2000, noting ‘the most successful commercial year ever had and this is a consolation in view of the extremely grave and uncertain state of the country’. On 20 September he records his horror at the burning down of Castlemary in Cloyne, noting ‘this piece of Bolshevik arson indicates the appalling conditions we have reached’. throughout the year. On 26 January he ordered a Buick Touring Car. On 5 May he placed an advertisement in the Irish Times ‘for a young well B609/9/A/41 Diary, 1921. In an entry at the start of the diary, Bennett records a tragedy in Midleton, when a policeman was shot, resulting in four civilians being killed and an ambush on reinforcements. He adds ‘exodus of people from Midleton fearing reprisals’. On 20 February he received notice of an ambush in Clonmult, with thirteen dead. Work was often disrupted by workers stopping and shops shutting in sympathy with civilian deaths. On 29 May he writes of his sadness at the departure, never to return, of the Penrose Fitzgeralds, describing it as ‘a heartless & cruel end to a good straight life spent for the town’s welfare & a great blow to our community

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