Revenue Police

O'Brien, in The Economic History of Ireland from the Union to the Famine, writes: "The whole system of fining the district was abolished in 1819, and three years later a revenue police was established. The force was distributed in parties, each to watch a separate district. The number of parties in 1826 was 32, in1833 was 57, and in 1838 was 70: but in spite of very great exertions, they succeeded only in partially suppressing illicitly distillation". Revenue police stations were established in Galway, Tuam, Oughterard, Clifden and Roundstone. The empty pigsties that the traveller occasionally comes across throughout Connemara, some of them of archaic construction, testify to the importance of the use that must have been made of the waste products of poteen making in the feeding of pigs.