but are uncatalogued). In July 1882 R.W. Doherty Jnr. complained that tenants 'but principally those of Durrus near Bantry had paid no rent since 1880, his father had said in September 1881 'The Land Leagues are destroying the country and a lot of Protestants have joined them ... the Protestants at Durrus would pay no rent unless allowed 25% off. More like savages then human beings'. Land improvement/ Land Acts In the period after the famine the larger farms were run on more commercial lines and firms such as Warners in Bantry supplied an increasing range of machinery. This included furze cutting machines mangle grinders which had their logo and a range of horse drawn machinery. George Vickery, Ballycomane was a prizewinner in the Carbery Show, Skibbereen in 1896 and 1897. Distress 1890-1891 There was a failure of the potato crop in 1889 which caused widespread distress in 1890. A public meeting was held in November 1890 headed by Fr. Kearney and the Rev. John Pratt and suggested the extension of the railway line from Durrus road to Dunmanus Bay. 20th century World War I 1914–1918 During World War I, Bere Island was the base of the British Atlantic fleet and was the operating base for a flotilla of small boats and trawlers engaged in anti-U-boat activities. There was also a kite balloon station in the area, the U.S. Naval Air Station at Berehaven, which was used for anti-U-boat activities on a site. Bere Island hosted a military hospital opened in 1915. It was also a training camp. The US Navy's Air Wing established a seaplane base on the eastern end of Whiddy Island. This base, the U.S. Naval Air Station at Whiddy Island, became operational on 25 September 1918 and was used to patrol an area around Fastnet. The station closed in January 1919. Revolutionary period The memoirs of Willie Kingston, Solicitor, Skibbereen (1885–1965), provide an interesting insight into the Irish revolutionary period from a Protestant. He was born a Methodist and qualified as a solicitor working in his cousin Jasper Wolfe's office. He sympathised with the objectives of Sinn Féin, but abhorred the brutalities committed by both sides. He described his shock at the killings of William Connell and Matt Sweetman by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 19 February 1921. He wrote that at the end of 1920, when it became apparent that the troubles would continue