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Here’s something interesting that I found out when visiting the Michael Davitt Museum in Straide, Co. Mayo, Ireland. Davitt was instrumental in establishing home rule and land reform in Ireland. I’ll write more about him later. In the late 19th century, Ireland was ruled by the English but the fight for independence had started. The English landlords were charging high rents when the whole country was suffering from famine. If the rent wasn’t paid, people were evicted from their homes and their humble dwellings were torched. This had led to the murder of some landlords and rent collectors. One of the landlords was Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott. Rather than resort to violent means, the priest in Boycott’s area, John O’Malley, urged the community to shun Boycott. The people took O’Malley’s words to heart. They refused to deliver his mail, shoe his horses, harvest his crops, clean his mansion. If other farmers took over the land of an evicted person, he too was ostracised and shunned. And that, my myLot friends, is how the word ‘boycott’ came into being. Do you find that as fascinating as I do? Maybe I just don’t have enough to do. The photo is of part of the ruins of Davitt's old church in Straide.