[2] The narrative of The Macdermots of Ballycloran "chronicles the tragic demise of a small Catholic landowning family in the Protestant-dominated Ireland of the mid-19th century.

Thady lives with his father Larry Macdermot in a dilapidated mansion in County Leitrim, which is mortgaged to their enemy, the vulgar builder Joe Flannelly.

Larry Macdermot's daughter, Feemy (christened 'Euphemia'), is seduced by an Irish Revenue Police officer Captain Myles Ussher, who is hated by the local Catholic majority for his brutal enforcement of the excise laws against poteen distilling.

Thady is hanged, his father Larry goes mad, Feemy dies bearing Ussher's bastard and the Ballycloran house is finally vacated of Macdermots.

Nevertheless, The Macdermots is a good novel, and worth reading by anyone who wishes to understand what Irish life was before the potato disease, the famine, and the Encumbered Estates Bill.