The Land Wars were a series of protests and periods of agitation led by the Irish Land League against landlords from 1879-1880. For many years, peasant farmers had been severely mistreated by the high rates demanded by landlords: most were living in poverty and had been unable to provide for their families whilst paying rent. This poverty drove the creation of a new agrarian movement that called for fairer conditions for tenants and reform. The mistreatment of farmers is a core part of Irish history, and the Land Wars were a pivotal moment in the movement towards fairer living conditions and a better quality of life.
While the Irish Potato famine of 1845-52 is well known for its horrific loss of life from intense starvation and famine, there was a similar famine from 1877-79, the “Forgotten famine” when the potato crop again failed for three years in a row. Aside from limiting food availability and endangering the survival of many in the West of Ireland, it also massively reduced the income of many peasant farmers. With this reduced income, they struggled to pay rent and feed their families at the same time. The famine was made worse by the fact that some landlords refused to contribute to the relief funds, despite collecting thousands of pounds in rent collectively.
At the time, 97% of peasant farmers were tenants meaning that they did not own the land they worked and lived on but were subject to a landlord. So, when many were unable to pay rent as a result of the famine, they were evicted. When some refused to move, police came to evict them forcibly which led to terrible violence, and they would even burn down farmers’ homes to ensure removal. As a result, secret societies were formed to oppose this ill-treatment and responded with violence against such landlords. However, this led to a police crackdown with mass arrests, not limited to those actually involved in the attacks.
In March 1879, Michael Davitt, a prominent Fenian politician, organised a public meeting in County Mayo, chaired by James Daly of Castlebar, to discuss evictions and rent prices. It was attended by thousands and led to a withdrawal of many eviction notices and a 25% reduction in rents. This was the beginning of a new agrarian movement and the creation of the Land League of County Mayo. The first success of the league was against a Catholic priest who threatened evictions of many of his tenants. The league led a campaign against him and successfully forced him to withdraw the threat.
The success of the County Mayo league led to the establishment of the National Land League of Ireland in October 1879. The League was led by Charles Stuart Parnell, Michael Davitt was a Secretary and James Daly a member. Their agenda was summarised as the “3 Fs for reform”: fixity of tenure, free sale and fair rent. This meant that peasants would not be overcharged for renting land, they could not be evicted without good reason, and they could sell their stake in their farm if they were moving off it. The plight of farmers at the time is reflected in how basic these demands were: it seems shocking that such regulations were not already in place. While the League’s ultimate goal was the dismantling of landlordism, these were 3 crucial elements of reform that would massively improve the lives of Irish farmers in the short term.
The most prominent success of the Land League was against Captain Boycott, from which we get the verb, “to boycott”. For many years, Captain Boycott had charged high rent rates to his tenants. To combat this, the league pursued a strategy of total social ostracization. Farmers on his land left so the crops rotted in the fields, no shops would sell food to him, blacksmiths refused to shoe his horses etc. This eventually led to a successful outcome for the farmers. A journalist for the New York Tribune who reported on the campaign called this strategy a “boycott”, coining our well-known verb that is still in use today. Another well-used strategy was rent strikes. This strategy was remarkable for the time and displayed the great intelligence of the League- to be so successful without violence but simply using the tools available to them, they were able to drive much needed change. Aside from such social campaigns, Parnell and other politicians drew attention to land issues in Ireland in Parliament as well. They pursued “obstructionism”, similar to filibustering, where they gave long speeches to obstruct the normal course of debate to highlight issues with rent and evictions.
Since 1870, a number of Land Acts had been introduced by the English Parliament in an attempt to improve the system of landlordism. These had, however, been unsuccessful. Gladstone’s Landlord and Tenant Act of 1870 actually increased tensions as landlords evaded the new requirements which led to the setting up of Tenants’ Defence Associations. As the Land War raged, Gladstone again tried to resolve the issue with the 1881 Land Law Act. This involved issuing dual ownership which expanded the rights of tenant farmers but did little to combat tenant evictions. Some more radical Irish politicians attacked the bill and issued a No Rent Manifesto which called for a national farmer rent strike, but this led to their imprisonment and government suppression of the Land League. However, the Act did grant the “Three Fs” and it created a Land Commission with the purpose of enforcing the bill and determining a fair rate for rent payments. It also established that the government could and would intervene in landlord-tenant relations.
As stated, the change in legislation was met with a degree of frustration and also scepticism. While there was some opposition, the League pursued a strategy of caution and focused on testing the bill’s effectiveness before writing it off as a failure. They instructed their members against rushing to the courts but selected a few cases for testing. Many observers did see that while there were definite limitations to the Act, it was an important step towards abolishing landlordism in Ireland.
Unfortunately, the Act and the response of the League and Irish politicians did lead to significant disintegration of the movement as factions became divided between more radical and pragmatic members of the League. The imprisonment of leading members also did not help this and led to the conclusion of this phase of the Irish Land War.
The mistreatment of farmers at the hands of landlords and Parliament is a perennial theme in this period of Irish History. While a terrible time for a large proportion of the population, the birth of a groundbreaking movement won significant successes for tenant farmers across Ireland and was an important step towards greater equality.
By Aria W
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