Irish Land League

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Categories: Ireland-related stubs | History of Ireland

Image:Wounded Poacher Henry Jones Thaddeus.jpg
The Irish painter Henry Jones Thaddeus enlisted the conscience of the propertied classes with the sentimental realism of La retour du bracconier (The Wounded Poacher), exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1881, at the height of the Irish Land War
Image:Landleagueposter.JPG
Irish land League poster
dating from the 1880s

The Irish Land League was an Irish political organization of the late 19th century which aimed to help poor tenant farmers. The Irish Land League was founded on 21st October, 1879 after other land leagues had been set up in various other counties -- notably in County Mayo -- on 16th August 1879. These organistions were set up due to the excessive rents being demanded by landlords all over Ireland but especially in Mayo and surrounding counties.

The main aims of the League were to end evictions, excessive rent, and landlord oppression. Men like Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt went to America to raise funds for the League with spectacular results. The League was created just before the Land War of 1880-1882 in which there was widespread upheaval. The League would decide on a fair rent and then encourage its members to offer this rent to the landlords. If this were refused, then the rent would be paid to the League and the landlord would not receive any money until he saw the light.

Image:Michaeldavitt1880s.JPG
Michael Davitt
Founder of the Land League

The first target was a member of the Catholic Church hierarchy, Canon Ulick Burke, who eventually reduced his rents by 25%. Many landlords resisted these tactics violently and there were deaths on either side of the dispute. The Royal Irish Constabulary, though largely made up of Irishmen, took the landlord's side. Originally, the movement cut across sectarian boundaries, with many meetings being held in Orange halls in Ulster, but this ended as the landed gentry extended their influence within the Orange Order.

Within a few short decades of the league's founding however, through the struggles of men like William O'Brien achieving the Wyndham Land Purchase Act of 1903 and through its implementation by such land and labour activists as D.D. Sheehan MP the vast majority of Irish land was, after the final passing of the Labourers (Ireland) Acts of 1906 and 1911, in the hands of small farmers, not large landowners.

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See also

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References

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