The Land League
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hvug~v'"A&U ' gp$vp;+ hp:$ n the years 1879 - 1882, that there wzll be no man so full of ~$3:: 5:;: the Irish tenant farmers avarzce, so lost to shame, as to dare the I"*%%?$&g engaged in a bitter and publtc opznzon of all rzght-thmkzng men p$' often violent struggle and to transgress your unwrztten code of 9.i:?-r+; against their landlords. A ovians, but it was a hugely emotional laws. i3i long period of comparative prosperity in issue in Ireland at the time. "' This ostracism was employed against Irish agriculture following the Famine Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Captain Boycott and it became so severe was ended by a sudden drop in world Irish Nationalist Party, became president that Boycott and his family had to be food prices. Small farmers were unable of the Land League. The aim of the rescued by troops. Volunteer Orange to pay their rents, and the old animosities League was to reduce rents (by with- labourers from Ulster were brought in to between tenant and landlord flared up holding them if necessary), to prevent harvest his crops after his own workmen again. evictidns for non-payment, and had all deserted. Some £350 worth of Michael Davitt, who had been ultimately to get the land back into crops were harvested at an estimated cost imprisoned in England for his Fenian native hands. Parnell devised the tactic of of £3,500. Captain Boycott's nerve was activities, returned to Ireland in 1877 social ostracism which was to give the eventually broken and he returned to and, with John Dillon, founded the Irish English language a new word - 'boycott'. England. National Land League. William O'Brien In 1880, Lord Erne's agent, Captain Ostracism was not the only weapon and Timothy ~ariin~tonbecame the Charles Boycott of Lough Mask House, employed. There was large scale violence League's leading organisers. Davitt's County Mayo, defied the League by against landlords and their agents, and objective was land nationalisation: refusing a tenant's request for a reduction also against those tenant farmers who The land of Ireland belongs to the people in rent and evicted him with the disobeyed the Land League orders. Some of Ireland, to be held and cultivated for intention of getting a new more of the Leagues leaders were less than the sustenance of those whom God amenable tenant. forthright in their condemnation of the declared to be the inhabitants thereof '" Parnell advocated that offending violence: for example, Joseph Biggar, the Magnus Magnusson has described the 'land-grabbers' should be treated as Nationalist MP for Cavan, said that the contemporary state of affairs: social lepers: shooting of landlords was wrong because The conventional picture of this time is When a man takes a farm from which the assailant frequently missed and shot of huge estates in Ireland predominantly another has been evicted, you must show somebody else! owned by Protestant landlords, him on the voadside when you meet him, The 'Land War' came to an end in frequently absentee, who were living in you must show him in the fair and in the 1881 when the 1,and Act of that year gave idle luxury off the rents. They had the market place, and even in the house of tenants a right to the land and reduced power to raise these rents or evict their worship, by leaving him severely alone, rents by 20 percent. The Land League tenants at will; the tenants had no rights by putting him into a moral Coventry, campaign continued, however, and by at all. A tenant who improved his land by isolating him from his own kind as if 1887 'outrages' were again occurring, as the tenant farmers resumed their would have the rent raised, because of the he were a leper of old - you must shown improvement, to a level he could not him your detestation of the crime he has struggles against the landlords. afford, and the landlord would instal a committed, and you may depend upon it The vears 1885 - 88 saw another new tenant who could. But the picture is agricultural depression, with the prices Charles Stewart Parnell receives the Freedom of Limerick, 14 July, 1880. 1, leader and United Ireland editor, Timothy 1888, the Pope issued a decree which Harrington, proposed what became included the following passage known as 'the Plan of Campaign' which (translated from the French of a F.S.L. Lyons has described as follows: pamphlet published in Paris in 1890 by ...a device for collective bargaining on the Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union): individual estates. Where a landlord Hence the question was proposed to theii refused to lower his demands voluntarily Eminences the Cardinals of fhk the tenants were to combine to offer him Congregation:-Is it permissible, in &e reduced rmts. If he declined to accept disputes between landowners an@. these, they were to pay him no rents at tenants in Ireland to use the mearih ull, but instead to contribute to an 'estate known as the Plan of Campaign and fund' the money they would have paid boycotting? After long and mature him if he had accepted the offer. This deliberation their Eminences unanim- fund was to be used for the maintenance ously answered in the negative;and the and protection of the tenants who were decision was confirmed by the Holy certain to be evicted for putting this Father. .(5) policy into practice ...As for the land- At that time, the Plan of Campaign was grabbers, for them there remained, as being put into effect on the Glensharrold before, the boycott. 'That the farms thus estate-near Ardagh, County Limerick. unjustly evicted will be left severely The Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick, alone, and everyone who aids the Bishop Edward Thomas O'Dwyer. Dr. Edward O'Dwyer, supported the evictions shunned, is scarcely necessary Papal decree against the Plan of to say'. (United Ireland, 23 October, The British Government tried to enlist Campaign and did his best to ensure that 1986). "' the aid of the Pope in its attempt to end it was observed. He intervened in the While the Plan of Campaign was neither the Plan of Campaign and this aroused Glensharrold estate dispute and, by as brutal nor as extensive as the Land the anger of Irish Catholics who negotiation, arrived at settlement terms War, it nevertheless developed into a supported it. But there were elements which he thought were very favourable bitter conflict, especially in counties within the Church who opposed the for the tenants. The respective figures (as Tipperary, Limerick and Kerry. boycott, and two bishops independently given in the I.L.P.U. pamphlet) were: The Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland complained to the Vatican about the Plan Rent Arrears due to March, generally either supported or tnrned a of Campaign and the involvement of 1890:......................................... £2,611.00 blind eye to the Plan of Campaign. Many priests in it. Payment to be accepted ........... £384.00 priests were actively involved in The Pope ordered the Supreme Arrears to be forgotten ..........£2,227.00 supporting it and some were imprisoned Congregation of the inquisition 'to Rents - Old rent .........................£738.00 for their activities. The Archbishop of subject the matter to serious and careful Present Offer .............................. £384.00 Dublin, Dr. Walsh, and the Archbishop of examination.' Monsignor Persico arrived Gross Annual Reduction .......... £354.00 Cashel, Dr. Croke, were prominent in Ireland in 1887 to investigate. He supporters. reported to the Vatican, and on 20 April, This episcopal intervention was not Police baton-charge the crowd at Limerick. of the Freeman's Journal, the leading CO. Limerick, recommending the nationalist newspaper of the day. An Glensharrold settlement terms). As soon I.L.P.U. commentary linked the various as O'Dwyer read the account of Dillon's items. '" speech, he wrote to the editor of the At the same time as the Glensharrold Freeman 'S Journal: dispute was coming to the boil, the . Sir, I am almost ashamed of myself ~ British Government sent a mission to the to waste so many words on this,' Holy See purportedly to negotiate on gentleman's personal offensiveness t6 matters concerning Malta. In fact, it myself when I read the language which,.? appears that this mission also raised the he dares to use towards the august and Plan of Campaign issue. Certainly sacred person of the Vicar of Christ. It is nationalists were convinced that this is no disgrace but an honour for a poor, what happened, and were furious at this simple Bishop to receive a few spatters of intervention. the dirt that is flung at the representative John Dillon made a speech in the of his Divine Master. If only I could get House of Commons on 11 July, 1890, in it all, and be covered with opprobrium the course of which he was reported to while I lived, so as to spare our old have said certain things which enraged Catholic nation the shame before the Bishop O'Dwyer. The Freeman's Journal world that one of the foulest charges ever account of Dillon's speech included the levelled against the successors of St. Peter was hurled at Leo XIII amidst the John Dillon. following words (this and all further quotations are taken from the I.L.P.U. cheers of English Protestants and pamphlet): English unbelievers by one who professes welcomed by the nationalist leaders who There was no fouler stain cast on the to be a member of the Church . here is urged the Glensharrold tenants to reject people of England, and no more a Catholic boasting of his Catholicity, the the settlement terms.