Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title The State and the Landed Estate: order and shifting power relations in Ireland, 1815-1891 Author(s) Mc Entee, Joanne Publication Date 2013-01-23 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3402 Downloaded 2021-09-23T12:21:07Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. THE STATE AND THE LANDED ESTATE: ORDER AND SHIFTING POWER RELATIONS IN IRELAND 1815-1891 The thesis is submitted to the National University of Ireland, Galway for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the College of Arts and Humanities and the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies Joanne McEntee, B.sc., B.A. September, 2012 Department of History School of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies National University of Ireland, Galway Supervisor: Dr. John Cunningham Texts, Contexts, Cultures Project Leader: Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh SUMMARY OF CONTENTS The landed estate was a pivotal force in the construction of ‘order’ within its hinterlands in nineteenth century Ireland. The rules of the estate functioned beyond estate walls, affecting the lives of the tenantry politically, socially, economically, and culturally. This study has revealed how landlord-tenant relations were more complex than has hitherto been recognised. It has also shown how this relationship was significantly altered as the modernised and centralised state began to assert itself more forcefully through increased rules and regulations. Grounded in six case-studies, this research examined relations on estates located in the provinces of Ulster and Connacht. The estates were selected according to a series of sample criteria including, location, size, religious composition, estate acquisition, landlord and agent profile, and access to estate papers. Through a consideration of rental, social, legal, educational, and religious relations between estate authorities, tenants, and government officials, the research examined the evolution of order on Irish estates from 1815 to 1891. This research argued that the Act of Union of 1800 marked a watershed in power relations in Ireland. Through increasing centralising tendencies, the government succeeded in modifying landlord-tenant relations. Formerly operating from a quasi-feudalistic framework based on privilege and reciprocal obligations, a series of legislative initiatives from government – often heavily influenced by contemporary ideologies such as utilitarianism, evangelicalism and political economy – repositioned estate relations within a legal framework, which redefined traditional rights. This development had significant consequences for the order of Irish landed estates CONTENTS Declaration iii Acknowledgements iv Abbreviations vi Introduction ‘Live and let live’: The power and privilege of the landed class 1 I Ancien régime ESTATE RELATIONS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANDLORD AND TENANT, 1815-1891 1. Regulating Rent Relations: tenant right versus landlord privilege, 1815-1891 31 2. Customary rights of assistance to deserving tenants? Tenant welfare and social order, 1815-1860 65 II Laissez-faire RELATIONS BETWEEN THE ESTATE AND THE STATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANDLORD AND GOVERNMENT, 1830-1891 3. Justice for Ireland? Landlords, tenants and law and order, 1830-1891 92 4. ‘A good, sound English education’? : The relationship between landlords and the National Board of Education, 1831-1891 129 i III Fin de siècle RELATIONS BETWEEN THE ESTATE AND AGRARIAN INTERESTGROUPS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANDLORD AND COLLECTIVITIES, 1860-1891 5. ‘The priests are too double faced’: landlords, priests and the politics of piety on the estate, 1860-1891 165 6. The legal war on the Shirley Estate, 1881-1889 191 Conclusion ‘Lords of the soil’: The disinheritance, disenfranchisement, and disempowerment of the landed class 208 Appendix I: Landlord timeline, 1815-1891 223 Bibliography 224 ii DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and that it has not been submitted anywhere for any award. Where other sources of information have been used, they have been acknowledged. Signature: Date: iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Numerous people have assisted me over the years in the pursuit of my historical and personal goals. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge their contribution. Firstly, thank you to my doctoral research supervisors Professor Thomas Boylan (2008-2010) and Dr. John Cunningham (2010-2012) and to the landed estates project leader Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh. Thanks also to the Texts, Contexts, Cultures Directors NUI Galway, Professor Nicholas Allen (2008-2011) and Professor Sean Ryder (2011-2012). A special thank you also to the administrative staff of the Moore Institute, Martha Shaughnessy, Marie Kennedy, and Kate Thornhill. Many thanks also to Dr. Brigid Clesham and Marie Boran for advice. I am extremely grateful to the HEA’s Strategic Innovation Fund, PRTLI 4 for providing four years of funding. This support was crucial to my PhD and I truly appreciate it. I am also grateful for the financial assistance I obtained to undertake research trips and to attend conferences. I was privileged to receive a studentship from the Irish Legal History Society (IHLS) through the Irish Department of Justice, Equality, and Law Reform, and History Ireland. With respect to the latter, a particular word of thanks to Dr. Niamh Howlin. To previous history teachers who awoke my passion for history: Master Francis McAtavey, St. Brigid’s Girls’ National School, Ballybay, Co. Monaghan and Mr. Maurice Moriarty, St. Louis Secondary School, Monaghan town. A particular and very special word of thanks to Dr. Bernadette Whelan, University of Limerick, whose belief, encouragement, and assistance during my time in Limerick, not only greatly increased my confidence in my own academic abilities, but also encouraged and guided me towards doctoral study. I know I would not be where I am today without your kindness. Thank you. To all the members of staff in the History and English Departments, the University of Limerick who thought me so much during my B.A. To the staff of all the archives and libraries I visited over the course of my studies, in particular the staff of the National Library of Ireland, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, Trinity College Special Collections, and The National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. A iv word of thanks also to Penny Fussell, The Drapers’ Company, Drapers’ Hall, Throgmorton Avenue, London, who kindly met me in London and trusted me with a microfilm of the documentation which she sent over from Drapers’ Hall. To the library staff at the general desk and special collections in the James Hardiman Library, National University of Ireland, Galway. A warm thank you in particular to Vera Orschel archivist and friend. To the staff of Monaghan County Library, Clones, Co. Monaghan and the National Archives, Kew, London. To those who provided information and encouraged my work to varying degrees: Dr. Olwen Purdue, Dr. Róisín Healy, and Dr. Jean Whyte. To my twin Paula, who created a wonderful ‘landlord timeline’ which looks a hundred times better than anything I could ever have come up with! Also thank to Paula and Ryan for allowing me stay with them for several weeks during my research in Dublin. A special thank you to Dr. Jackie Uichionna for diligently proof reading my work prior to submission. A warm thank you to all the researchers who have passed through in the Moore Institute, Galway during my research – especially the Texts, Contexts, Cultures gang! To all the wonderful scholars I met since I embarked on my ‘historical’ journey, especially to those I encountered when I was lucky enough to be among twenty-five scholars selected to attend the first of a series of biennial doctoral seminars at the Centre for Irish Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and members of the Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland (SSNCI). Thanks also to my fellow-country woman and researcher, Lorraine O’Reilly for all her help and super company over the past two years. Finally, but by no means least, thank you to my family and friends for all their help and support over the years; Mammy, Daddy, Mairead, Paula, Ryan, Simeon, and Orla. Any errors in the research are my own. Joanne McEntee September 2012 v ABBREVIATIONS C.C. Catholic curate D.I.B. Dictionary of Irish Bibliography FJ Freemans Journal H.C. House of Commons I.F.C. Irish Folklore Collection N.A.I. National Archives of Ireland N.L.I. National Library of Ireland N.S. National school P.P. Parish priest P.R.O.N.I. Public Records Office of Northern Ireland Q.C. Queen’s Counsel R.C. Roman Catholic R.I.C. Royal Irish Constabulary W.C.R.O. Warwickshire County Record Office vi Introduction ‘Live and let live’ The power and privilege of the landed class ‘They bend, by dire necessity, to the dictate of their earth-lord. If he is a man of soul, of enterprise, all goes very well; if the reverse, and a hard-hearted, indolent, pleasure-loving spendthrift, his tenantry – the population of a whole town – must suffer for his sins’. In reference to the Carrickmacross tenants 1850 in William Stevens Balch, Ireland, as I saw the character, condition, and prospects of the people, p. 412 ‘I appeal to the Saxon men of all countries whether I am right or not in estimate of the Celtic character. Furious fanaticism; a love of war and disorder; a hatred for order and patient industry; no accumulative habits; restless, treacherous, uncertain: look at Ireland’. Comment made in 1850 by Robert Knox, The races of men: a fragment, p. 7 ‘The connexion between the inheritor and the occupier of the soil being one which must influence if not control the whole system of society’. Quote taken from an 1830 report on the Irish poor in Sir George Nicholls, A history of the Irish poor law, p.