Ireland

by Joseph Coohill

  The Tenant League tried to have the Three Fs apply throughout the country (and to have them codified into law in Ulster, where they were only a custom). The Tenant League’s proposed method of attaining the Three Fs was to help elect an independent Irish party to the House of Commons. The Irish Parliamentary Party of the second half of the nineteenth century does not owe its origins solely to the Tenant League, however. There were other imporant factors, particularly religious ones. The increase in sectarian mistrust (discussed in the previous chapter) and the controversy over Catholic ecclesiastical titles in 1850 and 1851 (a battle over whether the Pope had the right to create territorial titles for Catholic bishops in England) caused many Irish politicians to think that they must do something to protect Catholic interests in Ireland. In May 1851, therefore, a number of Irish Liberals in the House of Commons decided to band together as ‘the Irish Brigade’. The Brigade then sought support outside parliament, so they founded the Catholic Defence Association and made an alliance with the Tenant League. This was the first step towards a uniting of the land movement and Catholic defenders, which would have a profound effect on the way the Home Rule movement was conducted later in the century. In the 1852 election, they were largely successful, returning about forty MPs out of a total of a hundred and three Irish MPs. They became known as the ‘Irish Brigade’ and the ‘Pope’s Brass Band’. But the Irish Party soon failed in one of its fundamental aims: to remain independent of other parties in Parliament. Two leaders of the party joined the new government administration in 1853, in an attempt to gain further concessions for Catholics. This caused a bitter split in the Party and in the Tenant League because many of its members wanted to remain loyal to their idea of independence from other parties; they then formed the Independent Opposition Party.

  Rising economic prosperity in the mid-1850s also slowed down the Tenant League’s momentum, since many people did not have immediate grievances to air. The Tenant League gradually fizzled out and held its last meeting in 1858. The Independent Opposition Party continued its work, but eventually allied with the British Liberals in 1866. The collapse of the League’s efforts caused many Irish reformers to question constitutional and parliamentary tactics. Not only would it be difficult to get the British government to accept reform, they argued, it now seemed impossible for Irish politicians to bring effective pressure to bear on the government. The Tenant League cannot be seen as a complete failure, however. Its main success was simply in the fact that it organized itself and gained a good deal of support from the agricultural community. The fact that it could not bring the right pressure to bear on the government to effect significant land reform does not detract from this point. It was as a popularizer of land issues and as a propaganda machine that the Tenant League was a success. The reason that it received so much attention, and was credited with so many other successes, was that Duffy was a very effective propagandist. It also was non-sectarian, and appealed to agricultural workers and farmers of all religions and political opinions. All these things provided models for the more successful Land League of the 1880s.

  FENIANISM

  With the failure of O’Connell’s Repeal movement and now the failure of the Tenant League, many reformers thought that the impetus should be taken out of the hands of constitutional politicians and put into the hands of revolutionaries. These revolutionaries were generally known as ‘Fenians’, which referred to ancient Irish warrior tribes. The most significant of these revolutionary groups became known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), but it was initially simply called ‘the organization’. It was founded on 17 March 1858 (St Patrick’s Day) in Dublin, and a parallel organization was founded in New York in April 1859. Most of the leading Fenians had played a part in Young Ireland’s 1848 rising. James Stephens (1824–1901), from Kilkenny, was the founder of the Dublin Fenians and became the nominal head of the New York Fenians in 1859. He established a Fenian newspaper, the Irish People, put down rival revolutionary organizations, and was the chief organizing inspiration behind Fenian activity.

  John O’Mahoney (1816–77, leader of the American branch), John O’Leary (1830–1907), Thomas Clarke Luby (1821–1901) and Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa (1831–1915) were other prominent members. There were several reasons for the Fenians to think that they might be successful. Stephens had a good deal of experience with secret societies in Paris, they had financial support from America and Britain’s difficult ‘victory’ in the Crimean War highlighted serious problems with British military effectiveness; there was a mutiny in India in 1857, and British relations with France (a potential ally of Irish radicals) were dangerously close to war. But war with France never came, and the Fenians began to look to the United States as their most likely ally. This impression was further strengthened during the American Civil War (1861–5), when it appeared at several points that Britain might enter the war on the southern side. Although the purpose of Fenianism was to overthrow British rule in Ireland and to found an Irish Republic, it is fairly clear that a number of its more important leaders would have compromised a good deal to obtain control over Ireland’s domestic affairs yet retain the formal supremacy of the English crown. Further, connections with Irish constitutional leaders such as the Home Rulers (see chapter six), though informal, was generally good.

  O’Donovan Rossa went to the United States in 1871 and raised funds for a terrorist campaign in Britain between 1881 and 1885. The Fenians’ main idea was that Britain would never succumb to constitutional methods for Irish reform. It would never grant Irish independence except when compelled by physical force. Further, they focused solely on the goal of independence. They had no social or economic policies or ideas for governing an independent Ireland. The organization and its methods were designed to be completely secret, and was organized by ‘cells’, local groups with a local leader. Fenianism was successful in gaining members (roughly 54,000 by 1864, which was a large number for a supposedly ‘secret’ society). It appealed to the middle classes, as well as to artisans and shopkeepers. Fenianism also offered recreation and entertainment, and this was a very important aspect of its organization and appeal. Some of the games it offered were distinctly military in style (and even included drilling, marching and ‘war games’). It organized hiking trips, gymnastics, boxing and social events such as picnics. By 1865 there were thousands of Fenians across the country. The Catholic church banned its members from becoming Fenians, although it is impossible to know how effective this ban was. The Fenians received considerable help from abroad, especially from Fenian groups in Britain (including in the British army) and the US (mostly made up of Irish immigrants). Some Irish officers who had served in the American Civil War came back to Ireland to plan for a rising in 1865. The government realized that Fenian activity was reaching a climax and quickly moved in to arrest many of its prominent members and leaders (including Stephens, O’Leary and O’Donovan Rossa) in late 1865. Another Fenian rising of 4–6 March 1867 was based mainly in Dublin and Cork. There were less extensive battles in Tipperary and Limerick. Rather than attack well fortified positions or attempt arms raids, the Fenians concentrated on capturing less important areas and institutions, such as railway and coastguard stations. The hoped-for arrival of an American ship with troops and arms did not materialize (indeed, it did not arrive until May, although there were still regional skirmishes taking place then). Three prominent Fenians were executed in Manchester for killing a policeman while rescuing two Fenian leaders on their way to trial in September 1867. The execution of these ‘Manchester martyrs’ did a great deal to turn Irish public opinion in favour of the Fenians. After their initial hostility to Fenianism, many Catholic clergy held masses of mourning for the Manchester martyrs (many saw the policeman’s killing as accidental rather than calculated). This support from much of the Catholic clergy (although it is important to note that the church hierarchy, especially Cardinal Paul Cullen (1803–78), were strongly opposed to Fenianism) helped to ease the hesitation that had prevente
d many people from supporting Fenianism. It also led to a thaw in relations between militant and constitutional Irish reformers. Isaac Butt (1813–79), the founder of the Home Rule movement, defended Fenian prisoners and argued for a general amnesty (which never came). After the failures of 1867, the Fenians regrouped and reorganized. Fenianism would not emerge again publicly for another generation. But, like Young Ireland, the Fenians and the Fenian ideal still had a great hold on the nationalist psyche.

  THE LAND PROBLEM RESURFACES

  All this agitation and political stress took its toll on the British government. In the election of 1868, the Liberals were returned to power under their leader William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98). He had won the election with a great deal of Irish support (after promising to disestablish the Anglican Church of Ireland). When told of his victory, Gladstone was reported to have said, ‘my mission is to pacify Ireland’. In 1869, Gladstone’s government pushed through its disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. This ended the official position of the Anglican Church in Ireland, and it had to rely on its own resources from then on. Gladstone had also raised the land issue during the election campaign (and, indeed, had spoken of many Irish landlords in harsh terms). A new Tenant League was founded in September 1869, and a massive Land Conference was held in February 1870 to discuss different ideas for land reform from different groups and to settle on a common strategy. Gladstone’s next Irish reform was the 1870 Land Act. It brought in some reforms for tenants in other parts of the country, although it fell short of granting the Three Fs the Tenant League had demanded. These reforms also allowed farmers to borrow money more easily to buy more land. With prices fluctuating as they were, a debt burden became a particular economic danger. With this re-emergence of the land question, and the work of constitutional nationalists like Isaac Butt to convince farmers and tenants that a measure of Home Rule would be the solution to their problems, Fenianism seemed to lose much of the attention it had gained in the 1860s. At the Fenian Convention in March 1873, the supreme council declared that another rising would be postponed, and that, until then, Fenians should support any movement which increased Irish independence. At the 1874 election, Isaac Butt’s Home Rulers were very successful (winning sixty seats) and the Fenian-sympathizing Irish Liberals nearly eliminated (holding on to ten seats).

  At roughly the same time as the Home Rule movement was starting in the early 1870s (see chapter six), the Fenian movement began further agitation. While the Home Rule movement was becoming a serious parliamentary force, the IRB condemned the Home Rulers and in 1876 demanded that IRB members cease to co-operate with them. This did not work completely because many Fenians saw Home Rule as a potential solution, and they converted to its cause. There was also a split between the supreme council of the Fenians in Ireland and the American branch, who were beginning to see potential in the rising Home Ruler Charles Stewart Parnell. In December 1877, the Irish radical Michael Davitt was released from Dartmoor prison in England. Born at the height of the Famine in 1846, Davitt was the son of an evicted tenant farmer in County Mayo. He had joined the Fenians in 1865, but was arrested for gun-running and sent to prison in 1870. Leading Home Rulers such as Isaac Butt and Parnell pressured the British government to grant amnesty to Fenians, and Davitt was released. His hatred for England had deepened while in prison, although he apparently liked English people, especially the working classes, partly because he had spent much of his boyhood working in a cotton mill in Lancashire in the north of England. After he was released from prison, Davitt failed to get Parnell to join the IRB. In 1878 he went to the United States and met with John Devoy (1842–1928), a Fenian who had gone to New York after being released from a British prison in 1871.

  Together they devised a policy called the New Departure in June 1878. The New Departure was based on the idea that the question of national sovereignty was inextricably linked with land issues. Davitt and Devoy argued that the British government would never grant land reform that would benefit tenants. A land reform movement would provide the basis for an eventual national movement, they stressed, once tenants and farmers saw that their land interests could only be addressed by a native Irish government. The supreme council of the IRB and Parnell disagreed with the New Departure and would not endorse it initially. A worldwide agricultural depression hit in the late 1870s, coinciding with a run of bad harvests. This made agricultural workers fear that a severe economic downturn loomed. Crop prices dropped dramatically. Although the bad harvests would normally have prompted a rise in prices for crops, they actually suffered because of cheaper imports from North America. Livestock values also fell. Further, emigration had slackened because of the economic recession in America in the late 1870s, so more people had stayed in Ireland than would normally have been the case. Some of these were young men who became bitter as economic opportunities closed all around them. Overall agricultural output fell, and farmers who were in debt were pushed to the wall. Landlords were asked to reduce rents. The winter of 1878–9 was very harsh, however, and an economic crisis loomed in Ireland. Some Home Rule moderates were beginning to change their minds about the New Departure. Crops failed, and small farmers and their tenants faced the real possibility of ruin, eviction and even starvation. Davitt decided that this crisis demanded the immediate attention of Irish reformers. He called a land meeting at Irishtown in County Mayo for 20 April 1879. It was a big success, and it was followed by a good deal of land agitation in the west. Davitt scheduled another meeting for 8 June 1879 at Westport in County Mayo, and he persuaded Parnell to agree to speak at the meeting.

  THE LAND LEAGUE AND THE LAND WAR

  By this time, Parnell had begun to see the importance of the land question and its potential in bringing about Home Rule. At Westport, he raised the rallying cry, ‘hold a firm grip on your homestead and lands’. On 21 October 1879, Davitt founded the Irish National Land League in Dublin, and Parnell became its president. Parnell provided general leadership and brought in nationalists of differing opinions. Davitt served as the Land League’s organizer. Moderate Home Rulers as well as extreme nationalists joined the league. Catholic clergy also supported the League, and money poured in from the United States.

  The main work of the League was to resist landlords who sought to evict tenants. They also agitated to reduce rents, with the ultimate goal of making land cheap enough for poor farmers to buy plots. This was the beginning of the Land War of 1879–82, which many argue was the greatest social and political movement in modern Irish history. It started because tenants demanded rent reductions in response to a fall in agricultural incomes in the late 1870s. When these were not granted, they turned to a campaign against landlords and landlordism (the system of landholding which allowed landlords to have so much power). The Land War started in County Mayo and spread through the west and then throughout the country by 1880. The reason the Land War did not just fizzle out after the first local, and disconnected, agitations is because there was leadership to take up the cause. So the combining of the national question with the land question (the ‘new departure’), and providing organization and leadership, made sure that the land agitation could continue. Land War tactics were as follows. Whenever there was an eviction, public demonstrations were held at the property. Sometimes evictions were prevented by Land Leaguers physically blocking bailiffs. New tenants sent in to take over property from those evicted were often prevented from doing so by masses of Leaguers. Families who were evicted were given financial support and often taken into the homes of Land Leaguers. The League provided legal defence for those accused of agrarian agitation. There were many mass meetings, marching bands and speeches proclaiming the League’s message of land reform throughout the country. The most famous method of agitation used by the League, however, was social and economic ostracism of landlords whom the League thought were unjust. In September 1880, Captain Charles Boycott, a land agent for Lord Erne’s estate in County Mayo, refused to stop evicting tenants. The League surrounded his lands and
cut him off from agricultural labourers who could help him with his harvest. Boycott finally received help from Ulster Orangemen and a thousand army troops, and brought in his harvest (worth about £350). Boycott’s name was soon used to describe economic ostracism.

  In the election earlier that year, Gladstone’s Liberal Party had been brought back to power. Parnell gained many more seats for his Irish Party, and forced the government to pay attention to land concerns. Gladstone appointed W. E. Forster (1819–86) as Chief Secretary in Ireland. Forster tried to pass a bill to protect tenants, but it was rejected by the House of Lords. This meant that the government had to enforce harsh laws against tenants who resisted eviction, and it raised a great deal of bitterness and hatred towards London. The Land War worsened during 1880 and 1881. The League set up its own courts to adjudicate land disputes (particularly in the west), and acted almost as a revolutionary government in many parts of the country. The government adopted a two-pronged strategy to deal with the Land War. First it passed a Coercion Act, which allowed for arrest without charge. Davitt was arrested on 3 February 1881 under this Act. Gladstone also passed a Land Act in August 1881. It basically granted the Three Fs and set up a special court to fix rents. The League were not satisfied with this Act, and began to demand peasant ownership of property. They continued to agitate and to call for increased agitation across the country. Gladstone then had Parnell and other leaders arrested, and outlawed the League in October 1881. The Ladies’ Land League then took up the agitation. It was run by Anna Parnell (1852–1911), Charles’s sister. But the Land War ran out of control and much violence attended its activities. Gladstone reached an understanding with Parnell in the ‘Kilmainham Treaty’ (so called because Parnell was imprisoned in Kilmainham jail in Dublin). Gladstone agreed to implement further reforms to help tenants, and Parnell agreed to end the agitation. The Chief Secretary, Forster, refused to agree to the Kilmainham Treaty and resigned. He was replaced by Lord Frederick Cavendish (1836–82). Soon after they arrived in Ireland, Cavendish and his secretary were murdered in Phoenix Park on 6 May 1882. This raised the spectre of renewed violence and tension was high. The government passed an even stricter Coercion Act, but also passed a number of other reforms for tenants. Gladstone’s land reforms went a long way towards the eventual creation of a peasant landowning class in Ireland. Under the terms of his 1881 Act, some land was to be held under dual ownership between landlord and tenant. Many landlords did not want to operate under this system and sold out to their tenants. Gradually, due to the work of the land courts, rents were reduced. Two further important land reforms in 1885 and 1903 eventually helped establish a system of owner-occupiers, which in many cases meant peasant ownership. This pattern of landholding has largely continued in Ireland.