How successfully was the land issue in Ireland resolved by 1903 Essay Example Essay Example

How successfully was the land issue in Ireland resolved by 1903? Essay Example Paper How successfully was the land issue in Ireland resolved by 1903 Essay Introduction How successfully was the land issue in Ireland resolved by 1903? BY btJktngn How successfully was the land issue in Ireland resolved by 1903? There were many issues with land in Ireland from the late 1840’s to 1903. Land issues in Ireland united people in both the USA and Ireland. The Fenian Brotherhood was a movement started in 1848 whose purpose was to obtain Irish independence from England. Around 1. 5% of the landowners in Ireland owned a third of the land in the country, and up to 25% of the landlords were not resident in Ireland. The potato blight of the 1840’s was to acutely exacerbate the problem of landownership, with the otato crops failure economic pressure was brought upon Irish landlords with decreasing rentals and the burden of the poor law. As a result of this many landlords resorted to coercive methods to collect the rent, up to and including the eviction of the tenant. Landlords could legally evict whenever they decided as most farmers did not have a le ase of their farms. They were tenants at will’, and they could be legally evicted whenever the landlord chose to do to this. Another issue was the fact that landlords spent very little money on improving their properties, and outside of Ulster here was no compensation for any improvements made to a holding by the tenant. This was a barrier to agricultural development and a great injustice. There was no incentive to improve property because of this, and of the few tenants who may have had money to invest in the holding had no right of redress in the event of eviction. How successfully was the land issue in Ireland resolved by 1903? Essay Body Paragraphs Contrary to this system, James Fintan Lalor in a letter to The Irish Felon argued that â€Å"l hold and maintain that the entire soil of a country belongs of right to the people of that country, and it is the rightful property not of any one class, but of the nation at large. Lalor and others encouraged the formation of tenant organisations devoted to securing tenants’ rights because of this the Irish Tenant League was founded by Charles Gavan Duffy. The aim of the Irish Tenant League was to improve the position of tenant farmers in Ireland, whatever their denominational background. Even though the league by 1852 had become the Independent Irish Party, in its two years it brought to the fore the campaign for the three Fs’: free sale, fair rent and fixity of tenure. Free sale, known as the ‘Ulster Custom’, involved selling the interest on a property to the next tenant. It also guaranteed that the tenant was compensated for any improvements made to the landl ord’s property. Fair rent gave tenants the opportunity of low rent payments on properties and a rent that was fixed by a tribunal rather than by the landlords themselves. Fixity of tenure was guaranteed tenure of land over a period of time. Some years later in 1869 due to an economic downturn there was a revival of The Irish Tenant League; this was led by Sir John Gray. The agenda of the league was to address the three Fs’ and the propulsion of the movement was provided by a land conference held in February 1870 where roposals were agreed upon for the best way to move forward regarding the land issue. William Gladstone, the British prime minister, also hoped to improve the influenced by the National Association set up in 1864 by Cardinal Cullen. Addressing an election meeting in Lancashire in 1868, Gladstone declared that â€Å"The Church of Ireland. is but one of a group of questions. There is the Church of Ireland, there is the land of Ireland, there is the educatio n of Ireland; there are many subjects, all of which depend on one greater than all of them; they are all so many branches from ne trunk, and that trunk is the tree of what is called the Protestant Ascendancy. We therefore, aim at the destruction of that system of ascendancy. † From this speech we can see Gladstone’s clear flair and determination to seek a resolution to the issue of land in Ireland. Upon hearing that he was to become Prime Minister in 1868 Gladstone declared that his ‘mission is to pacify Ireland’. Facing a number of obstacles it was not politically possible for Gladstone and his cabinet to introduce radical reform to the landholding system in Ireland; as such a move would have been ery unpopular with MPs and peers in the House of Lords. As a result of this, Gladstone decided that the best course of action would be to legalise custom. In his first ministry he attempted numerous times to tackle Irish issues through reform, the centrepiece bei ng the Irish Land Act of 1870. The Land Act of 1870 attempted to address some aspects of the three Fs’. Gladstone had three main aims that he intended to achieve with this new land Act. Firstly: firstly, if a tenant was evicted for any reason other than non-payment of rent then the individual had the right to claim ompensation. Secondly, government loans, commonly known as ‘Bright Clauses’, would be made available to tenants wishing to purchase property from their landlords and for the first time ever tenants were allowed to borrow up to two thirds of the cost of buying their property from the government; finally, rent was to be controlled and kept at a fair rate. However, there were issues with Gladstone’s first Act. The Act failed to create a tribunal system to control rent and to prevent unfair rent increases. Tenants with leases longer than thirty-one years were not protected y the Act. Fewer than one thousand farmers took advantage of the bright claus e as most were unable to borrow such amounts of money; therefore tenants lacked protection against eviction. Aside from these setbacks of the first Land Act, it was symbolically very important and it set a precedent for government intervention in the land question. It would take some nine years before any further progress was made on the land question and it was an Irish man by the name of Michael Davitt that would make this progress. Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo, when he as four and a half years old he was evicted with his family due to arrears in rent. They then went to a local workhouse but when his mother discovered that male children over three years of age were separated from their mothers, she moved the family to England to find a better life. They travelled to Haslingden, in East Lancashire and there they settled. Davitt was brought up in a poor Irish immigrant community with strong nationalist feelings and for Michael a deep hatred of landlordism to coinc ide. In his later life he was sent to Dartmoor prison in 1870 for gun running hile a Page 3. member of the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood. ) While imprisoned, he came up redistribution of land and non-violent means was the best way to do this. Poor agricultural conditions of tenant famers led Davitt to become an advocate of the land issue which eventually led to him setting up the Land League of Mayo in 1879, which then spread through Ireland, and was soon constituted as the National Land League in 1879 with Charles Stewart Parnell as its President. â€Å"The campaign that followed turned the Home Rule and Nationalist Party into an umbrella movement. – (From Britain and Ireland 1867-1922 pg 28. ) Through Davitt and the Leagues campaigning and hard work immediate improvements happened, with Canon Burke reducing his rental rates by twenty five percent. The Land League was the excellent opportunity for Parnell and the other leaders to gather together all disparate elements o f the broader nationalist movement. The aim of the Land League and the purpose of the land war were to defend the tenant from the uncontrolled excesses of the land lord. A speech made by Parnell in 1880 encouraged individuals to refuse to pay unfair ents and to also refuse to rent farms where others had been evicted from. He essentially aimed to criminalise taking other farmers land, that is, a boycott of anyone who sought to undermine the Land League’s campaign. The Times reported on 20th September 1880 that Parnell stated that â€Å"When a man takes a farm from which another has been evicted, you must shun him on the road side. you must shun him in the streets of the town. and even in the place of worship, by leaving him alone. you must show him your detestation of the crime he has committed. † In 1881 Gladstone introduced his second Land Act, 11 years after his first. The difference was that finally the three Fs’ were granted to everyone and Land Courts were set up. The new Land Act was essentially a short term solution to the political unrest in Ireland. He aimed to reduce the unrest in Ireland by attempting to lower rent and pacify the population. The Land Act of 1881 included a land purchase act and fifteen year leases were set (rent was frozen for fifteen years), an idea that was unheard of in Ireland at the time as tenants were at the landlords disposal and experienced xtortionately expensive rates. There were flaws however, as tenants in arrears did not have the opportunity to go to court, and as at least one third of tenants were in arrears, the majority of the population were still at a disadvantage. An Arrears Act was also introduced and provided E800,OOO for 130,000 tenants to cover their outstanding payments. This was brought in to reduce the agitation and violence throughout the country, and it served its purpose. The following reforms aimed to continue to improve living conditions for tenants and provide them with some esse ntial legal rights. In 1885 a series of Conservative Reforms to take the heat out of the land struggle, included the Ashbourne Land Purchase Act 1885 which lent five million to buy farms. Farmers got full Page 4. purchase price. This saw a huge improvement in tenant conditions. Tenants could finally afford to buy their land. Following this, Balfour’s Land Act of 1887 amended Gladstone’s 15 year lease to a 3 year lease. Rent rates were also reduced by 15%. 100,000 leaseholders could go to court for the first time. 1891 seen Balfour’s Land Act, which was the biggest land purchase scheme with E33 million to enable land enants could afford to take advantage of the new scheme. Due to this he introduced the Congested Districts Boards to help poorer areas and provide all tenants with the means to purchase their land. Finally in 1903 the Wyndham Act was introduced and was to be the biggest scheme yet. EIOO million was spent on land purchase and landlords were encouraged into selling their whole estates rather than sections and tenants were given 68 years to pay back. This funding and extended payment plans provided tenants with fairer and more equal opportunities to expand and develop in a more economically viable way. Essentially this ended the phase of the land agitation that had begun over twenty years earlier however issues over land were to flare up again during the tan war and right up until the 1930’s when all Irish farmers owned their own land. Resolution by 1903 was more or less achieved; there were definitely significant changes made and more equal opportunities for farmers but it was not completely resolved until the 1930’s. Some people would even argue that in some ways land issues are still not completely resolved to this day in 2013, but that’s a topic of discussion for perhaps a different essay. We will write a custom essay sample on How successfully was the land issue in Ireland resolved by 1903? 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