Boycotting
The most effective method of the Land League was the boycott, which took its name from when an unpopular landlord's agent, Charles Boycott, was ostracized by the local community. Boycotting was also applied to tenants who wanted to pay their rent, and to the police, as well as shops and other businesses who traded with boycotted people. The boycotts were often extremely effective, since they were unquestionably lawful under the common law, non-violent, and effectively punitive: since nobody is forced to join a boycott, it was a voluntary act, through private agreement, and consequently there was no common law remedy against it, since the right to not engage in commerce, socialization, or friendship is implicit in the right to engage in commerce, socialization, or friendship. Those who broke a boycott, and their families, however, could expect to be subject to social and informal sanctions for breaking a boycott, such as shunning, ostracism, or extension of the boycott to them. This proved an extraordinarily effective remedy against mistreatment, theoretically allowing people who believed they were being mistreated to counteract their situation purely through voluntary, non-violent, and unquestionably lawful means.
A minority also used violence on boycott-breakers and threats to ensure compliance. The fatal shooting of Peter Dempsey in 1881 was an example; he was a tenant farmer near Loughrea who was shot while walking his two daughters to Mass, using a mass path across a boycotted farm.
The boycott was particularly effective in the communities of rural Ireland. Ostracism made it very difficult to acquire food and other necessities; compliance with a boycott or leaving a community were the stark options.
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