Land War - Irish Land Act 1870

Irish Land Act 1870

Also in February 1870 the Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone introduced his "Act to amend the Law relating to the Occupation and Ownership of Land in Ireland", formally titled as the Landlord & Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870. This had passed into law rapidly in August, reforming some unfair contractual aspects where a land tenancy was economically viable. Gladstone found that Irish and English tenant farmers had different rights, and the aim was to equalize them.

Unfortunately the 1870 reforms became less relevant in the worsening economics of the following decade. Farm produce prices and earnings had been strong in the 1850s and 1860s, leading Irish tenant farmers to agree to pay higher rents. This was followed by years of low world prices, bad weather and poor harvests after 1874 all over Europe, known now as the "Long Depression". Wheat from new sources, such as the USA and the Ukraine, and refrigerated meat from Argentina and Australia, were imported into Europe, keeping prices low for producers there. Many consider that the spark that set off the events in Ireland was the murder of the unpopular Earl of Leitrim at Carrigart in April 1878. The three assailants went unpunished due to a lack of evidence as no witness wanted to testify against them.

Further, the term of most Irish land tenancies had reduced from a typical 31 years or "lease for three lives" in the 18th century down to annual or 11-month tenancies after 1850. This made Gladstone's attempt to equalise them with long-term English tenancies impractical, and caused tenants a considerable degree of insecurity. English tenants could also claim for the value of improvements and fertilisers when a lease came up for renewal; this sometimes applied in Ulster (the so-called "Ulster Custom"), but not in Connacht, the crucible of the Land War.

The Long Depression resulted in violence and widespread upheavals and extensive evictions when Irish tenant farmers were unable or unwilling to pay their rents and resorted to a rent strike. This was the case particularly in Connacht where the land is poorer, weather is wetter, farmers were poorer and there were fewer Royal Irish Constabulary on the ground. The first "monster meeting" (a huge rally) of tenant farmers was held on 20 April 1879 near Claremorris in County Mayo. This was followed by the localised, but worrying, 1879 famine that occurred mainly in Connacht.