2. Causes of the Land War

2. Causes of the Land War

• 2. Causes of the Land War

• ‘the alliterative label widely used in post-Famine Ireland to describe long-standing, but in reality ambiguous tenant demands for fair rents, fixity of tenure and free sale (another name for tenant right).’

• Oxford Companion to Irish History, p571

Gladstone’s first land act

• Gladstone’s first land act

• Conceded tenant right in regions where it was customary

• It created smaller rights in other parts of Ireland

• It provided for compensation for disturbance of tenants evicted other than for non-payment of rent

It made provision for compensation for improvements in the case of a departing tenant

• It made provision for compensation for improvements in the case of a departing tenant

• The ‘Bright Clauses’ allowed tenants to purchase their holdings but it applied to very few

A farmers’ movement

• A farmers’ movement

• Townsmen played a prominent role

• Leadership provided by nationalist politicians

• A Catholic movement