Ireland post-famine

Question 1

Changes post-famine

Answer 1

• pressure on land reduced by smaller pop
• US $ coming into Ireland due to Irish -> American immigration
• Irish Home Rule Party founded after 72 Ballot Act - 60 MPs elected + led by lawyer Isaac Butt

Question 2

Problems in 1870s Ireland

Answer 2

• dropping value of land after the 74 depression -> tenants could no longer pay rent -> evictions 2x in 78 then 2s again in 80 (around 1000 families evicted due to non-payment of rent)
• Home Rule Party struggled to make impact in parliament due to weak leadership
• rack-renting from absentee landlords struggling because of the agricultural depression
• violent gov opposition w/ the Young Ireland group + Society of United Irishmen

Question 3

Unrest in Ireland post-famine

Answer 3

• 58 - Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians) founded -> 67 Fenian outrages in England

Question 4

Gladstone’s attempts to pacify Ireland

Answer 4

• 69 Irish Church act - enabled 6000 tenants to buy their land + severed link between church + state
• 1st Irish Land Act - legalised Ulster Custom, tenants had to be compensated for improvements made to the land, John Bright clause aimed to reduce to price of land by 1/3 but was still unaffordable for most - wreaked by H of L + had mainly symbolic sig
• failed Irish Universities Bill - GOM resigned, Dizzy refused to take power so GOM took power again

Question 5

Changes in Ireland during Dizzy’s premiership

Answer 5

• 75 - Irish Home Rule MP Parnell made his maiden speech in commons - declared Ireland a nation + protested lack of land reforms + evictions
• Davitt founded the Land League in 79 - compelled tenants to resist evictions
• Parnell became leader of the LL in 80 after GOM was elected - used violence, boycotts + killed landlords
• Parnell used obstructionism in Parliament to make Home Rule relevant but refused to join the Republican Brotherhood to not associate himself w/LL violence
• in his speech @ Ennis Parnell urged the Irish to “isolate him from the rest of his kind” when talking about landlords who evict their tenants
• Land League campaigned for 3 F’s - Fair Rents, Free Sale, Fixity of Tenure
• Parnell elected as leader of IPP in 80