Irish Peasants: Violence and Political Unrest, 1780–1914

2. Caravats and Shanavests: Whiteboyism and Faction Fighting in East Munster, 1802-11

2 Paul E. W. Roberts Caravats and Shanavests: Whiteboyism and Faction Fighting in East Munster, 1802-11 I Small farmers and rural laborers in prefamine Ireland thought of themselves as one distinct class- as "the poor." Most laborers were in fact small farmers of a kind, receiving their wages in land, renting conacre plots, or holding bona fide farms of up to about 10 acres. For their part, small farmers were sometimes reduced to supplementary laboring, and their surplus sons often became laborers. Shared poverty and shared grievances cemented the bond. l Their most direct economic relationships tended to be with the rural middle class, by which I mean the medium and larger farmers, and such people as publicans, millers, and shopkeepers. These were the main employers , traders in food, and monopolizers of land. For most laborers and many small farmers they were also their immediate landlords as a result of various forms of subletting. Beginning in the mideighteenth century, relations between these two classes became increasingly strained under the pressure of rapid economic and demographic growth. The most spectacular manifestation of this conflict was Whiteboyism - outbreaks of agrarian terrorism that repeatedly 1. This class consciousness is particularly apparent in Whiteboy notices, which habitually deal with both small farmers' and laborers' grievances although they speak only of "the poor." Hundreds of these notices are preserved in the State of the country papers, series 1 and 2 (S.P.0.), a collection of documents relating to Irish unrest from 1796 to 1831. These are mostly letters from country gentlemen and military officers to the central government and constitute the basic source for this essay. 64 ROBERTS: Caravats and Shanavests G A C l A R .Croom LIMERICK Charlevillec .Doneraile Mallow • o R • Maryborough U E IPPERARY Castlecomer· K Thurles • .Holycross .Kilkenny .Kilmanagh • Cappaghwhite .Ardmayle .Cashel Ballingarry. KILLKE~NY Dundrum- .Golden Newinn • • Bansha •Killenaule Mullinahonewwesgreen . .Fethard .Callan Windgap ..Kllmaganny -C1erahan .cahi~lonmel~____ .,cregg Carrick-on-Suir portlaw~ Waterford WATERFORD ~ .Knockboy .Kilmacthomas Ballylaneen. 65 [ARTOGRAPI-lIC lABORATORY UNIVERSITY OF \,VISCONSiN - MAOISO~' Area of the Caravat and Shanavest Movements 66 THE TRADITION OF VIOLENCE swept parts of Ireland between 1760 and 1845, primarily aimed at redressing the economic grievances of the poor and thus mainly directed against the middle class.2 This period also saw a marked increase in faction fighting, a term which refers to pitched battles between feuding bands at fairs and other public gatherings. The older feuds were largely territorial, but the new fighting often reflected more modern tensions, such as power conflicts between kinship-based mafias led by ambitious members of the middle class.3 II In 1806 a new faction feud erupted in east Munster between two large combinations styling themselves the Caravats (Carabhaiti) and Shanavests (Sean-Bheisteanna) , or the Cravats and Old Waistcoats. It was quite unlike previous feuds, which in their geographical range were usually confined to a few parishes or perhaps a barony. Between 1806 and 1811 the Caravat-Shanavest conflict seriously disturbed large areas of Tipperary , Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Cork, began to spread into Queen's County, Carlow, and Wexford, and briefly touched Clare, Kerry, and Kildare-eleven counties in all. Its violence was unprecedented. Traditional faction fights were ritualized, relatively restrained, and generally fought with sticks. The clashes between Caravats and Shanavests were ruthless free-for-alls involving firearms and frequent deaths. But most striking of all, the feud itself was overshadowed by a related Whiteboy outbreak. The feud was in fact a novel extension of the struggle between the Whiteboys and the rural middle class, and its unique scale and violence reflected its roots in the supralocal and bitter loyalties of class. The Caravats were primarily a Whiteboy organization. They were a kind of primitive syndicalist movement whose aim was apparently to absorb as many of the poor as possible into a network of autonomous local gangs, each exercising thoroughgoing control over its local economy, and the whole adding up to a generalized alternative system. This was not drastically different from previous Whiteboy movements, with the important exception that the Caravats do not seem to have tried to enroll 2. Good introductions to this neglected subject are J. S. Donnelly, Jr., "The Rightboy movement, 1785-8" in Studia Hib., nos. 17-18 (1977-8), pp. 120-202; idem, "The Whiteboy movement, 1761-5" in I.H.S., xxi, no. 81 (Mar. 1978), pp. 20-54; Maureen Wall, "The Whiteboys...