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4. The Land War, 1879-82 The Irish Land War IN LATE 1879 IRELAND ONCE AGAIN demanded the attention of the government and the British press when agitation over the land question entered its most fevered phase following three years ofbad weather , falling prices, and poor harvests.1 In some areas of the west and northwest the agricultural crisis in the winter of 1879-80 created nearfamine conditions for the most vulnerable sections of Irish society. It also provided an opportunity to the struggling Irish nationalist homerule movement. As Irish distress deepened some members of the Irish Parliamentarypartyundertook a campaign ofsystematic obstruction in parliament in retaliation for the neglect of Ireland. Among these was Charles Stewart Parnell, a Protestant landowner from an established political family in County Wicklow. Parnell impressed many leading Fenians, particularly members of the Clan na Gael, the leading Irish revolutionary organization in America. In October 1878 John Devoy, head ofthe Clan na Gael, proposed a "new departure" in which the Fenians would engage in constitutional tactics and support the nationalist politicians financially. In exchange, Parnell was supposed to have placed the issue of Irish self-government before agrarian matters. Parnell reversed these priorities immediately upon his election as president of the newly formed Irish National Land League in October 1879, deftly seizing on the land question as the keyto winning mass support in Ireland and qUicklytransforming the league into the most potent political association in postfamine Ireland. The league's long-term goal was a peasant proprietary in Ireland. In the short term it sought to address its members' most pressing concern by pressuring landlords to reduce rents. The Land League became a force in the countryside by applying a mixture of communal sanctions, intimidation, violence 201 202 The Land War, 1879-82 (implied and real), and terror, especially against "land-grabbers" who took over the farms of evicted tenants. Civil order in Ireland began to deteriorate, and a few months later, in the spring of 1880, William Gladstone and the Liberals returned to office with a renewed commitment to pacify Ireland. Soon after assuming office, the new Liberal government announced its decision not to revive the current coercion act and its intention to introduce a modest Compensation for Disturbance Bill to assist some evicted tenants. In August 1880 the Lords threw out the bill, providing Parnell and the Land League another opportunityto garner further support in Ireland and to increase the political pressure. Bythe end of1880 many British newspapers had plainly declared that there were "two rulers for Ireland," the queen's government which ruled in name only, and the Land League, which enforced its will through intimidation and terror. Despite opposition from the Radicals in his party, Gladstone was forced to reintroduce a coercion bill inJanuary1881. In response, Parnell and the Irish Parliamentary party raised parliamentary obstruction to new heights, at one point keeping the house in session for a record forty-one hours. Shortly afterward Parnell and many in his party were briefly ejected, and in their absence new rules were drafted to allow the speaker to prevent further delays in parliamentary business. A few months later, Gladstone was prepared to introduce his grand measure of peace and reconciliation to Ireland, his second Irish land bill. Passed after considerable political wrangling in August 1881, the Land Law (Ireland) Act of 1881 was the most important legislative enactment on Irish land of the nineteenth century. The bill satisfied most of the tenants' major demands and effectively made them part owners of the soil. The new Land Act also placed Parnell in a difficult position. On the one hand, he knew it to be an excellent measure that addressed most of the tenants' concerns. On the other, he realized that it would not satisfythose agitating for peasant proprietorship, norwould it please his allies in Clan na Gael who wanted an Irish republic. Parnell engineered a compromise at the Land League convention held in Dublin in mid-September 1881. It was decided that the Land League would "test" the act and intimidate the appointed land commissioners into making sweeping rent reductions by plaCing particularly grievous cases before them. In the meantime, Parnell and the other leaders spoke publicly of the act in increasingly bellicose tones, heaping abuse on Gladstone and the British government. Stung by what he saw as Irish ingratitude, the prime minister promised to take action against the Irish leaders. On 13 October 1881 Parnell and his deputies were arrested and placed in Kil...

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