Irish-American History

Lesson 6: The Political Situation

The Land

While political intrigue continued to flourish in London , the ‘Absentee Landlords’were unable to keep a watchful eye on what was going on back in Ireland.. Land Agents were appointed whose jobs entailed raising funds for their Lords and masters through ever –increasing rents. These Agents let the land to Middlemen who in turn sub-let to more and more cottiers. During the ‘good years’ , when potatoes were plentiful , people married young , had large families , which meant more and more sub-divisions on the land.

Cottiers never owned their land. They ‘rented’ the ground from year to year so there was never any encouragement to improve the land, mainly because the tenants had no security and could be turned off the land for any number of reasons.

‘It would be impossible to describe adequately the privations which they ( Cottiers and their families) habitually and patiently endure. It will be seen in the Evidence , that in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water, that their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather , that a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury, and that nearly in all , their pigs and manure heap constitute their only property. When we consider this state of things , and the large proportion of the population which comes under the designation of agricultural labourers , we have to repeat that the patient endurance which they exhibit is deserving of high commendation, and entitles them to the best attention of Government and of Parliament.’ (3)

These were among the findings of the Devon Commission in 1843 , but instead of evoking feelings of sympathy and promoting positive action , Sir Charles Trevelyan. Assistant Secretary to the British Treasury and the man responsible for providing aid to Ireland , said as late as 1848,

‘It is hard upon the poor people that they should be deprived of knowing that they are suffering from an affliction of God’s providence.’, (4)

Cottiers paid off their rents mainly in labour; by working a set number of days in the Landlord’s harvest, usually at the rate of 6pence a day. Since most parcels were rented at around £3 , this meant 120 days labour on the landlord’s ground. The rest of his time he spent tending his own parcel.

The land he rented was usually large enough to grow enough potatoes for his family. The Irish Labourer, by this time, had become almost totally dependent on the potato to survive. Earlier crop failures had been localised and quickly dealt with through Charitable and Relief activities.

‘A major Famine in the years 1739-41 killed thousands.’ (5)

This was one of the main reasons for sizeable Ulster-Scots Emigration to North America in the first half of the 18th Century.

‘Famines had also occurred in 1816-17 ,1822,1826, and 1831 , causing large numbers of deaths from starvation and fever , but small –scale aid was usually made available fairly quickly, through a ,mixture of Government help and private charity.’ (6)

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