3 - The Land War and the Land League

Summary

An account of the course and development of the Irish Land War itself is provided in this chapter. It examines the political and social role of the Land League alongside its particular diagnoses of Ireland’s economic and political malaise. The role of radical language, particularly discussion of the right to life and self-preservation, on Land League platforms is analysed. This is looked at in conjunction with the responses to the varying solutions to the Land question, such as peasant proprietorship and the ‘Three F’s’, as well as Gladstone’s 1881 Land Act. Labourers, both rural and urban, and their relationship to the Land League are considered. Finally, the chapter assesses the implications of the different forms of collective resistance to the institutions of landed proprietorship in Ireland, particularly boycotting, and considers these as examples of political ideals in action. It argues that such practices reinforced the same principles as those expressed discursively.