6 - The West's Awake! The early months of the Land War

Summary

The West's Asleep

When all beside a vigil keep

The West's asleep, the West's asleep

Alas and well may Erin weep

When Connacht lives in slumber deep

But hark some voice like thunder spake

The West's awake, the West's awake

Sing oh, hurrah, let England quake

We'll watch till death for Erin's sake!

Attributed to Thomas Davis

Now Alice, for goodness' sake don't begin. I am sick of that Land League. From morning to night it is nothing but coercion and Griffith's valuation.

George Moore, A Drama in Muslin

The Irish Land War began at Irishtown in County Mayo on 20 April 1879. By summer much of the county was enveloped in an agitation consisting of Sunday rallies with fiery speeches and militant resolutions. It was a heady time, when gaily dressed men and women marched to rallies in military formation, following pike-carrying horsemen and local bands playing patriotic airs. They cheered lustily the most inflammatory anti-landlord speeches and listened attentively to balladeers lament their plight and joyfully affirm their new militancy. Yet this air of festivity could not mask the increased foreboding of Mayo people that the economic distress of the previous two years would soon turn into a full-fledged famine.