When the larger past of the Island of Ireland became independent in 1922 there were no more redcoats and the land issue had been settled. In contrast in many European countries even in the 1930s a tiny minority owned most of the land as in Hungary.
This eviction was in Co. Clare note partly reroofed house
Re the transfer of Land, the Irish Land commission transferred nearly 14.5 million acres from the Landed Estates to the tenant almost 70% of the landmass of the Island of Ireland.
As an aside many literary figures such as Hugh Leonard worked there.
By my reckoning this was probably the largest voluntary land transfer in world history. It was motivated by the concept of killing Home Rule by Kindness.
From around 1895 if the Estate was willing to sell the Land Commission offered market value with a premium of 25% for selling on a voluntary basis. By that time most estates were distressed and they were only too willing to sell.
They had to produce legal title to the satisfaction of the Land Commission Law Officer. As a consequence there are 8.5 million documents stored in a warehouse in Portlaoise. The denial of access to the public is a national scandal. Many of these are certified copies of records the originals of which were destroyed in the Public Records Office in 1922.
Extract enclosed from submission to Dr. Robert Watt, then Secretary General D/Public Expenditure and Reform. He called me to come and meet him with good vibes but no sign of progress.
Landed Estates
Fior anyone interested there is a really good online site maintained by UCG on the landed esta and families.
Popularly the land struggle is remembered as grasoi landlords and evicted tenants. The reality was different with many nuances.
In the West Cork area which am familia what the various estates say the Beecher family in 1780 had 50,000 acres admittedly some of it mountain and bog. The family ran up significant debts maintaining a house in London, William Wrixon Beecher married the celebrated Irish actress Miss Elizabeth O’Neill in 1819.
It was funded from the 1790s by granting leases for 3 lives and 21 years for a capital sum. Usually a few townlanads were involved. Those who got them were the middlemen and included well to do Church of Ireland and Methodist farmers as well as a significant cohort of well to do local Catholics some being of the old Gaelic Gentry. Acting in a logical fashion they extracted as much as they could l knowing that when their lease would expire there wouldn’t be compensation unlike in Ulster.
The Beecher estate was insolvent and ended up in the Landed Estate Court in the 1850s it was stated that the middlemens rent was three times that received by the Beechers.
Some of the purchase of the Beecher and other local estates included
Timothy McCarthy Downing, Nationalist MP and solicitor had 7,000 acres
Samuel Levis (family of Huguenot extraction, Skibbereen, merchant and baronial constable (Tax Collector)
Wright family, Claonakilty, land agents and solicitors.
1898. Bantry Petty Session Court. Stirring Days if the Land League Recalled. Intimidation, Eviction, Boycott, Cattle Maiming.
1886 Attempted Eviction and Siege at Tim Hurley’s Castle (Mill and Farm) , Castleview, Clonakilty. Landlord Francis Evans Bennett, (1824-1888), Cregan Manor, Rosscarbery.
Collections for Evicted Tenants, Castlehaven/Myross, Myross, Ardfield, Rathbarry. 1892 Collection Ballyroe. 1893, Clonakilty Evicted Tenants Fund. Like a Mini Census. Fiery address of James Gilhooley, M.P., in Goleen on Evictions. Gilhooley ‘The Irish People Have Never Acknowledged this Right of Any Nation In the World To Govern Them.
Eviction on Wright Holding, Coolculaghta, Durrus, May 1883.
Re the transfer of Land, the Irish Land commission transferred nearly 14.5 million acres from the Landed Estates to the tenant almost 70% of the landmass of the Island of Ireland.
As an aside many literary figures such as Hugh Leonard worked there.
By my reckoning this was probably the largest voluntary land transfer in world history. It was motivated by the concept of killing Home Rule by Kindness.
From around 1895 if the Estate was willing to sell the Land Commission offered market value with a premium of 25% for selling on a voluntary basis. By that time most estates were distressed and they were only too willing to sell.
They had to produce legal title to the satisfaction of the Land Commission Law Officer. As a consequence there are 8.5 million documents stored in a warehouse in Portlaoise. Many of these are certified copies of records the originals of which were destroyed in the Public Records Office in 1922.
Landed Estates
Fior anyone interested there is a really good online site maintained by UCG on the landed esta and families.
Popularly the land struggle is remembered as grasoi landlords and evicted tenants. The reality was different with many nuances.
In the West Cork area which am familia what the various estates say the Beecher family in 1780 had 50,000 acres admittedly some of it mountain and bog. The family ran up significant debts maintaining a house in London, William Wrixon Beecher married the celebrated Irish actress Miss Elizabeth O’Neill in 1819.
It was funded from the 1790s by granting leases for 3 lives and 21 years for a capital sum. Usually a few townlanads were involved. Those who got them were the middlemen and included well to do Church of Ireland and Methodist farmers as well as a significant cohort of well to do local Catholics some being of the old Gaelic Gentry. Acting in a logical fashion they extracted as much as they could l knowing that when their lease would expire there wouldn’t be compensation unlike in Ulster.
The Beecher estate was insolvent and ended up in the Landed Estate Court in the 1850s it was stated that the middlemens rent was three times that received by the Beechers.
Some of the purchase of the Beecher and other local estates included
Timothy McCarthy Downing, Nationalist MP and solicitor had 7,000 acres
Samuel Levis (family of Huguenot extraction, Skibbereen, merchant and baronial constable (Tax Collector)
Wright family, Claonakilty, land agents and solicitors. etc
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West Cork History 