The Irish Land Wars & The Fight Against British Landlords
Irish History Through the Lens of Rebellion & Resistance
If colonization is about control, then land is always at the heart of the struggle.
By the 19th century, Ireland was a nation of tenants on its own soil—stripped of landownership through centuries of English conquest, Cromwell’s ethnic cleansing, and the brutal enforcement of the Penal Laws. Irish farmers and laborers toiled on land that had once been theirs, paying outrageous rents to absentee British landlords who saw them as disposable.
But the Irish, as always, resisted.
From secret peasant organizations like the Whiteboys to the massive Land League movement, the Irish Land Wars (1870s–1890s) were a battle not just for survival, but for dignity, justice, and freedom. And in the process, they gave the world a powerful weapon against oppression: boycotting.
The Root of the Conflict: Who Owned the Land?
By the mid-19th century, less than 5% of Irish Catholics owned land. The vast majority of Ireland’s farmland had been confiscated and redistributed to English and Anglo-Irish Protestant landlords. Irish tenants had no security—they could be evicted at any time, for any reason, and many lived in abject poverty.
The system was designed to keep the Irish poor and powerless, ensuring that British rule remained unchallenged.
Absentee Landlords: Many British landlords never even set foot in Ireland, collecting rent from estates they had never seen.
Absurd Rents: Tenants were forced to pay sky-high rents for land that barely sustained them.
Eviction at Will: If a tenant couldn’t pay or if the landlord wanted them gone, they were thrown out—often with nowhere to go.
And when disaster struck—like the Great Hunger (1845-1852)—landlords continued to evict starving families, exporting food from Ireland while their tenants perished.
But a people pushed to the brink will always push back.
The Rise of the Land War (1870s-1890s)
In the decades following the Great Hunger (famine), Irish resistance against landlordism exploded into direct action. Led by radical politicians, tenant farmers, and secret agrarian societies, the Irish Land War was waged in the fields, in the courts, and through mass protest movements.
The Land League: Organizing the Fight for Justice
In 1879, Michael Davitt, a revolutionary and former political prisoner, joined forces with Charles Stewart Parnell, a charismatic Irish MP, to form the Irish National Land League.
Their demands were simple but revolutionary:
Fair rents that tenants could actually afford.
Security of tenure, so tenants couldn’t be evicted without cause.
The right to own the land they worked.
For the first time, tenant farmers across Ireland united against their landlords—and their tactics would shake the British Empire.
Boycotts: Ireland’s Gift to Global Resistance
One of the most effective weapons of the Land War wasn’t violence—it was organized economic resistance.
In 1880, a British landlord’s agent in County Mayo, Captain Charles Boycott, became the target of a revolutionary new tactic.
His workers stopped working.
Local businesses refused to serve him.
His crops rotted in the fields because no one would harvest them.
Captain Boycott became so isolated that he had to flee Ireland—and in doing so, his name became a verb.
To boycott—to refuse to engage with an oppressor economically—became one of the most powerful strategies of nonviolent resistance, later used by labor unions, the Civil Rights Movement, anti-apartheid activists, and many others.
Peasant Resistance & Secret Societies
The Land League wasn’t the first group to fight against landlordism. Long before mass movements, secret agrarian societies like the Whiteboys, Ribbonmen, and Rockites waged a covert war against landlords and their agents.
The Whiteboys (1760s) – Destroyed fences, tore down enclosures, and resisted land seizures.
The Ribbonmen (1800s) – Used intimidation and sabotage to fight landlord oppression.
The Rockites (1820s) – Attacked landlords and evicted tenants who collaborated with the British.
These groups operated in the shadows, burning eviction notices, threatening landlords, and punishing informers.
The message was clear: Resistance would not be silenced.
The British Response: Brutality & Suppression
As always, British rule met Irish resistance with brutal force.
Eviction Armies: Thousands of families were violently thrown from their homes.
Coercion Acts: Britain passed special laws to outlaw protests and imprison Land League leaders.
Mass Imprisonment: Parnell and hundreds of activists were jailed for “sedition.”
But the movement only grew stronger.
Victory: Land Reform & Irish Land Ownership
By the late 1800s, the British government could no longer ignore the demands of the Irish people.
A series of Land Acts (1881-1903) were passed, granting tenants the right to fair rents and eventual land ownership.
Evictions dropped as landlords were forced to negotiate with tenants.
Tenants gained security—a radical shift from the days when they could be removed at will.
Land Purchase Acts allowed Irish farmers to own their land for the first time in centuries.
The Land Wars did not achieve full independence, but they broke the back of British landlordism in Ireland.
The Black-Irish Connection: Land, Labor & Dispossession
The Irish Land War was not unique—the same strategies of land theft and forced labor were used against Black and Indigenous peoples worldwide.
Enslaved Africans were denied land ownership. Just like Irish tenants, Black sharecroppers in the U.S. were trapped in cycles of debt and eviction under white landlords.
Reconstruction-Era Land Seizures mirrored Irish Evictions. After the Civil War, Black Americans were promised “40 acres and a mule”—but white landowners quickly seized back control, forcing Black farmers into tenant farming, just like the Irish.
Boycotts became a tool of Black Liberation. Inspired by Irish tactics, African Americans used economic resistance against segregation—from the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) to apartheid-era South Africa.
Wherever empire stole land, the oppressed found ways to fight back.
Final Reflection: Why This History Still Matters
The Irish Land War teaches us three essential lessons about colonial resistance:
Land is power. Control of land means control of resources, people, and futures.
Economic resistance works. From boycotts to rent strikes, refusing to fund oppression is a revolutionary act.
Oppression is global, and so is liberation. The same tactics used in Ireland were used against Black, Indigenous, and colonized peoples worldwide—and the same strategies of resistance can be used today.
Ireland’s Land War was one battle in a much larger war—the fight to reclaim what was stolen and ensure that no people are ever made strangers on their own land again.
Further Learning: Watch, Read & Engage
📺 Watch:
Land and Revolution (Documentary)
Michael Davitt: The Man Who Fought the Landlords (RTÉ Special)
📖 Read:
The Irish Land War by Philip Bull
Engage:
Research how land dispossession impacted other oppressed communities.
Explore how modern gentrification echoes the tactics of British landlords.
Music of Resistance: The Soundtrack of the Irish Land Wars
Music was not just entertainment during the Irish Land Wars—it was a weapon of resistance, a voice for the voiceless, and a rallying cry against oppression. Many traditional Irish folk songs tell the stories of evictions, tenant struggles, and the fight for land ownership.
Here are a few songs that capture the spirit of the Land War and Ireland’s ongoing struggle for sovereignty:
“The Fields of Athenry”
Perhaps the most famous Irish song about land dispossession and exile, this ballad tells the story of a man who was deported to Australia for stealing food during the famine—an all-too-common reality under British rule.
“Skibbereen”
A haunting ballad about eviction, famine, and British cruelty, sung from the perspective of a father explaining to his son why they had to flee Ireland. The lyrics recount the burning of homes, forced displacement, and the enduring pain of exile.
“The Bold Tenant Farmer”
A song celebrating tenant resistance against landlords, this folk tune tells of Irish farmers standing up to their oppressors and refusing to submit.
“No Irish Need Apply”
While more focused on Irish discrimination abroad, this song captures the struggles of Irish immigrants—many of whom had been evicted from their land in Ireland and forced to seek a new life elsewhere.
Listen & Reflect:
As you listen, think about how music can preserve history, especially when the dominant powers try to erase it.
How do modern protest songs (in any culture) serve a similar role to these Irish rebel songs?
Music carries history. Music carries rebellion. Music carries the fight forward.
Tomorrow’s Article: The Flight of the Earls & The Loss of Gaelic Ireland
With Irish landlords replaced by British rule, Ireland’s nobility was forced into exile—leaving a leaderless people to fend for themselves. Join us tomorrow as we explore how the Flight of the Earls (1607) marked the final death of Gaelic Ireland and set the stage for centuries of resistance.
Support This Work: Keep Resistance Alive
This article is part of the 59 Days of Resistance: A Journey Through Black and Irish Liberation. After March, it will only be available through the full curriculum.
📖 Get the full guide here: 👉 59 Days of Resistance
In solidarity and liberation,
Desireé B. Stephens CPS-P
Educator | Counselor | Community Builder
Founder, Make Shi(f)t Happen