Irish Society

Irish Society. This was responsible with its shareholders, the London companies, for the development of Co. Londonderry as part of the Ulster plantation. James I and his ministers cajoled the City of London and its wealthy guild‐companies into making a patriotic investment to fortify and plant this strategic region. The Irish Society took charge of the towns, customs, and fisheries, and devolved the rest of the county to the companies in twelve proportions.

Rapid progress was made at Coleraine and, after a false start, the walls of Derry were constructed between 1614 and 1618. Apart from bringing over a few London orphans as apprentices, the City relied on creating the necessary infrastructure. The companies kept up their profit margins by retaining many Irish inhabitants.

By 1630 there were about 1,930 British settlers in the whole county. The 1622 Cranfield Commission accused the Londoners of slowness in clearing, fortifying, and colonizing. Sir Thomas Phillips of Limavady, originally a promoter of London's involvement, assembled evidence against the City. This formed the basis of the crown's prosecution in the Star Chamber in 1635. Although the City's accounts showed that it had spent £140,000 where only £20,000 was originally demanded, it was found guilty and subjected to fine and confiscation.

Cromwell returned the plantation to the Irish Society in 1658. Thereafter the investors obtained a steady return. The liquidity crisis caused by the South Sea Bubble (1720) forced the companies either to sell their proportions, in the case of the Goldsmiths and Vintners, or to let them at heavy entry fines. The Irish Society itself continued to invest in the towns, building bridges over the Bann and the Foyle. The years before the Great Famine saw considerable philanthropic investment by the companies, most notably the rebuilding of Moneymore, Draperstown, Kilrea, and Eglinton. Six companies sold up during the 1870s and 1880s, in response to land agitation; the purchase provisions of the Land Acts brought the dissolution of the remaining proportions. The Irish Society sold its last major asset, the Foyle Fisheries, in 1952.

Bibliography

Moody, T. W. , The Londonderry Plantation (1939)

Hiram Morgan