Tithe War

Tithe War, a widespread campaign against tithes during 1830–3, began in October 1830 at Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny. Against a background of agricultural depression and raised Catholic expectations following the Catholic emancipation campaign, the movement spread through Cos. Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford, and Queen's, and subsequently into other parts of Leinster and Munster. By 1833 there were 22 counties in which half or more of tithes owed were unpaid. The campaign differed from contemporary agrarian protest in having the active support of large farmers, who had been particularly affected by the return of tithes on pasture land under the Tithe Composition Act 1823. It was openly supported by Archbishop MacHale, Bishop Doyle, and many of the Catholic parish clergy, as well as by local O'Connellite activists, although O'Connell himself kept his distance. The movement began as one of passive resistance, but the use of police and yeomen to seize livestock and other goods for non‐payment of tithe led to several violent affrays, notably at Newtownbarry, Co. Wexford (18 June 1831), where yeomanry were reported to have killed up to fourteen persons, and at Carrickshock, Co. Kilkenny, on 14 December, where protesters killed a process server and twelve accompanying policemen. From June 1833 government abandoned the use of soldiers and police to enforce tithe payment. Clergy in distress from non‐payment received loans (eventually written off) from public funds, while the Tithe Rentcharge Act (1838) mitigated popular hostility to the system.