agrarian protest

agrarian protest was a distinctive feature of Irish rural society from the appearance of the Whiteboys in Co. Tipperary in 1761 to the Famine. Secrecy was protected by the administration of oaths and the use of disguise. Protestors stated their demands in public proclamations and letters to individuals, often issued in the name of a mythical leader (‘Captain Right’, ‘Captain Rock’), and borrowing the language of official or legal documents. Failure to obey was punished by destruction of property or livestock, or by the beating, mutilation, or killing of offenders. Early protest movements made relatively sparing use of violence; assassination and serious injury became more common following the bloody events of the 1790s.

The main agrarian movements of the 18th century were the Houghers, the Whiteboys, the Oakboys, the Hearts of Steel, and the Rightboys. In 1821–4 the Rockites (followers of ‘Captain Rock’) were active in much of Munster. Other names used in the early 19th century included Threshers, Carders, Whitefeet, Terry Alts, Lady Clares, and Molly Maguires. The nature of the organizations concealed behind these names remains obscure. There is occasional evidence of communication and joint action between districts. But in other cases it is likely that local groups drew independently on an increasingly familiar repertoire of methods, ritual, and symbolism.

Agrarian protest was traditionally seen as reflecting the alienation of a Catholic Gaelic peasantry from an Anglicized, Protestant landlord class imposed by conquest. Modern accounts emphasize instead the conservative and defensive nature of most protest. The major outbreaks of the late 18th century arose in response to new developments, such as the enclosure of common land, the farming out of tithe collection, or increasing levels of county cess. The great peaks of agrarian disturbance in the first half of the 19th century (1813–16, 1819–23, 1831–4) likewise coincided with periods of depression and falling prices. The defensive nature of agrarian crime is also evident in its concentration in the relatively affluent counties of the south and east, where the pressure for innovation in land use and estate management was most marked, and in a gradual westward shift, reflecting an advancing frontier of commercialization, in the location of the most acute disturbances. Recent studies also emphasize the extent to which much protest was directed, not by tenants against landlords, but against tenant farmers by the agricultural labourers and cottiers who were their employees and subtenants.

Agrarian crime declined after the Famine, as population pressure eased and living standards rose. Threats, assaults, and property damage all increased sharply with the return of agrarian depression from the late 1870s; but this was in the context of a movement (see land war) quite different, in its level of organization, ideology, and social composition, from the agrarian secret societies of earlier decades.

Bibliography

Clark, S., and Donnelly, J. S. (eds.), Irish Peasants: Violence and Political Unrest 1780–1914 (1983)