The first of our Autumn Lecture Series took place on Friday 18 September at the Lalor Centre in Baltinglass when Oliver Whelan spoke on the topic addressed in his new book Landlords and Tenants in County Carlow, 1879-1960. Oliver talked about the enormous changes in the profile of land ownership which occurred in County Carlow and across Ireland. Starting with the Land Wars of the 1870s through to Gladstone’s land courts of the 1880s and the hugely influential Wyndham Act of 1903, when the authorities were attempting to kill the Home Rule movement ‘with kindness’, the land of Ireland was gradually transferred away from the great estates. Many indebted landlords were happy to avail of the opportunity to sell to their tenants. Yet this was a neither a straight forward or a quiet revolution. The Land League was initially a reaction to the injustice of wholesale eviction of tenants who during harsh economic conditions, were unable to pay inflated rents. The movement relied to some extent on social pressure to address what was a social crisis. There were winners and losers, legal challenges, intimidation, boycotts and some lawlessness in the early 1920s. All told however, by 1939 landlordism had almost disappeared in Ireland as a major socio-political shift occurred in less than seventy years.
Many thanks to Oliver for an engaging talk and presentation. Oliver is a native of Hacketstown and a former director of the National Treasury Management Agency. He holds a PhD in Irish history from NUIM Maynooth. His book is available in hard back and can be obtained from all good book shops.
Photo L to R): Cora Crampton (Honorary Secretary of WWHS) with Oliver Whelan at the Lalor Centre.