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Matt Harris and the Irish Land Question, 1876–1882

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2014

BRIAN CASEY
BRIAN CASEY*
Affiliation:
Clonfert Diocesebriancasey03@gmail.com
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Abstract:

The land question concerned all classes in Ireland in the nineteenth century. A series of grassroots leaders played an important role in local politics that served as a major building block for future generations of politicians and nationalists. Yet the role of these regional personalities has generally been neglected in historiography as attention is paid to a ‘top-down’ approach to the Irish Land War. This article aims to address a lacuna in research by paying attention to one of the more significant regional personalities during the Irish Land War: Matt Harris. It will explore the ideas that he expressed on Land League platforms, pamphlets, newspapers and the Parnell Commission, as he sought a solution to the social malaise that was perpetuated thanks to an imbalance in land legislation that favoured stronger farmers while also giving a voice to the subaltern classes in the west of Ireland.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , October 2014 , pp. 183 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

Notes

1. Bew, Paul, Land and the National Question in Ireland, 1858–82 (Dublin, 1978), pp. 1–2Google Scholar.

2. See John Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (1876).

3. Bew, Land and the National Question, conclusion. The relevant Land Acts were 1870, 1881, 1885, 1890, 1903, 1909 and the 1882 Arrears Act.

4. Harris, Matthew, A Paper on the Present Condition, Socially and Politically of the Artisans of Ireland (Ballinasloe, 1880), p. 3Google Scholar.

5. See minutes of evidence of Matt Harris at Parnell Commission, pp. 171, 94, 515.

6. Report from the Select Committee on the Irish Land Act, 1870, HC 1878 (249), xv, I, p. 270, qs 4987–8.

7. The baptisimal records of St Michael's Church, Ballinasloe, indicate that Harris had eight children with Molly (Honora) Bennet of Ahascragh. Their children were Peter Harris, born 14th October 1862; John Harris, born 19th March 1865; Patrick Harris, born 22nd May 1866; Nora Harris, born 11th September 1867; Catherine Harris, born 7th March 1869; Peter Harris, born 25th April 1873; Bridget Harris, born 1st February 1877; Michael Harris, born 5th September 1879. The reader will note that two of the sons were called Peter. I have been unable to ascertain whether this was a transcription error or if the elder Peter had died before the younger Peter was born. My deep thanks to Dr Damian Mac Con Uladh for this information.

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12. Harris, A Paper on the Present Condition, p. 3.

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14. One notable exception was during the 1859 election when Captain Trench's older brother, Lord Dunlo, ran for election. See Brian Casey, ‘Land, Politics and Religion on the Clancarty Estate, East Galway, 1851–1914’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 2011), pp. 88–90.

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19. While Harris stated this in 1880, it is arguable that his sentiments could be applied retrospectively to 1876 and before. See Harris. A Paper on the Present Condition, p. 11.

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26. See Lucey, Land, Popular Politics and Agrarian Violence, pp. 15, 34–5; Moran, ‘Laying the Seeds for Agrarian Agitation’; Casey, Brian, ‘Matt Harris and the Ballinasloe Tenant Defence Association’, in Casey, Brian, ed., Defying the Law of the Land: Agrarian Radicals in Irish History (Dublin, 2013), pp. 90–9 and Casey, ‘Land, Politics and Religion’, chapter fourGoogle Scholar.

27. Royle, Chartism, p. 17. This is an idea of Edward Royle's in relation to the early days of Chartism in Britain. The similarities between this and what Harris was putting forward are striking and merit further scholarly investigation of British and Irish radicalism and the similarities between them.

28. Harris, Land Reform, pp. 20–1.

29. Ibid., pp. 12–13.

30. Ibid., p. 21.

31. Ibid., On the Political Situation (Dublin, 1880), p. 1. See also Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class (London, 1963)Google Scholar. Comerford's, R. V. ‘Patriotism as Pastime: The Appeal of Fenianism in the mid–1860s’, Irish Historical Studies, xxii (1981), 239–50 is important for understanding this alsoCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32. Connaught Telegraph, 9th November 1878.

33. Connaught Telegraph, 2nd September 1876.

34. See Casey, ‘Land, Politics and Religion’, pp. 172–4; Aidan Enright, ‘The Political Life of Charles Owen O’Conor’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Queen's University Belfast, 2011), p. 65; Kevin McKenna, ‘Power, Resistance and Ritual: Paternalism on the Clonbrock Estates, 1826–1908’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 2011), pp. 113, 189, 249.

35. Connaught Telegraph, 24th June 1876.

36. For a useful comparative, see Scotland, ‘The National Agricultural Labourers’ Union and the Demand for a Stake in the Soil, 1872–1896’, pp. 151–65.

37. Biagini, Eugenio, British Democracy and Irish Nationalism, 1876–1906 (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 3–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38. Harris, On the Political Situation, pp. 1–2.

39. Whelan, Irene, The Bible War in Ireland: The Second Reformation and the Polarisation of Protestant-Catholic Relations, 1800–1840 (Dublin, 2005), pp. 55, 70Google Scholar.

40. Harris, A Paper on the Present Condition, p. 12; Harris, On the Political Situation, p. 2.

41. Donnelly, James S. Jr., The Land and the People of Nineteenth Century Cork: The Rural Economy and the Irish Land Question (London and Boston, 1975), pp. 250–2Google Scholar.

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46. Cited in Geary, Laurence M., ‘Anticipating Memory: Landlordism, Agrarianism and Deference in Late Nineteenth-Century Ireland’, in Dunne, Tom and Geary, Laurence M., eds, History and the Public Sphere: Essays in Honour of John A. Murphy (Cork, 2005), p. 131Google Scholar.

47. For a useful comparison with British social radicals, see Labourers’ Union Chronicle; The Laws of God versus the Laws of Man (1881); Horn, Pamela, ‘Agricultural Trade Unionism in Oxfordshire’, in Dunbabin, J. P. D., Rural Discontent in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1973)Google Scholar; Scotland, ‘The Demand for a Stake in the Soil’.

48. Harris, Matthew, Land Reform: A Letter to the Council of the Irish National Land League (Dublin 1880), p. 4Google Scholar.

49. Ibid., pp. 4–5.

50. Connaught Telegraph, 13th April 1878; 11th May 1878.

51. Hynes, Eugene, Knock: The Virgin's Apparition in Nineteenth-century Ireland (Cork, 2009), p. 168Google Scholar.

52. Harris, Land Reform, p. 13.

53. Ibid., pp. 27–8.

54. Ibid., pp. 5, 8.

55. Ibid., pp. 9, 33

56. Ibid., p. 34.

57. Ibid, p. 37.

58. Ibid., pp. 38–9.

59. Connaught Telegraph, 31st March 1877.

60. Ibid.

61. Biagini, British Democracy and Irish Nationalism, pp. 26–7.

62. Brody, Hugh, Inishkillane: Change and Decline in the West of Ireland (London, 1973), pp. 192–6Google Scholar.

63. Bew, Land and the National Question, pp. 1, 38, 40; Jordan, Land and Popular Politics in Ireland, p. 215.

64. Cited in Geary ‘Anticipating Memory’, p. 127.

65. Ibid.

66. Biagini, British Democracy and Irish Nationalism, p. 28. For more on the increased democratisation of the Irish countryside see Feingold, W. E., The Revolt of the Tenantry: The Transformation of Local Government in Ireland, 1872–1886 (Boston, 1984)Google Scholar.

67. Harris, A Paper on the Present Condition, p. 7.

68. Crossman, Virginia, Politics Pauperism and Power in Late Nineteenth-century Ireland (Manchester, 2006), p. 36Google Scholar.

69. Harris, A Paper on the Present Condition, p. 11.

70. Harris, On the Political Situation, p. 2.

71. Harris, A Paper on the Present Condition, p. 12

72. Speech at Loughrea, County Galway, Irish National League, Number 200, 6th January 1880.

73. Parnell Commission, pp. 211–12, qs 95,077–9.

74. Cited in Curtis, The Depiction of Eviction in Ireland, pp. 127–8. For a recording of a recitation of this ballad, see Great British Railway Journeys, series four, episode twenty-five, Athlone to Galway (first broadcast, 8th February 2013).

75. Geary, ‘Anticipating Memory’, p. 132.

76. Parnell Commission, volume 1, p. 63; Finnegan, Pat, The Case of the Craughwell Prisoners during the Land War in County Galway, 1879–85 (Dublin, 2011)Google Scholar.

77. National Archives of Ireland, Irish National League, Number 80, 5th September 1880, Clonmacnoise, King's County, 5th September 1880.

78. Ibid.

79. This has been elucidated by Stephen Ball, ‘Policing the Irish Land War: Official Responses to Political Protest and Agrarian Crime in Ireland, 1879–91’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London, 2000); Thomas Feeney, ‘The Woodford Evictions’ (unpublished Master's dissertation, National University of Ireland Galway, 1978); Anne Finnegan, ‘The Land War in South-East Galway’ (unpublished Master's dissertation, National University of Ireland Galway, 1974). For published works, see Bew, Land and the National Question (Dublin, 1978); Curtis, L. P., ‘On Class and Class Conflict in the Land War’, Irish Economic and Social History, viii (1981), 86–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Curtis, L. P., The Depiction of Eviction in Ireland, 1845–1910 (Dublin, 2011)Google Scholar; Finnegan, PatThe Case of the Craughwell Prisoners during the Land War in Co. Galway, 1879–85 (Dublin, 2011)Google Scholar; Jordan, Donald, ‘The Irish National League and the “Unwritten Law”: Rural Protest and Nation-Building in Ireland 1882–1890’, Past and Present, 158 (1998), 146–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80. Exceptions to this include Jordan, ‘The Irish National League and the “unwritten law”’; Cunningham, John, ‘Recovering the Cargo of the Julia: Salvage, Law and the Killing of “Wreckers” in Connemara in 1873’ in Cronin, Maura and Sheehan, William, eds, Riotous Assemblies: Rebels, Riots and Revolt in Ireland (Dublin, 2011), pp. 127–53Google Scholar and Hynes, Knock. European historiography has been far more progressive in drawing on the social sciences in order to understand these clashes. A superb example of this is Weber, Eugen, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914 (London, 1976)Google Scholar.

81. Biagini, British Democracy and Irish Nationalism, pp. 26–7.

82. See Moran, Gerard, ‘The Land War, Urban Destitution and Town Tenant Protest, 1879–1882’, Saothar, 20 (1995), 17–30Google Scholar. For more on later clashes, see McNamara, Conor, ‘A Tenants’ League or a Shopkeepers’ League? Urban protest and the Town Tenants Association in the West of Ireland, 1909–1918’, Studia Hibernica, 36 (2009–10), 135–60Google Scholar.

83. Western News, 29th July 1882.

84. Harris, A Paper on the Present Condition, pp. 2–5.

85. Western News, 29th July 1882.

86. Harris, A Paper on the Present Condition, p. 7.

87. Western News, 29th July 1882.

88. See McNamara, ‘A Tenants’ League or a Shopkeepers’ League?’ and Casey, ‘Land, Politics and Religion’, chapter seven.

89. Scotland, ‘The Demand for a Stake in the Soil’, p. 159.

90. Curtis, The Depiction of Eviction.

91. Curtis, L. P., Coercion and Conciliation in Ireland, 1880–1892 (Princeton, 1963), pp. 238–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

92. For more on the Plan of Campaign, see Geary, Laurence, The Plan of Campaign, 1886–91 (Cork, 1986)Google Scholar. Despite the intrinsic interest and significance of the Woodford campaign, the historiography has been scant until recently. Nevertheless, there are some useful accounts. See: Brian Casey, ‘The Battle of Saunders Fort’, South East Galway Archaeological and Historical Society Newsletter (February 2013); Curtis, The Depiction of Eviction; Feeney, ‘The Woodford evictions’; Gorman, Thomas, Clanricarde Country and the Land Campaign (Woodford, 1987)Google Scholar and Moffit, Miriam, Clanricarde's Planters and Land Agitation in East Galway (Dublin, 2011)Google Scholar.

93. Lee, Modernisation of Irish Society, p. 127.

94. Curtis, L. P. Jnr., ‘Force: The Language of Violence in Irish Nationalism’, Journal of British Studies, 27: 2 (April, 1988), 183CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

95. Egan, P. K., The Parish of Ballinasloe: Its History from the Earliest Time to the Present (Dublin, 1960), p. 247Google Scholar.

96. Finnegan, The Land War in South-East Galway, p. 22.

97. For more on Fergus O’Connor and the Chartist Land Plan see Keane, Timothy, ‘Narrating the Irish Famine: Chartism, the Land and Fiction’, in Casey, ed., Defying the Law of the Land, pp. 44–64Google Scholar; see also Biagini, British Democracy and Irish Nationalism.

98. See Biagini, British Democracy and Irish Nationalism, p. 51.

99. Ibid., pp. 22–3.