Pre-Famine IrelandUnion and its Discontents

1800-1845

She is far from the landWhere her young hero sleeps,And lovers are round her, sighing;But coldly she turns From their gaze, and weeps,For her heart in his grave is lying.

She sings the wild songsOf her dear native plains,Ev'ry note which she loved awakening -Ah! little they thinkWho delight in her strains,How the heart of the Minstrelis breaking.

He had lived for his love,For his country he died,They were all that to lifeHad entwined him -Nor soon shall the tearsOf his country be dried,Nor long will his loveStay behind him.

Oh! make her a graveWhere the sunbeams rest,When they promise a glorious morrow;They'll shine o'er her sleepLike a smile from the West,From her own lovedIsland of sorrow.

Lyrics by Thomas Moore (1779-1852)

Topics

• Union

• Catholic emancipation

• Economy

• Education

• Housing

• Population increase

– Migration

Union

Act of Union - English Motivation

• Reaction to Rebellion of 1798

• Independent Irish parliament had passed different measures for regency

• Fear that Catholic emancipation would be forced in Ireland and

– A Catholic dominated Ireland would ally with France

Act of Union - English Motivation

• Direct control

• Consolidation (as France was doing)

• Rejection of confederation (as US did)

• Greater security

Act of Union – Irish Support

“We cannot shut our eyes to the map of Europe . . .What then in point of fact is the security of a country which has no means of defence, or security or self-preservation. . .”

Lord Auckland

The British Effort

• Viceroy Cornwallis; Secretary Castlereagh

• Government publications

• 1799 vote 104-109

• Problem: 300 Irish commons seats replaced by 100 seats in Westminster; Lords to elect 28 to serve in Westminster

• Offer of Catholic Emancipation

Cornwallis and Castlereagh

British Effort in Ireland

• Secret service money

– Paying supporters of the union (pensions),

– Funding a propaganda campaign

– Purchasing seats in parliament

– Members of both houses given British peerages

• Buy out eliminated boroughs £1,260,000

• 1800 vote 158-115

How did they pass the Union?(Irish nationalist poem)

• By perjury and fraud;• By slaves who sold their land for gold• As Judas sold his God• By all the savage acts that yet• Have followed England's track,• The pitch-cap and the bayonet,• The gibbet and the rack;• And thus was passed the union• By Pitt and Castlereagh;• Could Satan send for such an end• More worthy tools than they?

Act of Union -Particulars

• Abolishes Dublin parliament

• Gives Ireland representation in Westminster

– Lords: Four Church of Ireland bishops, 28 peers

– Commons: 100 MPs

• United Church

• Abolish tariffs over 10 year period

• Ireland to contribute 2/17 of the budget

Emmet’s Trial

Execution

The Speech

George IV visits 1821

Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847)Catholic Emancipation

• Born Co. Kerry of dispossessed family

• Educated in France

• 1794 admitted to bar in England

• 1811 Catholic Board

• 1823 Catholic Association w. Richard LalorShiel

Catholic Association

• Moderate pose - open meetings

– Membership – one guinea

– Promotion by Frederick William Conway, protestant editor of the Dublin Evening Post

• ‘Catholic Rent’

– Associate membership for 1d/month

Strategies

• Participate in census

• Petition– Abolition of tithes to support the Church of

Ireland

– Repeal of the remaining Penal laws

– Repeal the Act of Union

– Advocate suppression of Orange lodges

– For Government assistance for Catholic education; Poor Laws.

1828 Campaign

Daniel O'Connell

• 1838 Ran and won seat in Parliament

– Seat denied

• 1839 “ “

Emancipation Act - Election

• Allowed election of Catholics

• O’Connell stands again

• Raise franchise bar from 40s to ₤10

1829 Catholic Emancipation

Peel

Wellington

Tithe War (1831-38)

• 1823 Tithe Composition Act

– Tithes in produce replaced by monetary tithes

– Proportional to parish income

• Resistance in form of non-payment

– Enforcement

– Rallies and taunting crowds

Tithe War

• 1834 Massacre at Gortroe – 9 immediate deaths; 3 from wounds

• 1836 Tithe Composition Act

– Tithes apply just to landlords

– Passed down in higher rents

O’Connell in Parliament

• Advocate for:

– Prison reform

– Free trade

– Abolition of slavery

– Jewish emancipation

– Universal suffrage

– Repeal

O’Connell ‘Tribute’ or ‘Rent’

Crime 1832

• Murders 242

• Assaults and robberies 1340

• Riots 203

Crime (1844-46)

Committals per 100,000 population

Ireland England

Violent crimes 76 27

Property crimes 141 158

Some Government Interventions

• 1831 Board of Works

• 1833 Education: Public funding of elementary schools

• 1838 Poverty: Irish Poor Law

Public Works

• Set up a number of commissions

• Discuss loans for railway construction

– Aim to provide employment

• 1831 Dunleary harbor - Kingstown

• 1834 Dublin – Kingstown Railway (William Dargan, James Pim)

– 3rd passenger line in UK

• Public buildings

Education

• Hedge schools continue traditions

– 1824 11,000 schools with ~500,000 students

• Kildare Place Society

– Non-sectarian

– 1831 1,621 schools with 140,000 students

• 1831 National Schools

Kildare Place Society HQ

Ballydown National School, Co. Down 1865

Carrying turf to school, 1870

Census - Economy - Jobs

• 1821 census

– Ask name; age; occupation; relationship to the head of the household; acreage of land holding; number of storeys (stories) of house.

• Distribution of occupations ~50/50

– Chiefly employed in agriculture

– Chiefly employed in trades, manufactures and handicrafts

Census 1831 & 1841

1831

• Ask about religion but not about housing

1841

• More complete - name; age; occupation; relationship to the head of the household; date of marriage; literacy; absent family members; family members who died since 1831;

Occupations 1841

Male Female

Laborers, servants 55.4 33.7

Textile workers 7.1 59.9

Farmers 20.7 1.9

Artisans 10.5 0.7

White collar 4.9 3.4

Other 1.5 0.4

Character of the Economy

• Rural - only 20% in areas over 20 houses

• Dispersed industry

– Rising competition from Lancashire and Scotland

• Cash exports

– Wheat – prices decrease after 1815

– Live cattle

Exports

Exports

• Linen – Dublin, Belfast

• Corn – Limerick, Waterford, Drogheda

• Cattle – Donaghadee

• Butter, pork, beef – Cork

Regional differences

Linen

Tillage

Dairy

Cattle

Small farms

Population change by baronie

1821-1841

Dublin

Belfast

1841Migration of those who were less than 10 in 1821

Migration: Regional differences

• Available wasteland in the West that was of little interest to large landlords

• Difficulty of obtaining land in the East

– Subletting Act of 1826

• Pre 1845 emigration does not seem related to famine or disease

Factors

• Division of land

• Competition from English mills

• Changing land use

Cycles of famine and disease

• Strong economy during Napoleonic wars

• Poor harvests 1815, 1816

– 1817 famine

• Poor harvest 1821

– Famine 1822

Division of land - 1841

• 135,209 Irish tenants held an acre or less

• 306,915 held less than five acres

1793 Farm leased to one tenant for 54 years

– 1847 96 tenants (81 living on land)

– 48 cabins with under tenants

– Population ~700

Assisted Emigration

• 1837 Colonial bounty system, NSW

• Agricultural laborers, shepherds, tradesmen, female domestics and farm servants– £38 as a bounty for any married man and his wife, if

under 40 year;

– £5 for each child between 1 and 7 years; £10 for each child between 7 and 15 years and £15 for each above 15 years;

– £19 for an unmarried female domestic or farm servant between 15 and 30

Motives

• “eliminate paupers”

– Lower poor rates

• Converted by Priest Protection Society

• Enlarge farms and covert to pasturage

• Human “ballast”

– Timber from Canada

– Cotton from New Orleans to Liverpool

1844 Emigration

DestinationBritish North America 22,924United States 43,660Australia and New Zealand 2,229All Other Places 1,873

70,686

Emigration

1831-41 214,047 sailed directly from Ireland to America (2/3 from Ulster and Munster).

It is estimated that 152,738 more sailed via Liverpool

1841 419,256 Irish-born living in Great Britain

Emigration - pull

• Land in America

• Towns in America

• Coalfields in England

Decline in Irish Speakers

• 1800 Irish primary language of half of Irish people

• 1851 Irish speakers down to a quarter

– Only 1/5 of those were "monolingual Irish speakers"

Reasons

• Social mobility

• Economic mobility

• School mobility

• State schools

Illiteracy 1841

16-25 26-35 46-55 66-75

Leinster 29.5 33.5 45.3 51.8

Munster 48.5 57.1 64.0 67.6

Ulster 27.6 33.6 39.1 41.4

Connacht 62.5 67.4 73.8 77.7

Males 34.6 38.5 43.1 45.8

Females 45.4 54.7 63.6 65.8

Poor Law 1838

• Set up poor unions to administer

• Poor tax levied on local landlords but passed on to their tenants.

– Burden on small land owners

– Resistance in some areas

– Resentment because imposed by England

Workhouses

• 127 poor-law unions established by 1841

• Rapid expansion

– Not rapid enough

Workhouses Inmates

1841 4 5,468

1845 118 43,293

Workhouses

St. Ita’s Hospital

Tipperary Workhouse dietChildren 5-9

• Indian meal, bread, milk, soup

Energy(kcal)

Protein(g)

Fat(g)

Vitamin A(units)

2007 55.5 23.8 131

Problems in workhouses

• (Xer)ophthalmia

– WILLIAM R. WILDE, Esq., F.R.C.S.I., Surgeon to St. Mark's Ophthalmic Hospital, Dublin ; and Assistant Commissioner for taking the Census of Ireland in 1851, etc

• Scurvy

Acts affecting Ireland

• 1838 Irish Poor Law Act

• 1840 Irish Municipal Corporations Act

– Does away with some boroughs

– Makes municipal government more representative

Decline of Irish Speakers (from 1881 census)

Kilmallock, Co. Limerick

Average Daily Diet Of An IrishLabourer, 1839

Quant. Protein Fat Carbs

Energy Ca. Fe.

g/ml g g g kcal mg mgPotatoes 5113 72 Tr 1007 4090 220 24.5Buttermilk 1800 63.0 3.6 92 630 2178 TrTotal 135 3.6 1099 4720 2398 24.5