Irish History Synopsis: 1850 to death of Queen Victoria

Irish History Synopsis: 1850 to death of Queen Victoria pg 1

Although the government had smothered the Gaelic culture beneith its dark hand of death, dispair and dispondancy, by 1851 a subdued spirit of renewal arose among the survivors both on the island itself and in its lands of diaspora.

During 1849 the Navigation Act which had so impeeded the importation of food to the island was repealed by the English Parliament.
A Tenants Rights Association was formed in Ireland to fight the continuing evictions by landlords creating a temporaty unity between south and north. The Irish Tenant Rights League was established.

By 1850 Parliament passed a Rate In Aid Act imposing on Ireland not the rest of England the disbursement of the costs of the Famine. This required the costs of the Famine and its relief being charged to the Irish not the English.
Many of the class of strong farmers, those having leases of 20 acres or more, had prosecuted there fellow Irish for stealing food such as turnips from the fields. Most of these cases were refused by the assize justices which created a great howl of injustice from the farmers bringing the charges.
This adament desire for justice, however, may have contained a seed of sympathy in that if the starving person were either sent to jail or transported they would escape the death sentance that had been imposed upon them.

In 1850 Parliament passed the Franchise Act changing the qualification for voters to enable an occupational class with a valuation of 12 pounds for the county vote and 8 pounds for the burough vote.This assured voting rights for property owners and excluded the poor whe were formerly qualified to vote.

Shopkeepers began to prosper as did the farmers having 20-30 acres.
Prices rose and prospertiy was restored to these middle Irish people by 1855 who were no longer outnumbered by a laborer/cottier class.
APost-Famine class of retailers ,urbanization ,church, social and politicly active class of influence arose.
The street ballad became prominent being what cultural artist there was available to the common people.

A National School was founded in Ireland in 1850.

Young Ireland and the Irish Republican Brotherhood were formed within Ireland to advocate for national independance though both were met with apathy amonst the population.
The landlord class remained in control of the country both economically and politically prefering as before profit over investment. This system was much added by the Encumbered Estates Act which was provisional of banqrupsy protection for indebeted holders which allowed them to sell the estate and not have to pay their creditors. Many of the famine landlords did sell there improved holdings to absentee investors who had no intention of living on or improving the estates other than taking out yearly profits from the labor of the remaining tenants.

Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston and Gladstone formed a new English govermentt in 1852 professing the Whig policy of Free Trade which had never really given way during or after the Irish Famine years.

The Crimes and Outrages Bill passed in 1848 was renewed from year to year as was the Peace Preservation Act.

2/3ds of the Parliamentary MP's were owener landed gentry.
The Electorate was dominated by strong farmers and landlords who maintained a form of social triablalism with the tenants providing a guarantee of the estate tenants to vote the way his lordship wanted them to vote tThrough maintaining hunting rights awarding tenants marriage feis and maintaining for themselves Dublin Clubs the landlords maintained their supremacy on their estates.

There were 400,000 acres of wheat, flax, root crops and greens in production and 2 million acres of hay and medow. Dairy production was prosperous.
There were 90,000 farms above 50 acres and feed lot farmers exclusively to fatten cattle.

Evictions continued if the teant could not pay his required excaction of rent to the landlord. If a tenant had subleted acreages to other familiies these too suffered removal for the leaseholders negligence and were cleared from the land. Whole families being thrown out to the road with out any sustanance such as the 1861 Derry Veigh eviction which put over 200 persons adrift including old and women and children.

The Average landlord desmensne wasout 2000 acres with rents usualy 25/40% of the tenant income.
Some 800 landlords owned 1/2 of Irleand.
13% of them absentee investors seeking only profit and return.
However as prices rose some 78 % from 1850-1870 and the need to let land in conacre to the landless cottier/laborer class having disapeared the larger tenant farmers benefited economically from the improvement.

In America the Diaspora resolved to become revolutionaries forming an organization called the Fenians after the ancient pre-christian Fianna soldiers of Ireland.
A sence of anger and rebellion against the abuses they had sufferend prevailed and a spirit of desire to apply phsycial force to restore Erin to the control of the native Irish.
Where in Ireland James Stephens tromped the lanes and byways to gain support for the IRB resistance movement he recieved little support and hardly any entusiasm.
These two groups one advocating miltary attacks in America and the other constitutional adjugation united in the mid 50's after a revolt at Ballingarry had failed and all were arrested ,hung or forced to flee.
Stephens IRB organization was united with Mohoney's Fenians Brotherhood on March 17 1858.
The organization maintained secrecy forming cirles with a
Center known as A
Captains known as B
Seargants known as C
Privates known as D.
Each circle being separate and hence unknow to other circles all under the control of the Circle or Center.

The IRB began recruting within the British Army for the 1/2 of British garrisons of Irish blood.
8000 British soldiers of Irish blood took the oath of allegience to the IRB.
By 1865 the Irish and British members in the IRB were estimated at 85,000 men.

The Irish People newspaper was started in 1863 by O Leary of Tipperary whose father owned the town.This paper exibited openly the Fenian doctrine of physical revolution through the writings of both John O Leary and Charles Kickham his Tipperary companion.
These catholic middle class men both espousing Mahoneys Fenian case enjoyed in Irleand not only the spirit of revolution but defiance of Church dogma.The Catholic Church had gained unchallanged power over the local rural population by acting as power brokers for them over evictions and hunger during and after the Famine giving them unpresidented influence over Irish political thought.
In America the Church also had sway ove the flock demonising the Fenian Brotherhood.
Kickham took on the Church by knowledge of its rethoric and theology. This defiance roused the ire of Archbishop Cullen who called for the banishment of the defiant paper.

1850 pg 2

In England in the early 60's the great writer Charles Dickens was composing Great Expectations following his sucesses with A Tale of Two Cities and the Pickwick Papers written at the accention of Queen Victoria.
Charles Dickens also wrote the Chrismas Carol in 1843 and during the Famine years some short stories such as the Haunted Man and the Battle of Life and the Cricket and the Hearth.
This period also produced such famous English Works as the Water Babies, Alice in Wonderland, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and the works of Hans Chiristian Anderson all dealing with the social interactions of mankind.

The American IRB absorbed Fenian ideals. While most exibited much enthusiams for revolution in Ireland they did not heed the call for finances leaving Irish coffers empty of funds sufficient for such an escapade.
Because of the great Irish participation in the Union Army cause of emancipation and preservation of the US as one nation, Washington indulged the nationalist movement giving James Stephens a grand tour of the union forces in 1864 as he recruted for the Irish rising.
In 1865 Stephens succeeded in his mission raising 50,000 US dollars and recruiting 100,000 Irish Americans ready for battle in Ireland.
The Fenien movment in the US was quite open throughout, hold Chicago Convention in 1863 The members being given leave by the Union Army to attend. A second Convention was held in Cincinatti in 1865 as the Civil War drew to a close.

Queen Victoria wrote in her diary on February 12, 1865 [Lincolns birthday } of the danger of Briitain going to war with America as soon as peace was delcared and the impossiblity of the imperial government in holding Canada.

However, on September 14, 1865 the government on inforamtion from spys from both sides of the Atlantic raided the Irish People taking its incriminating documents and arresting everyone there.
John O Leary was waited for by 4 Constables at his home.
He asked for a few moments and settled himself in an armchair with a wiskey and water and his pipe. He offered no resistance.

Stephens went into hiding with Kickham He was arrested on November 9 1865 with Kickham.
He had given the signal to rise if he were arrested but in America Mahoney could not round up more than a skirmishing force.

Much of the information the government had acquired had been obtained by Jim McDermott a Fenein figure who passed it to the NY British Consulate. He was also a good creator of dissent in the organization through passing gossip and outright lies, creating dessent.
These dessenters where known with the Fenian Movement as the Senate consiting of men like William Roberts and Brigadier General Tom Sweeney.
This 'split' in the Fenian Movement creatred 2 NY headquarters, the old Moffett Mantion on Union Square occupied by Mahoney's forces and the dissentors headquarters on Broadway in lower Manhattan.

James Stephens was put in Richmond Prison making no defence against the charges. He had refused to recognise British law.
The IRB however had penetrated the prison security having members of oath on the prison staff.
The IRB on November 24 1865 [American Thansgiving] 'sprung' James Stephens.
Stephens announced a call off of the planed revolt and was sent to France.

Meanwhile in NY 100,000 people gathered in a park on the East River in March of 66. Mahoney addressed them to provide arms to fight the Battle of Irish Freedom.
Roberts and Tom Sweeeney were preparing a 10,000 man force to attach Canada.The plan was not secret. it was discussed by the Andrew Johnson Admininstration in Washington with the decision not to interfere.

In Ireland the government had suspended Habeus Corpus and was rounding up hundreds of suspected rebels including American citizens claiming Irish born Americans were subjects of the Crown which drove Secretary of State William Seward into a rage. Tensions both in London and Washington were rife.

The Fenians had achieved dissention betwen the 2 countries Britain and The US.

The Mahoney faction, pressing for action converged on EastPort Maine targeting CampoBello Island part of New Brunswick. A steamship of weopons arrived in April. On April 15 the Fenians invaded Indian Island.
Washington sent troops and warships to Eastport.The Fenians withdrew from Canadien territory.

Sweeney and the dissadents meanwhile planned a winter assalt over frozen lakes and rivers.
The dissident civilians commander in chief Williams Roberts ordered an immediate spring attack

The asault was armed with weopons and ammunition purchased from federal arsenals and planned to attack along a 1000 mile front.
The dissadent force was named the 'Irish Republicna Army.'

The attack was planned for 31 May 1866.
The three winged invasion force collapsed through accident, apathy and confusion.
The US government did not interfere.

800 men under the command of John O Neil la Civil War veteran crossed into Canada from Buffalo NY and won and engagement with Canadien malitias. After several days of fighting the Johnson Admininstration sent General Ulysses S Grant and General Meade to put an end to the affair.

O Neill withdrew and was arrested by federal authorities.Sweeney also arrested at Buffalo.
The movement was
now in tatters and reviled by a previously encouraging press.
Mahoney was relegeted to obscurity and was found much later in a NYC tenament room to proud to ask for help and to poor to buy coal or food half starved and dying of old age ,poverty and dispair. He died in 1877 rewarded respect in death he had not recieved in life.

Stephens watched his adherants and coherts arrested and tried in Ireland.
Jeramigha [Dairmaid] O Donavan Rossa who had watched his father die of starvation during the Great Hunger and been got to relatives in Skibereen to observe more death fillabustereds the trail he was given. representing himself before a catholic judge William Keogh. Lambasting the judge and giving long winded disertations for days.
This got him ,at age 34 ,a life sentance from Judge Keogh for treason felony.
Kickham, O Leary, Tom Clarke, Luby all followed Rossa to prison dispite Issac Butts ,the prominent prodistant Young Islander defender of William Smith OBrien and Gavin Duffy.

3000 young Fenians were arrested by police in early 1866.
Entire British Army units were transfered and soldiers who had taken the Fenian oath were released from service and sent to prison colonies in western Australia.
Former US Civil War soldiers Tom Kelly and John McCafferty took over the IRB with a coup , stripping Stephens of his power over military affairs and planning.
Stephens was left only control over the broader movemnt. He lost credibility and departed for France discredited in January 1867,where despirately poor he moved constanty from lodging to lodging before the landlord could evict him dying in 1901, discredited and unremembered for his work for Irish independance and nationhood.
He had taken the broken dead country of 1856 to a formidable organization spanning an ocean in the IRB.

1850 pg 3

Fenians were sought in all corners by the British Authorities. Spys were everywhere .The military was on constant alert.

A rebelion was planed by Colonel Kelly for March 5 1867.A French officer ,Gustav Clusert in Command ,as Kelly was in hiding from the police in London. This officer resigned on the eve of battle convincd of the failure of the planned operation.
The fight was sporadic and quickly put down thus ending the greatest threat to Bitish rule in Ireland since the United Irishmen in 1798.

On Septemeber 11 1867 Col Kelly was arrested in Manchester England. He was resqued by his comrads while being transported in a prison van. A van guard was shot but the prisoner freed.
Dozens of Irish living in Manchester were arrested on suspision. Five were eventually selected from these arrested ,tried ,convicted and hung. Two of them American citizens.
One Edward Condon saying the farewell speech fromt he dock called "God Save Ireland' which becme a cry and later a ballad and anthem.
Allen, Larkin and Obrien ,the Americans wer hung in Manchester on November 24, 1867 becoming the Manchester Martyrs.

O Donnovan Rossa remained defiant in prison remanded on a bread and water punishment diet.
Starvation did not subdue him nor did humiliating him by tying his hands behind his back forcing him to eat like a dog.

Amnesty for the Fenians prisoners was sought by Issac Butts.
O Donnovan Rossa name was entered in a Parliamentary election in Tipperary in 1869 which he won.

Gladstone the Prime Mininster ordered a general amnesty and these Fenian prisoners were released in 1871. Most sailed for America.

In England a Conservative government under
Disreali took power;.
In 1869 the Irish established Church was disestablished. Regium Dorum compensation payment to non conformist Presbyterians was continued.

By 1870 Gladstone Whigs were returned to power by a general election.
An Irish Land Act was passed giving compensation to evicted tenants for improvements.

In 1872 Parliament passed a Ballot Act abolishing public nomination of candidates.

An Irish University Bill was introduced but was thrown out. Gladstone resigned.
The Bill had excluded the teaching of moral phylosophy, theology and modern history.

In 1878 Rain distroyed the potato crop once more and thE peat was to wet to dig.

A Land League to adjutate for rent reduction was formed by Michael Davett who had himself been evicted with the family during the Famine and had lost his right arm to mill machinery in England at age 9 years..
The League proposed to bring down 'rack rents' and to obtain ownership of the land.
The practice of Boycott was addopted.
The League was helped by Parnell and Bigger O Donnell among other members of Parliament.

By 1880 Victoria having displayed previous neglect of her Irish subjects in a speech from theThrone expressed sympathy with Irish hardship and asked the Church of Ireland to alleviate Distress.
A Parliamentary Relief of Distress Act passed at once. Forty years to late.

In 1881 the Protection of Life and Property Act and the Peace Preservation Act were reinstated.

The Land Act provided the three F's
Fair rent
Fixed Tenure
Free sale of holding[sublease]

The land League was proclaimed.

In 1882 Frederick Cavendish was to replace Lord Lieutenant Forster. He and Burke were set upon in Phoenix park and murdered by a group of men calling themselves the Invinsibles.

The Prevention of Cime and Arrears Act followed.

In 1886 a Government In Irleland Bill was brought providing for a Dublin legislature, exclusion of the Irish from the Imperial Parliament, Taxes to the Irish assembly with the exlusion of exise and customs taxes, and security of protection of minorities.
The bill was regected.

In 1886 A Land Purchase Bill was introduced by Gladstone providing 50 million pounds for tenants buying estates of landlords wishing to sell.
The bill was opposed by Conservitives and some Liberals who broke with Gladstone and formed the Liberal Unionist Party.
These bills caused serious exitement and rioting in Ireland.
When these bills failed Gladstone disolved the Parliament.
At election Gladstone was defeated by Lord Salisbury who upheld the Liberal Unionist party..

Lord Wolsely was preparing resistance in Ulster to the Home Rule Bill under consideration.
Lord Salisbury was in support of the Liberal Unionist Party in Ulster.

In 1887 The Parliamentary Session was devoted to the Irish Question.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act was made permanent to stop meetings and suppress dangerous associations.
Its enforcer was Lord Balfour, Chief Secretary of Ireland

The nationalist adopted the 'Plan of Campaign' against tenant evictions.
They deposited rents with 'trustees' until land lords agreed to rent reductions.

Joseph Chamberlain speaking in Ulster Hall in Belfast agaisnt Home Rule asking his audience what would they do if Home Rule came they responded Fight!

In 1889 ,10 million pounds was voted for Irish land purchase and for drainiage and light rail,.

A County Government Bill was introduced in 1892 and was withdrawn because of fearce opposition by ulster Unionists.

In 1892 Belfast was granted a city charter and was the commercial capital of all Ireland.
The Duke of Abercorn presided over a mass convention of 11,000 delagates against Home Rule.
The Convention led by Sinclair and Ewart were adamant in refusing any form of Home Rule as degraded status undera Dublin parliament.

When Lord Bill was solomnly burned in public and stompted upon while the crowd cheered.
This Home Rule bill finally, after much amendment and arguement passed the House of Comons but was than thown out by the Lords.

In Ulster the Unionists gave attention to defence organizations.
Rifle Clubs weer formed. A Central Assembly of Ulster Defence Union held a meeting of its 60 members.

In 1895 gladstoneat 85 retired giving over the PM ship to Lord Rosebury. This governemnt was defeated in June 1895. Lord Salisbury became Prime Minister forming a Conservative Liberal Unionist coalltion government
Home Rule was shelved for years.

In the year 1896 the new bycycle became fashionable among middle class people.Tthe motor car was being acquired by the upper classes and new benefits of industrial and science were becoming the prominet changes of the day.


In 1897 Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubalee having ruled these islands for 60 years.

By 1899 the South Afrcian Boer War had begun between England and Dutch settlers.

Theater and entertainment in Ireland had been provided by British touring companys for the past half century but in 1898 Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats, J Synge and Sean O Casey
formed a theater company know as the Abby Theater with acting talant produced in Ireland such as Frank and Will Fay who established the Dublin Dramatic School in 1898.

The Gaelic League was founded in 1893 to revive the Gaelic tongue and de -anglisize Ireland.
The creation of the Gaelic Athletic Association ,founded in 1884 to preserve ancient Irish games like hurling and Irish football were created at the end of the 19th century.
A base of national culture and prosperity fromteh ruins of 1850.
The Catholic Church during the 50 years revived under Archbishop Cullen of Dublin ,built schools and churches, fostered a devosionaly mission ,reformed the Irish clergy conduct, and administered the Sacraments.

Ireland passed into the 20th Century hopeful of its survival as a people ,stuggling on on both sides of the
Atlantic and in England to rise from its own demise.



Judi Donnelly
Copyright Aug 17 2007


sourses: History of Ulster, Ramsey Colles Vol IV ,Gresham Publishing Coy Ltd, 1919
For the Cause of Liberty, Terry Golway, Simon and Schuster ,2000
Everthing Irish ,edited by Ruckstein and O Malley, 2003 Ballantine Books


For the Cause of Liberty, Terry Golway, Simon and Schuster ,2000
Everthing Irish ,edited by Ruckenstein and O Malley ,Balantine Books , 2003