More Evictions (Mayo Co. Library)
More Evictions (Mayo Co. Library)
Years after the famine the fight for tenant ownership of the land become of paramount importance. Famine threatened again in the late 1870's and like the famine of 1945 tenants were again evicted for their non-payment of rent. In 1879 Michael Davitt set up the land league with C.S. Parnell. Their immediate goal was to act as a refuge for destitute tenants, but the group had a larger remit in solving the land question and securing tenant ownership. The League developed a policy of morally shunning 'land grabbers', people who rented the land of evicted families from the villages. They shunned landlords too, or 'Boycotted' their farms. In one instance, a landowner brought labourers from the North to harvest his crops, under the security of the Royal Irish Constabulary.