1869 - 1870 AD
1869 AD -
1874 AD January:
William Ewart Gladstone the Scotsman and Statesman who was now the
British Liberal Prime Minister informed the German Hanoverian
British Queen
Victoria
that it was his intention to deal with
Ireland
as
a
Free Country
were the "will of the majority" would now rule not the
Ascendancy minority.
March 1st: William Gladstone the Prime Minister of the British Liberal Government endeavouring to disestablish the power of the Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland to finally benefit the majority of the population in Ireland, by removing the "Enforced Tithes," introduced his Bill into the British Westminster House of Commons much to the ire of the Conservative Ascendancy whose opposition was very loud and very bitter, and among the opponents of the Bill was Edward Saunderson a non - Catholic Whig member from the Ulster Province, who was a hard - line anti - Catholic, who resigned from the Liberal Party over the issue and joined in with the Ascendancy Conservatives.
May 3rd: The
Disestablishment Church of England / Ireland Act
passed the
third reading due to the majority members in the
Liberal Government although it met
with great opposition from the
Ascendancy Conservatives.
July 3rd: The Conservative controlled Westminster unelected House of Lords also accepted the Bill, but only breluctantly, after pressure was brought to bear, and the payment of financial concessions guaranteed for the Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland clergy, and the Act would eventually come into effect from 1871 AD, which was to also mean further freedom of their religion for the Catholic priests and other Dissenters.
The old
St. Patrick's Cathedral
in
Dublin
was now to become
the national cathedral in
Ireland
for the
Ascendancy
Church of England / Ireland.
September:
William Gladstone
the British Liberal Prime Minister now turned his attention to
Irish
land reform,
and
to this end he had the
British Liberal Chief
Secretary Fortescue
prepare the proposals to be introduced
with the first of these being, "To
legalise the custom of
the tenant farmers in the
Ulster Province,"
and
the second, "That should the
other tenants
in
Ireland
not be entitled to the
Ulster
custom, then on eviction they would
be entitled to an amount for compensation, plus
disturbance"
and the situation
of the majority of the tenant farmers in Ireland
was finally to be reversed, and the
onus was to be placed on the
Land Lords as William Gladstone was to continue to work on the
proposals for the next
3 months
to try and get them right.
Fortescue the British Chief Secretary, received reports from the Poor Law inspectors, informing him that the tenant farmers in Ireland and their families were still suffering great hardship under their new Land Lords, so they were now "legally" allowed to purchase their own lands, if it was economically possible for them to do so.
Charles Joseph Kickham the Irish revolutionary who had previously given his all for Irish Freedom from the British Imperial Government's domination in Ireland was released from prison due to his failing health.
Jeremiah O Donovan of Rossa won a by - election in Ireland, but was then declared ineligible as a convicted felon by the Dublin Castle (The Devill's 1/2 Acre) authorities.
Phillip Johnson
from the
Kanturk Labourers Club also now
tried to bring about an improvement for the lot of labourers in
Ireland.
November: Isaac Butt the non - Catholic M.P. and lawyer publicised a proposal in The Nation newspaper to form an Irish United Nationalist Party as he was convinced that those representing the upper classes, including the Land Lords and middle classes may still be capable of continuing to control Ireland for the British Imperial Government.
St. Patricks
Catholic Cathedral
in
Co. Armagh
in the
Ulster Province
became the National Cathedral
of the
Catholic Church in
Ireland,
and all religious tests
were now finally abolished to enter
Trinity College in
Dublin.
1870
AD There were by now
20,000
Land
Lords who were still in control of 48,000
Estates in Ireland
under lease, and unpredictable
"evictions" were still continuing to
occur.
Michael
Davitt's / Devitt father
had initially been evicted, by his particular Land Lord off of his Estate, along with
his family in
Co. Mayo
in the mid - west of the
Connacht
Province
when he was only
4 year old,
and his family had gone over to
Lancashire
in
England where he was reared, and because of
this
personal family history he was
to fight hard for the rights of the individual
tenant farmers in
Ireland
and the return
of the land
of
Ireland
to the
people of
Ireland
themselves and with this endeavour constantly in his mind to achieve his goal he
had become
a
Fenian member of the
I.R. Brotherhood
/ IRB
and because of this
he was sentenced to
7 / 15
years imprisonment by the
British Imperial Government
this year. They sent him over to
Dartmoor
Prison to be imprisoned in
England to get his influence out of
Ireland,
but in time he would
see his goal begin to materialize when he was to
later found the
"Irish
Land League" on behalf of all
the
tenants in
Ireland,
but in the meantime while he was personally incarcerated in England
Irish Farmers' Clubs
were beginning to form to try and do the very same and bring about rural tenant reform.
Previously the Irish - Americans in the U.S.A. had been excluded from the Democratic Party there in America, but this year they were allowed to finally join in, and given a chance to bring forward the ongoing terrible situation still existing in Ireland, through democratic principles there, but despite the opportunities to introduce dialogue through democracy there, the ongoing British Imperial Governments though were to continue to teach the population in Ireland that the only sure way they had any hope of achieving any consistent overall normal rights in Ireland would be through violence.
In desperation to gain further publicity for
their cause in
Ireland
the
Irish
- Americans and their supporters in America were to make another attempt to invade
Canada this year
hoping to highlight the
ongoing plight of those still living in
Ireland
under
the British Imperial Government
authority and the
Immoral Union, but once again it was stopped by the
American Government.
February 15th:
William Gladstone the
British Liberal Prime Minister
now
placed
his 1st Irish Land Act before the
Westminster House of Commons
although he came up against the wishes of his
own
Cabinet, who were composed of the
upper echelons from the
propertied class and were also the
proponents of
Laissez - Faire (Let the Market Rule), but despite their opposition he was well aware that he had to
do something to alleviate the terrible problems that were continuing to occur in
Ireland, so he pushed on with
his
1st
Irish Land Bill although they were
all reluctant to introduce any type of land reform into
Ireland.
Once again it was not
to be by democratic means, but by violence that made the members of the British Imperial
Government eventually reconsider some type of
reform for the tenant farmers in
Ireland,
as the murders,
that were committed in
Co. Tipperary
in the north - east of the
Munster
Province
at this time, made it necessary to
have to get on and finally do
something tangible.
William
Gladstone the British Liberal Prime
Minister had previously discussed the problems in
Ireland
with other parties who were
genuinely concerned, and he listened to their advice to give the
Irish
tenants farmers
some legal rights to the land they were woking, and
his
1st Irish
Land
Bill would also further allow the personal investment by the outgoing tenants in their
particular holding to be actually
recognised at last. He included compensation provisions for the
improvements they
had made if they should be evicted,
and also for any other reasons, except the non - payment of rent
and this was to be known as Disturbance
Compensation based on from 1
to
7 years rent up to a maximum of
250 pounds,
but if they were evicted for
non - payment of rent there was to be
no
compensation for Disturbance, but
should the annual value of the land not exceed
25 pounds
then there was a proviso that payment may be ordered. If the leases were
for 31 years
or more, there would be no entitlement to any compensation for
Disturbance
if the lease was not renewed, with the further proviso that
there would only be compensation for any permanent buildings, which the tenant had constructed. By including
this particular provision in the Land Bill he had hoped to induce the Land Lords to feel that it was in their interest
to grant the tenants longer leases.
John Bright
in England who had been about the same tenant rights there, really understood that the
population in
Ireland
wanted
their own land returned
to them as the original owners, and he was for
nationalization of all the land in
Ireland, so
that it could be actually
placed back into the hands of the
600,000
tenant farmers in
Ireland, so that they could do their own thing.
William Gladstone tried to encompass the
intention of
John Bright, and
to this end he included in the
Land Act a clause,"
That if a tenant wished to purchase the land he would be able to borrow
two
thirds on security of the farm, which was to be paid back over
35 years @ 5 pound
a year for every 100 pounds that was borrowed." It was a step in the
right direction, but what it missed was the fact that due to the provision that
there had to be a one third cash deposit most of the tenants were
naturally economically excluded. Only
877
tenant
farmers in
Ireland out
of the 600,000 working the Land Lord's Estates were eventually
financially able to be in a position to
purchase their land back, but it was a start.
Although
William Gladstone's
1st
Irish Land Act
did not really solve
Ireland’s
real rural
problems it was to be directly opposite to the previous
Acts,
which
had allowed compensation
only by an agreement,
which had to be signed anyway
originally under the
duress of the
Land Lord, but it did
eliminate the
confiscation of any improvements
that had been previously carried out by the tenant farmers themselves, while on the negative side
also it did not remove the rent increases or the
Land Lord's
right to restrict
the sale of the tenant’s goodwill in the land, as it had been mainly designed to reduce the Land
Lords'
opposition towards leasehold tenancies. Large tenant farmers
of 50 pounds
or over could also contract to opt out of the legislation and they seized on this
loophole and it was eventually passed into law.
The other part, that completely missed out altogether
was that the
Ulster
Tenant
Farmers
Customs
provision, previously mentioned, were not made clear or specific, being only
referred to as
"Usages" and
were left to the
courts to sort out, making it expensive and
a long drawn out procedure to arrive at any final
conclusion, while another factor against this unclear provision, was that the
Land Lords
in the
Ulster Province
over the last
20 years had
taken every opportunity to
remove or reduce what had been
originally fairer customs there.
Also the
Land Lords still had the power to
"increase"
the rents and therebye get an eviction anyway, because the tenant farmers were not
then financially able to pay the increased charges.
March:
As the agitation in the
rural areas in
Ireland
still
continued
on, the
Catholic Bishops
in
Ireland
informed
William Gladstone,
the British Liberal Prime Minister, that only
""permanent" tenure on their
Irish
lands would ever bring any real satisfaction to the
majority of the tenant population in
Ireland
who were
on the Land Lord's Estates.
April: William Gladstone
the British Liberal Prime Minister realised that the
Tories /
Conservatives, the
Whigs
and some of the
Radicals had been frightened by the
1st Irish Land Bill
in case it should ever be brought into
England, but despite
this once again democracy was to be pushed aside and violence was once again to be the
precipitator for any further reform,
as they were by now well aware that
reform had to be instigated to halt
the ongoing
violent
attacks by the
Irish
Fenians,
but unfortunately
William
Gladstone at this point in time decided to go into panic
mode.
Instead of
continuing on with the democratic path he had previously begun to introduce, he
brought in another
Irish
Coercion Bill
to try and restore the
overall
British Imperial Government control under the
Immoral Union
over the population in
Ireland,
which only
further aggravated the existing conditions that were still occurring there.
May:
Isaac Butt
the non - Catholic M.P.
and
barrister who had defended the
Fenians
/ Irish Republican Brotherhood / I.R.B.
members became the first
leader of the "Irish
Parliamentary Party
/ I.P.P."
until
1877 AD, and he
called a meeting to consider the previous proposals he had put forward in
The
Nation
newspaper for a peaceful
Irish Home Rule
movement
(Irish Home Government Association),
as he had
"noted" that the
British Imperial Government
in
England did not give to the
Cork Famine Relief
that which
would have been granted to
Cornwall in Britain for instance. The meeting was attended by many
non - Catholics
and Conservatives,
and to
accommodate their views a few months later the
Irish Home Government Association /
Irish Home Rule League
was formed as a non - parliamentary party to
consider putting forward the idea of an
Irish Parliament,
which would be
responsible for the affairs of
Ireland,
yet still be represented in the
Westminster Parliament.
He believed
that in the interests of safety for
England and peace in
Ireland
it would be best served to bring in self - government
in
Ireland,
and to this end he continued to support
William Gladstone,
expecting him to bring forward more
reform
in
Ireland,
and as he was
involved with the non - Catholic
Land
Lords in the
Home Government Association / Irish Home Rule League,
who only represented the upper classes,
he
knew full well that
Irish Home Rule
could only be achieved by democratic means by action in the
British Westminster Parliament itself.
There were to be a series of
By - Elections held from this year
until
1873
AD, which were contested
by those who supported
"Irish
Home Rule,"
but
only 6
of them were to be successfully elected, as the
others
were either defeated or withdrew due to
a lack of support,
while the
6 that were successful were those
who also ran on other local issues that were
popular at the time, which included
Isaac Butt
who had won his seat
at
Limerick
in
Co. Limerick
in the mid - north - west of the
Munster Province
on tenant rights,
which highlighted the fact that
Irish
Home Rule
was not so important at this time
to the general
population in
Ireland.
The
Conservatives
in his
Irish Home Rule League had "only" wanted
"Home Rule"
for Ireland,
while those supporters of
Irish Home Rule
who included more personal tangible improvements in their platforms, such as "land reform" and
"denominational education"
were
the ones who proved to be the most successful candidates.
December: William Gladstone the British Liberal Prime Minister eventually persuaded his Cabinet to release the Fenian prisoners from their British Imperial Government prisons to try and bring about further conciliation with the general population in Ireland, but it would be another 15 years before he would personally come to realise that the population in Ireland actually wanted to govern their own Country, while in the meantime all Irish industries and resources would be continued to be depressed by the merchants in the British Westminster Parliament in England during the next 53 years of the ongoing forced Immoral Union. Only 1/3 of Irish revenues were to be actually spent in Ireland, and 2/3 in England, which continued to do nothing for the economy in Ireland, with the cost of governing Ireland set at 100 million pounds compared to the whole of England at 210 million pounds up to 1870 AD.
Another castle was constructed this year by the third Marquis of Donegal on Cave Hill at Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province.
Thomas Power - O Connor the Irish journalist, who was to become the M.P. for Liverpool in England and have outstanding success in his endeavours to bring about Irish Freedom now joined the London Daily Telegraph.
James Connolly, was born this year near Clones in Co. Monaghan in Southern Ulster, who was to play a "major" role in the coming Irish 1916 Easter Uprising, which was to finally bring about Irish Independence in 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland from the stranglehold of the British Imperial Government in England and their Immoral Union.