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52-627: Free sale, fixity of tenure, and fair rent , also known as the Three Fs , were a set of demands first issued by the Tenant Right League in their campaign for land reform in Ireland from the 1850s. They were, Many historians argue that their absence contributed severely to the Great Irish Famine (1846–49), as it allowed the mass eviction of starving tenants. The Three Fs were campaigned for by

104-518: A Liberal candidate. In this capacity he campaigned successfully at Westminster and in Ireland for the reforms also advocated in his paper; his newspaper's inquiry into the anomalous wealth of the established church amidst a predominately Catholic population contributed considerably to Gladstone's Irish Church Act 1869 . Gray helped to furnish the proof that Irish demands were not to be satisfied by anything other than by radical legislation. He fought for

156-549: A complaint against Cullen to Rome only further alienated clerical support. Neither the League nor its parliamentary grouping survived the decade. Lucas died in October 1855 shortly after the failure of his mission to Rome. A month later Duffy published a farewell address to his constituents, declaring that it was no longer possible to accomplish the task for which he had solicited their votes He emigrated to Victoria, Australia , where on

208-498: A machinery for arbitrating rent. Finding themselves reduced to not much more than a receiver of rents, landlords denounced the concessions as "confiscation". For tenants in Ulster , including Protestants who had flocked to Land League meetings only the year before, the Act was seen as fulfilling their key demands and they immediately used the Act to adjust rents. After a few years' experience of

260-539: A measure embodying the principles" of a tenant-right bill that Sharman Crawford (then MP for Rochdale in England) had unsuccessfully proposed in 1852. The engagement of Ulster protestants, though considerable to begin with, soon fell away. Of the 48 pledged MP who from 1852 were to sit at Westminster as the Independent Irish Party only one had been returned from Ulster: William Kirk from Newry where, despite

312-544: A monument to O'Connell on Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street ). Independent from O'Connell, Gray continued to take a prominent part in Irish politics and in local affairs. In municipal politics, Gray was elected councillor in 1852 and alderman of Dublin Corporation , and took an interest in the improvement of the city. As chairman of the committee for a new water supply to Dublin, Dr. Gray actively promoted what would become

364-409: A new generation, who came afterwards to be known as Young Ulster, sat beside [Catholic] priests who had lived through the horrors of a famine which left their churches empty and their graveyards overflowing; flanked by farmers who survived that evil time like the veterans of a hard campaign; while citizens, professional men, the popular journalists from the four provinces, and the founders and officers of

416-629: A number of English Radicals . In the House of Commons, the Radical leader John Bright noted in the wake of the Dublin convention that "Instead of the [tenant-right] agitation being confined, as heretofore to the Roman Catholics and their clergy, Protestant and Dissenting clergymen seem to be amalgamated with Roman Catholics at present; indeed, there seems an amalgamation of all sects on this question", and he advised

468-729: A number of political movements, notably the Independent Irish Party (1852–1858) and later the Irish Parliamentary Party during the Land War (from 1878). They were conceded by the British Government in a series of Irish Land Acts enacted from the 1870s on, with essentially full implementation in the Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881 . This Ireland politics -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Tenant Right League The immediate occasion for

520-455: A platform of land reform he re-entered politics. By 1856, the parliamentary strength of the independents had dwindled to a dozen. When, in 1858, the Conservatives returned to office with a stable majority, "the temptation to trade Irish votes for Irish concessions became in the end irresistible". David Bell left for England where in 1864 he was inducted by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa into

572-470: A public institution, created by state", landlordism should be "regulated by law". Together with Frederick Lucas , former Quaker and founder of the progressive international Catholic weekly, The Tablet , and John Gray , owner of the leading nationalist paper, the Freeman's Journal , Duffy and MacKnight issued writs for a national tenant-right convention . The convention met on September 8, 1850, in

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624-562: A relatively young age, and attached himself to O'Connell's Repeal Association . As a Protestant Nationalist , he supported the movement for the repeal of the Acts of Union with Britain. In October 1843, Gray was indicted with O'Connell and others in the Court of the Queen's Bench in Dublin on a charge of sedition and "conspiracy against the queen". In the following February, Gray, together with O'Connell,

676-525: The City Assembly House at Dublin. Duffy recalls "upwards of forty members of Parliament, about two hundred Catholic and Presbyterian clergymen, and gentlemen farmers, traders, and professional men from every district in the country" answering "the call". Reserved, stern Covenanters [Presbyterian traditionalists] from the North, ministers and their elders for the most part, with a group of brighter recruits of

728-710: The Freeman's Journal , chairman of the Dublin Corporation Water Works Committee between 1863 and 1875, and Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for Kilkenny city from 1865 until his death. He was a supporter of Daniel O'Connell , and later of Charles Stewart Parnell , and advocated a repeal of the Act of Union . Through his offices with Dublin Corporation,

780-482: The House of Commons in 1853 and 1854, but failed win consent of the landed grandees in the House of Lords . The bill had little impressed the League and its MPs as landlords would been left free to pass on the costs of compensation through their still unrestricted freedom to raise rents. Holding the balance of power in the House of Commons, the Independent Irish MPs voted to bring down the government. But in

832-610: The Irish Republican ["Fenian"] Brotherhood , and from 1867 lived in exile in the United States Agricultural prices began to rise from 1853, and were given an additional stimulus by the onset of the Crimean War in the following years. Tenant-right agitation died down. MacKnight remained active in a movement for whom the notorious Derryveagh evictions of 1861 served as a sharp reminder of the still unrestricted power of

884-468: The Londonderry Standard, William Sharman Crawford MP, a progressive County Down landlord, and group of radical Presbyterian ministers, that there was a basis for a national movement. In his paper The Nation Duffy reproduced an address by their newly formed Ulster Tenant Right Association in which McKnight proposed that "all proprietary right has its foundation in human labour'" and that, "as

936-508: The Vartry Reservoir water supply works were completed, introducing a freshwater supply to Dublin city and suburbs. He died at Bath in England on 9 April 1875. Shortly after his death, his contributions to the provision of the water supply, and the beneficial impact this had to conditions of public health in Dublin, were recognised in a memorial statue on O'Connell Street . John Gray

988-687: The [secret] Ballot Act 1872 had weakened the landlords' authority, Conservatives expressed a willingness to give the Ulster Custom legal force. But as in 1852, they relied heavily on confusing tenant-righters with Catholic nationalists and their separatist cause. The Conservatives triumph in Ulster was not as complete as in 1852: two tenant-right Liberals were returned from County Londonderry , and in Down James Sharman Crawford succeeded where in 1852 his father William had failed. However, in

1040-499: The general election of 1874 he was re-elected on this occasion as a Home Rule League MP for Kilkenny, joining its Home Rule majority in the House of Commons, and held his seat until his death the following year. Sir John Gray died at Bath , in England, on 9 April 1875. His remains were returned to Ireland and he was honoured with a public funeral at Glasnevin Cemetery . Almost immediately afterwards public subscriptions were sought for

1092-606: The "Vartry scheme". The Vartry Reservoir scheme involved the partial redirection and damming of the Vartry river in County Wicklow , the building of a series of water piping and filtering systems (and related public works) to carry fresh water to the city. This work was particularly important in the improvement of conditions in the city, and to public health, as it improved sanitation and helped reduce outbreaks of cholera, typhus and other diseases associated with contaminated water. On

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1144-501: The Act land agitation revived in the south and west, but the basis for cooperation with Protestant tenants in the north had been further reduced. John Gray (Irish politician) Sir John Gray JP (13 July 1815 – 9 April 1875 ), sometimes spelt John Grey , was an Irish physician, surgeon, newspaper proprietor, journalist and politician. Gray was active both in municipal and national government for much of his life, and had nationalist ideals – which he expressed as owner of

1196-578: The College of Physicians in due course. Gray was publicly minded, and contributed to periodicals and the newspaper press. In 1841 he became joint proprietor of the Freeman's Journal – a nationalist paper which was then published daily and weekly. He acted as political editor of the Journal for a time, before becoming sole proprietor in 1850. As owner, Gray increased the newspaper's size, reduced its price and extended its circulation. Gray entered politics at

1248-403: The House to "resolutely legislate on it." In the 1852 general election , the League appeared to triumph. Some 48 Tenant-Right candidates, including Duffy and Lucas, were returned to parliament having taken the pledge "to hold themselves perfectly independent of, and in opposition to, all governments which do not make it part of their policy and a cabinet question to give the tenantry of Ireland

1300-673: The League programme did not touch directly on the question of land ownership. Neither did it address the distress of the landless and un-enfranchised rural majority: "cottiers", "farm servants" and their dependants. Despite its populist rhetoric, the League consisted "almost exclusively of well-off farmers", and could be represented by "improving landowners" such as William Sharman Crawford in County Down and George Henry Moore in County Mayo . County meetings in Wexford and Kilkenny hosted MacKnight,

1352-464: The League were involved. Together with the presence of so many Repealers (ready to support a Catholic-majority parliament in Dublin), the determination to remove restrictions on the titles assumed by a revived Catholic episcopate in both Ireland and Great Britain heightened the suspicion that the League was being used for political purposes beyond its declared agenda. It was the case as well that landowners in

1404-508: The Rev. David Bell , John Rogers and other Presbyterian ministers who the Belfast News Letter accused of endeavouring, “to inspire a bitter hatred against the class" of landlords, and of advocating theories, “calculated to stir up animosities between the landlord and the tenant classes", "infinitely more bitter", than any previously. Bell returned the favour inviting Catholic delegates from

1456-649: The Tenant League a "union of north and south in one glorious brotherhood for the regeneration of their common country" was to be elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in 1863, replacing Henry Cooke who had accused him of preaching communism, and again in 1864. But for an all-Ireland tenant league, an early difficulty in the north was the campaign for the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 in which Lucas and several prominent member of

1508-550: The Tenant Protection Societies completed the assembly. With MacKnight presiding, the assembled formed the all-Ireland Tenant Right League. A council was elected of 120 representatives from the four Irish provinces, dedicated to a reform of land tenure popularly summarised as the " Three F's ". Although free sale (the Ulster Custom) implied that tenants possessed property rights in land they did not legally own,

1560-480: The Ulster Custom as dangerous to "the just rights of property". Landlords who followed the Commission suggestion and chose either to ignore or to trivialise the custom, had had their actions upheld by the courts. Against this background, and with additional distress of the enveloping Famine that bore down on those still able to sustain themselves in rising Poor Law rates, otherwise loyal Protestant farmers interpreted

1612-684: The erection in O'Connell Street, of a monument to Gray. The monument was completed in 1879 and was dedicated to the "appreciation of his many services to his country, and of the splendid supply of pure water which he secured for Dublin". His legacy also included his contributions to the passage of the Irish Church and Land Bills , his advocacy for tenant's rights and his support of the Home Rule movement . Gray had married Mary Anna Dwyer of Limerick in 1839, and they had five children; three sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Edmund Dwyer Gray took over

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1664-411: The form of demanding from the incoming tenant a lump sum payment (often as high as £ 10 an acre) that might, for example, be enough cash to allow the outgoing tenant to take his family to America. Supporters argued that by granting farmers a degree of security and by allowing them to at least share in the benefits of their own improvements to the land (clearing, fencing, drainage etc), the tenant right

1716-497: The formation of the League was the Encumbered Estates Act of 1849. The legislation failed to acknowledge the Ulster tenant right . The un-codified custom in Ireland's northern province restrained the freedom of landowners to rack rent and to evict paying tenants at will . It also allowed that in working his holding a tenant acquired an interest, a "right", that he might sell on at the end of his tenancy. Typically this took

1768-578: The increasingly strident nationalism of southern League spokesman and their supporters. The Catholic Primate , Archbishop Paul Cullen , who had been sceptical of the independent opposition policy from the outset, sought to rein in clerical support for the remaining IIP in the constituencies. This was accompanied by the defection from the League of the Catholic Defence Association (to it detractors, "the Pope's Brass Band"). Lucas's decision to take

1820-581: The intention of providing a moderate alternative to the revolutionary nationalism of the Fenians . The Freeman's Journal adopted the aims of the Association as its own: it advocated the disestablishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland , reform of the land laws, educational aspirations of Irish Catholicism and free denominal education. In the 1865 general election Gray was elected MP for Kilkenny city as

1872-430: The landlord monopoly on local government. Once again there was a determination to organise parliamentary constituencies so as to return Members pledged to tenant rights. The challenge, however, came sooner than expected. A general election was called for February. In the south the tenant programme was adopted by candidates of the new Home Rule League , while in the north it was championed by Liberals . Conscious that

1924-583: The landowner. Shortly before MacKnight's death, and as agrarian conditions again deteriorated, there was an attempt to revive an all-Ireland league. In January 1874, the Route Tenants Defence Association ( Ballymoney ) for whom MacKnight had been an inspiration, organised a major North-South National Tenants Rights conference in Belfast. In addition to the three F's, resolutions called for loans to facilitate tenant purchase of land and for breaking

1976-529: The moderate nationalists to support British Liberalism and who would resume O'Connell's constitutional agitation. In an unusual alliance with the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin , Paul Cullen (1803–1878), a man devoted to O'Connell's memory, Gray's newspaper exploited this shift in government policy. It supported the archbishop's creation, the National Association of Ireland, established in 1864 with

2028-458: The national cause, though he was sympathetic to the Young Ireland movement without being involved in its 1848 rebellion. Through the growing influence of the Freeman's Journal (of which he was the sole proprietor from 1850), he became a significant figure in Dublin municipal politics. He was also active in national politics during an otherwise quiet period of Irish politics up until 1860. With

2080-426: The north threatened to withdraw their consent for the existing Ulster Custom if their Conservative nominees were not elected, and that they had League electoral meetings broken up by Orange "bludgeon men". In November 1852, Lord Derby's short-lived Conservative government introduced a land bill to compensate Irish tenants on eviction for improvements they had made to the land. The Tenant Compensation Bill passed in

2132-444: The omission of tenant right from Act as an existential threat. Increasing evictions (of which there were officially over 100,000 in 1849). also provoked new tenant protection societies (commonly under the guidance of local Roman Catholic clergy ) in the south for whom an extension of the Ulster Custom was a minimum demand. The Young Ireland veteran Charles Gavan Duffy was persuaded by the initiative of James MacKnight , editor of

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2184-502: The opening of the works on 30 June 1863, Gray was Knighted by the Earl of Carlisle , then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland . Partially in recognition of these efforts, Gray would later be nominated for the position of Lord Mayor of Dublin for the years 1868–69, but he declined to serve. In national politics, the Liberal government at the time was keen to conciliate an influential representative of

2236-598: The process two of the leading members, John Sadlier and William Keogh , broke their pledges of independent opposition and accepted positions (respectively as a junior Lord of the Treasury and as Solicitor General ) in a new, on the issue of tenant rights equally unsympathetic, Whig - Peelite administration.. Significantly in a League debate in February 1853 MacKnight, wary of any sign of Irish separatism, did not support Duffy in condemning these desertions. Rather, he protested

2288-515: The property franchise, the Catholic vote was determinant. In Monaghan, Bell was to find that of his 100 congregants who had signed the requisition asking John Gray to stand in their constituency only 11 voted for him. In Down , Sharman Crawford had his meetings broken up by Orange vigilantes. In the 1857 general election Samuel MacCurdy Greer won on a platform of the three F's in the City of Derry , but it

2340-520: The provision in the new Landlord & Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 for fixity of tenure, which Gladstone eventually conceded. The Act's other weaknesses however resulted in its failure to resolve the "land question", the accompanying coercion , the disappointment with Gladstone's handling of the university question and national education, caused Gray to deflect from the Liberals and become mistrusted in Britain. In

2392-513: The resurgence of nationalism after the famine he helped to organise the Tenant's League founding conference in 1850, standing unsuccessfully as the League's candidate for Monaghan in the 1852 election. Later Gray was to originate and organise the "courts of arbitration" which O'Connell endeavoured to substitute for the existing legal tribunals of the country. Following O'Connell's death, Dr. Gray (in 1862) inaugurated an appeal for subscriptions to build

2444-483: The south and west the tenant-right movement clearly aligned with Home Rulers. With the formation in 1879 of the Irish National Land League the struggle for rights to the land advanced under the openly nationalist leadership of Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell . The second Land Act introduced by William Ewart Gladstone in 1881 conceded free sale, improved security of tenure, and introduced

2496-577: The south to an assembly of tenant farmers at Ballybay , in County Monaghan , where, Duffy enthused, "resolutions were proposed by Masters of Orange Lodges , and seconded by Catholic priests". The Tenant Right League built in strength under its national organiser, the Young Irelander from Newry, John Martin . It had the support of the surviving Repealers in the British House of Commons ; and of

2548-569: Was born in Claremorris , County Mayo ; the third son of John and Elizabeth Gray of Mount Street. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin , and obtained the degree of M.D and Master in Surgery at Glasgow University in 1839. Shortly before his marriage in the same year, he settled in Dublin and took up a post at a hospital in North Cumberland Street. He was admitted as a licentiate of

2600-653: Was by identifying with the British Radicals (later the Liberal Party ) not with the IIP. "In language reminiscent of 1798 ", Presbyterian journalists, tenants and ministers roundly denounced Irish landlords, and their auxiliaries, the established Church of Ireland and the Orange Order , and they did not desert the tenant cause. John Rogers (of Comber ) who likened landlords to "locusts that came up on Judea" and who saw in

2652-473: Was condemned to nine months imprisonment, but early in September 1844 the sentence was remitted on appeal. The trial had a strong element of farce, as the hot-tempered Attorney General for Ireland , Sir Thomas Cusack-Smith , challenged Gray's counsel, Gerald Fitzgibbon to a duel, for which he was sternly reprimanded by the judges. From then on Gray was careful to distance himself from the advocacy of violence in

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2704-518: Was the key to Ulster's relative prosperity. Attacks upon it by landowners and land speculators had provoked serious agrarian disturbances in the 1770s, the Hearts of Steel disturbances , and in the 1830s these had begun to recur with a new tenant fraternity, the "Tommy Downshire Boys". The 1849 Act had been preceded in 1843 by the Devon Commission , which in its report on the Irish land system rejected

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