The Land War & Parnell

1879 - 1891 — Tenant farmers fought for fair rents and land ownership, while Charles Stewart Parnell led the Home Rule campaign.

In the decades after the Famine, tenant farmers organised to resist evictions and win 'the three Fs' — fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale. The Irish National Land League, founded in 1879 by Michael Davitt, led this 'Land War' (Cogadh na Talún), whose campaign against one land agent gave the English language the word 'boycott'.

At the head of Irish nationalism stood Charles Stewart Parnell, the 'uncrowned king of Ireland', who forged the Home Rule movement into a powerful force at Westminster. A series of Land Acts gradually transferred ownership to tenant farmers, but Parnell's career ended in scandal, and his death in 1891 split the movement.