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IRISH POPULAR POLITICS AND THE MAKING OF THE WYNDHAM LAND ACT, 1901–1903

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2003

FERGUS CAMPBELL
FERGUS CAMPBELL
Affiliation:
National University of Ireland Maynooth
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Abstract

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The Wyndham Land Act was the most important land reform introduced by any British government during the period of the Act of Union (1801–1922); and this article provides a new interpretation of the origins of this revolutionary legislation. Whereas previous accounts attribute the Act to the initiative of the Irish chief secretary, George Wyndham, this article locates the legislation in the wider context of both popular and ‘high’ politics. The state of the land question in fin de siècle Ireland is examined, as is the United Irish League's extensive agitation for compulsory land purchase between 1901 and 1903. Finally, the impact of the agitation on the British government is considered, and the article demonstrates that the Wyndham Land Act was introduced as a result of the United Irish League's campaign for land reform.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , December 2002 , pp. 755 - 773
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

Footnotes

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Stephen Ball, William Beinart, Sean Campbell, Enda Delaney, Paul Dillon, Roy Foster, and Andrew Shields, all of whom read and commented on earlier drafts of this article, and to thank Andrew Gailey and Charles Townshend for their comments on my paper ‘Popular politics and the making of the Wyndham Land Act, 1901–1903’ delivered at Hertford College, Oxford, in February 1997.