The boycotting was a new tactic he acquired, it involved shunning (ignoring) a landlord or his agent in the hope of disgracing and humiliating him. Speaking at on 19 September 1880, Parnell declared: “When a man takes a farm from which another had been evicted you must shun him on the roadside when you meet him, you must shun him in the streets of the town, you must shun him in the shop, you must shun him in the fairgreen and in the marketplace, and even in the place of worship, by leaving him alone, by putting him in a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the rest of his country as if he were the leper of old, you must show your detestation of the crime he has committed”. This was one of his most famous speeches.
Boycotting got its name from a man called Captain Boycott. The captain was much hated; he was a cruel landlord from County Mayo.
In 1880, when the Boycott method failed to lower rents for the tenants, another alike tactic was thought off. Servants no longer worked in his house, stores sold him nothing, no mail was delivered, and labourers refused to bring in the harvest. A humiliated Captain Boycott was forced to leave Ireland in disgrace. The campaign's success also affected other landlords who evicted tenants suddenly found that no other family would move into the vacated home
In April 1881 a bill was introduced which was to promote the rights of tenants and establish a land court to fix fair rent. Parnell accepted this Land Act with caution. He did not really like the act, as it did not help the tenants as much as he would have liked it to.
Parnell was idolised from 1880-1882. He was referred to as the “Uncrowned King of Ireland. As a result of his continuing campaign against the British government Parnell and other leaders were arrested in October 1881 and the League was put down. During his time in prison Parnell became an even bigger hero. Parnell was not treated as an ordinary prisoner, he had a special large cell with a fireplace and furniture, he was allowed visitors and was allowed out to to mix with others for 6 hours a day. While he was in prison he instructed tenants not to pay the rent. This increased the violence even further. Gladstone knew that he tried and couldn’t control them; it was in the hands of Parnell. Gladstone came to terms with Parnell in April 1882 with the “Kilmainham Treaty”, (Parnell was at this time in Kilmainham Jail). Parnell was released from jail, Gladstone promised him further improvements to the land act. In return Parnell called off the violence. Later on the government gave out loans to the tenants helping them buy their farms. As a result there were few landlords left in the country. From about 1900 most tenants owned their own land. From now on Parnell gave less attention to the land league and concentrated on the home rule movement.
The Irish land league proved quite a success.
My opinion of Parnell’s land league achievements.
I think that Parnell had great success during his land league leadership. He managed to fulfil his aims, which wasn’t the case of his home rule movement. Parnell made the violence stop and it just showed how much he was thought of and in command he was. If it wasn’t for Parnell much more of the land today would be owned by the government rather than the Irish people.
