THE IRISH CONNECTION
By Mrs. Rhoda Home (nee Hannah)
Ireland had been in turmoil for a number of years when in 1800 the Act Of Union With England was passed. Prime Minister Pitt failed to get Parliament to pass compensation to the Irish such as; relief to Catholics from tithes to the Anglican Church and for Catholic emancipation with the right for Catholics to sit in Parliament. George 3rd was violently opposed to such a move. However, when the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed in 1828 Daniel O'Connell was elected and allowed to take his seat in Parliament, but other measures were taken to exclude the Irish from voting. Catholics were now, in law, Protestant Dissenters. They could now, along with Methodists and others, hold all public offices except the Chancellery, Monarch and Regent.
The Tithe war continued until 1835 and was replaced by a land tax to finance Anglican Clergy and the Church in Ireland. English or Anglo-Irish Protestants owned most of the land, often as absentee landlords. The Irish rented the land and often sublet it to second or third families. This led to many small holdings being leased at excessive rents to cover middlemen.
There was very little scientific farming because improvements led to rent increases. Eviction was possible with no compensation for improvements and even higher rents were set for new lessees. The tenants had no defence and often sought direct action against the landlord's cattle or his agents (boycotts). This in turn led to the Coercion Acts, Suppression of Habeas Corpus, and Trial by Jury.
The people were depressed. Five out or six lived in single roomed mud huts and had families of as many as eight members. Two acres of land was needed for crops for bread and one for potatoes. Potatoes became the basic diet and consisted of poor Lumper or Hog Spanish varieties that were bigger than the local variety. They provided bulk but lacked vitamins. Four of the eight and a half million Irish could afford nothing better and if the crop failed it would mean starvation. Poor land management and farming methods robbed the soil of nutrients and what was in it went rotten.
More than 750,000 Irish died of starvation and disease, and thousands more left the country. From 1815 to 1834 400,000 Irish migrated. By 1840 eight and a half million had left Ireland, and in 1842 alone 90,000 left the country for America, Canada and Australia.