5 - Post-Famine politics prior to the Land War

Summary

Mayo is in a very bad – in a most unsatisfactory state. No man can confidently state that either property or life is safe within the precincts. Terrorism has created throughout the county a wide-spread and very general sense of insecurity. Much of this feeling of insecurity is attributable to exaggerated reports and false rumours, but terrorism is the order of the day amongst us, and it is impossible to divest one's mind of the apprehension that attempts may be made, and successfully made, to carry out some of those threats with which we have become so familiar.

(N. R. Strich, RM, County Mayo, to Dublin Castle, 21 February 1870)

During the 1860s and 1870s the merchants, tradesmen and substantial farmers of provincial Ireland, with their clientage of customers, debtors and sub-tenants, often became centers of patronage and power. Through a combination of wealth, prestige and intimidation they wielded considerable influence in both national and local politics, mounting a successful challenge to the near-monopoly of political power long enjoyed by the landed elite. Few were in a position to stand for parliament, although they exercised increasing influence over those who did, but many members of this new elite found an outlet for their political ambitions in contests for the poor law boards of guardians, whose prestige and power over life in rural Ireland increased enormously between the Famine and the Land War.