Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ The Irish National Land League was founded on 21st October 1879 in Castlebar, County Mayo, at a meeting in the Imperial Hotel. 

Charles Stewart Parnell, himself a landlord and no friend of the trade unions or the working-class, was elected, somewhat ambiguously and oddly, as President with Michael Davitt, Andrew Kettle, and Thomas Brennan honorary presidents. The presence of Davitt introduced for the first-time cooperation between the physical force arm of Irish Nationalism, epitomised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood which Davitt was a leading member, and the constitutional wing represented by Parnell. 

The league united - as well as the physical and constitutional wings of nationalism - most of the different strands of land agitation under one organisation. The two major aims of the land league were: firstly, to bring about a reduction in rack-rents; secondly, to facilitate the obtaining the ownership of the soil by the occupiers, the tenants. One of the league's aims was to defend those who were threatened with eviction for refusing to pay unjust rents, a bit like today in many respects. The abolition of landlordism in Ireland was also a long-term aim of the Land league. As we can note by the actions of some today this long-term aim has not been achieved.

Most students of Irish history will be aware of a man named Charles Cunningham Boycott – Captain Boycott – an English land agent for Lord Erne, a large landowner from County Mayo. As part of its campaign for the three Fs, Fair Rent, Fixity of tenure, and Free sale, and against evictions, which Boycott was renowned for, the Irish National Land League encouraged Boycott's employees to withdraw their labour and begin a campaign of isolation against the agent. Shops refused to serve Boycott and services in general were denied the parasitical agent. This gave rise to the verb in the English language, used to this day; “boycott” as in “boycotting” of goods etc.

The age of the Land league is a celebrated period in Irish history studied to this present day. Its founders are celebrated as great men, which in most cases they were, and member activists of the day are remembered with justifiable pride. Oddly enough today, in 21st century Ireland, many of those celebrating the activities of the Land League are as bad, if not worse, than the Leagues opponents, people like Boycott! In modern Ireland the celebrated toasts to the  Land League and its objectives are hypocritically and certainly falsely promoted by people who do not mean a word of what they say. This is typical of twenty-six county accounts and interpretations of history, false, fraudulent and that’s being kind. 

Today in the twenty-six counties landlordism is as rampant and wrong as it ever was in the days of Davitt and the League. The difference today being, the twenty-six-county state have an Irish Government not, as in the past, a British administration ruling over the land, or part of it. Some of the most parasitical culprits of modern landlordism are members of the present government, elected (kind of) on 8th February 2020. The present government consist of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, and an organisation styling itself the “Green Party” which, as we have just witnessed with the opening of a third runway at Dublin Airport, they are not. Not one word of opposition from this component part of the Government over this runway and more take-offs and fume emissions was voiced. However, I am diverging, again, and let us look at some of these hypocrites in government.

Robert, the rent boy (as in landlordism, rent collecting), Troy has just resigned as a junior minister due to “the controversy over his property portfolio.” The Fianna Fail TD for Longford/Westmeath and landlord resigned after revealing he made “serious mistakes when he didn’t declare a number of properties” of the eleven he owned, or part owned on the official Dail members interests register, something which is imperative on members to do. 

During the Covid pandemic this shameless landlord and maggot, as that is what landlords are who exploit people, asked the government, which he was a TD for, to “help landlords kick out tenants”. This would be the kind of request expected of Charles Boycott in the 19th century, surely not a TD and supposed servant of the people in modern Ireland? In June 2020, when the crisis in health was beginning to really bite, he “asked the Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien what help landlords would be given to kick out non-conforming tenants.” By this I assume he means people who, through no fault of their own, cannot afford to pay the extortionate rents the likes of himself and his cronies charge. This request by Robert Troy was made despite a moratorium being in place against evictions during the pandemic. He still felt fit to request help to evict people. Where exactly did Troy and his other rent boy (again as in landlordism and rent collection) mates expect these people they had just made homeless, had the request been granted, to go?

I am sure Robert Troy is not the only one among our trusted TDs to be a landlord and only declaring the bare minimum they think they can get away with, he’s just the parasite who got caught. Troy in a statement said he:

would like to take this opportunity to assure my constituents and supporters that I will continue to work as diligently as I always have as a TD and that I will continue to give my full commitment to my party. It’s been the privilege and honour of my life to serve in this Government and to serve as a minister.

Perhaps Robert Troy’s statement should have read “I would like to take this opportunity to assure my constituents” who I have not yet kicked out on the streets for being “non-conforming” “that I will continue to work as diligently as I always have as a TD.”

So, as we look back with pride to the days of the land league and the likes of Michael Davitt, perhaps we should also glance over our shoulders to more recent times when men like Robert Troy and other private landlords are carrying on in much the same way as did Captain Boycott. Troy even asked for government help to assist in evicting people during the worst pandemic Europe has seen since the Bubonic plague.

Robert Troy to one side, in modern times we see private landlords using exactly the same tactics to remove people from their properties as did the landowners back in Michael Davitt’s day. Security men, if indeed that is what they are, have been evicting by force people occupying properties on behalf of the landlords. An Garda Siochana have accompanied these thugs who, in many cases, wore balaclavas to remove these people in much the same way as the British Red Coats, the colour of the tunics worn by the British Army at the time and Royal Irish Constabulary did back in the days of the land league. Strange how history has an uncanny habit of repeating itself, slightly different format perhaps but essentially the same. What really changes?

James Connolly wrote back in 1899:

After Ireland is free, says the patriot who won’t touch socialism, we will protect all classes, and if you won’t pay your rent you will be evicted same as now. But the evicting party, under command of the Sheriff, will wear green uniforms and the Harp without the Crown, and the warrant turning you out on the roadside will be stamped with the arms of the Irish Republic.

That is exactly what has happened except, so far, it is not Irish soldiers who accompany the masked bailiffs to evict people, but Irish policemen! Now wasn’t that kind of independence worth fighting for?


Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

Irish History And The Hypocrites Of Today

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ The Irish National Land League was founded on 21st October 1879 in Castlebar, County Mayo, at a meeting in the Imperial Hotel. 

Charles Stewart Parnell, himself a landlord and no friend of the trade unions or the working-class, was elected, somewhat ambiguously and oddly, as President with Michael Davitt, Andrew Kettle, and Thomas Brennan honorary presidents. The presence of Davitt introduced for the first-time cooperation between the physical force arm of Irish Nationalism, epitomised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood which Davitt was a leading member, and the constitutional wing represented by Parnell. 

The league united - as well as the physical and constitutional wings of nationalism - most of the different strands of land agitation under one organisation. The two major aims of the land league were: firstly, to bring about a reduction in rack-rents; secondly, to facilitate the obtaining the ownership of the soil by the occupiers, the tenants. One of the league's aims was to defend those who were threatened with eviction for refusing to pay unjust rents, a bit like today in many respects. The abolition of landlordism in Ireland was also a long-term aim of the Land league. As we can note by the actions of some today this long-term aim has not been achieved.

Most students of Irish history will be aware of a man named Charles Cunningham Boycott – Captain Boycott – an English land agent for Lord Erne, a large landowner from County Mayo. As part of its campaign for the three Fs, Fair Rent, Fixity of tenure, and Free sale, and against evictions, which Boycott was renowned for, the Irish National Land League encouraged Boycott's employees to withdraw their labour and begin a campaign of isolation against the agent. Shops refused to serve Boycott and services in general were denied the parasitical agent. This gave rise to the verb in the English language, used to this day; “boycott” as in “boycotting” of goods etc.

The age of the Land league is a celebrated period in Irish history studied to this present day. Its founders are celebrated as great men, which in most cases they were, and member activists of the day are remembered with justifiable pride. Oddly enough today, in 21st century Ireland, many of those celebrating the activities of the Land League are as bad, if not worse, than the Leagues opponents, people like Boycott! In modern Ireland the celebrated toasts to the  Land League and its objectives are hypocritically and certainly falsely promoted by people who do not mean a word of what they say. This is typical of twenty-six county accounts and interpretations of history, false, fraudulent and that’s being kind. 

Today in the twenty-six counties landlordism is as rampant and wrong as it ever was in the days of Davitt and the League. The difference today being, the twenty-six-county state have an Irish Government not, as in the past, a British administration ruling over the land, or part of it. Some of the most parasitical culprits of modern landlordism are members of the present government, elected (kind of) on 8th February 2020. The present government consist of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, and an organisation styling itself the “Green Party” which, as we have just witnessed with the opening of a third runway at Dublin Airport, they are not. Not one word of opposition from this component part of the Government over this runway and more take-offs and fume emissions was voiced. However, I am diverging, again, and let us look at some of these hypocrites in government.

Robert, the rent boy (as in landlordism, rent collecting), Troy has just resigned as a junior minister due to “the controversy over his property portfolio.” The Fianna Fail TD for Longford/Westmeath and landlord resigned after revealing he made “serious mistakes when he didn’t declare a number of properties” of the eleven he owned, or part owned on the official Dail members interests register, something which is imperative on members to do. 

During the Covid pandemic this shameless landlord and maggot, as that is what landlords are who exploit people, asked the government, which he was a TD for, to “help landlords kick out tenants”. This would be the kind of request expected of Charles Boycott in the 19th century, surely not a TD and supposed servant of the people in modern Ireland? In June 2020, when the crisis in health was beginning to really bite, he “asked the Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien what help landlords would be given to kick out non-conforming tenants.” By this I assume he means people who, through no fault of their own, cannot afford to pay the extortionate rents the likes of himself and his cronies charge. This request by Robert Troy was made despite a moratorium being in place against evictions during the pandemic. He still felt fit to request help to evict people. Where exactly did Troy and his other rent boy (again as in landlordism and rent collection) mates expect these people they had just made homeless, had the request been granted, to go?

I am sure Robert Troy is not the only one among our trusted TDs to be a landlord and only declaring the bare minimum they think they can get away with, he’s just the parasite who got caught. Troy in a statement said he:

would like to take this opportunity to assure my constituents and supporters that I will continue to work as diligently as I always have as a TD and that I will continue to give my full commitment to my party. It’s been the privilege and honour of my life to serve in this Government and to serve as a minister.

Perhaps Robert Troy’s statement should have read “I would like to take this opportunity to assure my constituents” who I have not yet kicked out on the streets for being “non-conforming” “that I will continue to work as diligently as I always have as a TD.”

So, as we look back with pride to the days of the land league and the likes of Michael Davitt, perhaps we should also glance over our shoulders to more recent times when men like Robert Troy and other private landlords are carrying on in much the same way as did Captain Boycott. Troy even asked for government help to assist in evicting people during the worst pandemic Europe has seen since the Bubonic plague.

Robert Troy to one side, in modern times we see private landlords using exactly the same tactics to remove people from their properties as did the landowners back in Michael Davitt’s day. Security men, if indeed that is what they are, have been evicting by force people occupying properties on behalf of the landlords. An Garda Siochana have accompanied these thugs who, in many cases, wore balaclavas to remove these people in much the same way as the British Red Coats, the colour of the tunics worn by the British Army at the time and Royal Irish Constabulary did back in the days of the land league. Strange how history has an uncanny habit of repeating itself, slightly different format perhaps but essentially the same. What really changes?

James Connolly wrote back in 1899:

After Ireland is free, says the patriot who won’t touch socialism, we will protect all classes, and if you won’t pay your rent you will be evicted same as now. But the evicting party, under command of the Sheriff, will wear green uniforms and the Harp without the Crown, and the warrant turning you out on the roadside will be stamped with the arms of the Irish Republic.

That is exactly what has happened except, so far, it is not Irish soldiers who accompany the masked bailiffs to evict people, but Irish policemen! Now wasn’t that kind of independence worth fighting for?


Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

4 comments:

  1. What's the alternative and who pays for that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well drawn parallels between the colonial landlords and the neoliberal free state hegemonic version. There is a simple solution and it's a public housing program but we know why that can't happen, it's unapproved by the committees of the rich as the gravy in rents would end.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Troy would slot easily into the William Martin Murphy tradition

    ReplyDelete