The independent irish party splits and the tenant league breaks up

March 31st , 1859

The Independent Irish Party (IIP) was the designation chosen by the 48 Members of the United Kingdom Parliament returned from Ireland with the endorsement of the Tenant Right League in the 1852 general election. The League had secured their promise to offer an independent opposition (refusing all government favour and office) to the dominant landlord interest, and to advance an agrarian reform programme popularly summarised as the “three F’s”: fair rent, fixed tenure and free sale.

The unity of the grouping was compromised by the priority the majority gave to repealing the Ecclesiastical Titles Act, legislation passed by the Liberal government of Lord John Russell to hamper the restoration in the United Kingdom of a Catholic episcopate, and their independence by the defection of two their leading members to a new Whig-Peelite government.

After further defections, thirteen independents survived the elections in 1857, but then split 1859 on the question of supporting a new Liberal ministry which, in 1860, made the first halting attempt to regulate Irish land tenure.

More From This Day

Related Countries

blog Ireland

bagpipes of ireland

bagpipes of ireland

blog Ireland

great irish warpipes

great irish warpipes

blog Ireland

Pastoral Pipes

Pastoral Pipes

blog Ireland

minstrel boy

minstrel boy

blog Ireland

wearing of the green

wearing of the green

blog Ireland

celtic fiddle

celtic fiddle

blog Ireland

flute

flute

blog Ireland

low whistle

low whistle

blog Ireland

tin whistle

tin whistle

blog Ireland

uilleann pipes

uilleann pipes

No related content found.