Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  Irish Land Act (1909). Popularly known as ‘Birrell’s Act’ (after the then chief secretary for Ireland), this act (19 Edw. VII, c. 42) extended the category of congested districts and authorised the compulsory purchase of lands in congested areas. Payments to landlords were to be made in government stock plus a graduated bonus for bringing their lands to sale. The rate of interest on tenants’ repayments was 31/2% over 65 years which proved attractive to tenants as some 50,000 holdings were sold under the scheme.

  Irish Land Commission. A legal tribunal established by Gladstone to carry into effect the fair rent provisions of the Land Law Act (1881). As the Commission’s adjudications were legally binding, at least one of the presiding commissioners was a high court judge. Sub-commissions were established to hear applications for fair rents from landlords or tenants throughout the country. The bulk of cases were dealt with by the Land Commission but the county court also played a role in fair rent adjudication. Within a couple of years a majority of tenants had obtained judicial rents that were binding for 15 years and which formed the basis of purchase annuities in the land acts after 1881. Local agreements between landlords and tenants became binding when they were registered in the county court. Between 1881 and 1923 – when its role in fair rent adjudication was abolished – the Commission oversaw in excess of 500,000 fair rent agreements and orders. In addition to acting as a court of arbitration the Land Commission was tasked with facilitating the transfer of land ownership from landlords to tenants by advancing loans to tenants to purchase their holdings. Take-up was slow at first and it required a series of ever more attractive legislative acts to entice landlords and tenants into the market in numbers. The floodgates opened with the Wyndham Act of 1903 which remodelled the Land Commission so that its main emphasis came to be on land purchase and re-distribution. Wyndham established the Estates Commissioners, a new body within the commission, to administer the provisions of the act. It simplified the land purchase procedure and offered landowners a bonus of twelve per cent to sell entire estates rather than individual holdings. In conjunction with the Congested Districts Board, the Estates Commissioners became active in relieving rural congestion by improving, enlarging and rearranging newly-purchased estates before vesting them in tenant-purchasers. From 1907 they were empowered to purchase land specifically for the purpose of settling evicted tenants. In 1909 the Land Commission was granted the power to purchase land compulsorily in congested districts and from 1923 – when it assumed the functions of the Congested Districts Board – this power was greatly enlarged and extended to embrace any untenanted land in the country that was required for the relief of congestion. Thereafter the focus of the Land Commission became the purchase and re-distribution of land, a process which included the radical scheme of transplanting farmers from the west of Ireland to farms in Meath and Kildare. The commission was dissolved by Dáil Éireann in 1992 and its records, including schedules of areas (land surveys and maps), inspectors’ reports and schedules (value for money certification), documents of title, deeds, wills, mortgages and documents of purchase, were transferred to the National Archives building. Containing over six million documents, this vast repository of landed estates records remains, to all intents and purposes, inaccessible to researchers. By writing to the Keeper of Records, Land Commission, Bishop Street, Dublin 8, you may be allowed examine the schedules of areas and accompanying maps but without special permission you cannot access the remaining material. A survey of Land Commission records relating to 9,343 estates was undertaken by Edward Keane for the National Library of Ireland in the 1970s. Keane’s bound volumes of reports on individual estates are available for consultation in the catalogue room of the library, together with topographical and names card indexes. See Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1885, Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887, Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, Irish Land Act (1909). (Buckley, ‘The Irish Land Commission’, pp. 28–36; Dooley, Sources, pp. 38–41; Kolbert and O’Brien, Land reform, pp. 34–45.)

  Irish Manuscripts Commission. The Irish Manuscripts Commission (1928–) was established to survey and report on collections of manuscripts and papers of literary, historical and genealogical interest relating to Ireland. From time to time the commission publishes a volume or volumes relating to specific collections or records. The Calendar of Ormond deeds, for example, was published in six volumes while the Civil Survey (1654–56) comprises ten volumes relating to the counties of Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford, Kildare, Dublin, Meath, Donegal, Derry, and Tyrone. Analecta Hibernica, the commission’s journal, publishes material not extensive enough to be issued in stand-alone publications.

  Irish National Foresters Benefit Society. A nationalist friendly society founded in the 1870s by seceders from the British-based Ancient Order of Foresters. Borrowing from the craft of forestry, the foresters styled their chairman chief ranger and their welfare officers woodwards. Weekly dues enabled the society to employ a doctor and provide for the burial of deceased members. With over 9,000 members organised in 128 branches, the Foresters was the largest friendly society in operation in Ireland. However, it made little impact in the cities where many smaller societies were firmly entrenched and it remained a feature of rural and small town life. (Buckley and Anderson, Brotherhoods.)

  Irish Record Commission. The Irish Record Commission (1810–1830) was established by royal commission in 1810 for the better regulation of administrative records which were then in a deplorable condition. The commissioners were directed to methodise, regulate and digest the records, rolls, books and papers in the public offices or repositories and to bind and secure those that were decaying. They were to compile and print calendars and indices and publish original records of general interest. Sub-commissioners were appointed to carry out these tasks and they set about examining the material stored in the Bermingham Tower, the parliamentary record office, the rolls office, the chief remembrancer’s office and the auditor general’s office. Another group was assigned the task of preparing an authentic edition of the Irish statutes for publication. Considerable difficulties were encountered on account of ‘the deranged state of the records’. In 1815 they published the first volume of reports (containing the first to the fifth annual reports) and a second (the sixth to the tenth annual reports) followed in 1820. Both contain the returns with supplements from the above offices (as well as the state paper office in the Record Tower, the office of the surveyor-general, the quit-rent office and the prerogative office), together with catalogues and inventories. In 1825 the commission published three volumes containing an abstract and reference to the principal records and public documents relating to the Acts of Settlement and Explanation then preserved in the rolls and the chief remembrancer’s office. In 1812 they decided to publish John Lodge’s incomplete work, Liber Munerum Publicorum Hiberniae or the Establishment of Ireland. Although the project was abandoned in 1830 Liber Munerum finally made it to the printers in 1852. In 1827 the commissioners published Inquisitionum in officio rotulorum cancellariae asservatorum repertorium and in 1829 a second volume. The first contained a repertory to the inquisitions post-mortem for Leinster and the second related to those conducted in Ulster. Unfortunately they were printed in an abbreviated Latin form and unless one is familiar with Latin they are pretty much worthless. Finally in 1828 the commission published the first part of the first volume of Rotulorum patentium et clausorum cancellariae Hiberniae calendarium which contains the patent and close rolls from the reign of Henry II to the reign of Henry VII. The Irish Record Commission was shut down in 1830 for financial reasons. It had been heavily criticised for the disorganised manner in which it went about its business and some of the transcription work of the clerks was lamentable. But for the destruction of original records in the Four Courts in 1922 the collection of the commission’s papers in the National Archives would be of little interest to historians today. Now, however, they constitute a key historical source for the history of medieval and early modern Ireland. (Griff
ith, ‘The Irish Record Commission’, pp. 29–38.)

  Irish Republican Brotherhood. Founded on 17 March 1858 by James Stephens, the IRB was a secret, oath-bound society dedicated to the achievement of an Irish republic by physical force. Although a minority movement, the IRB flourished in the 1860s but the conditions required for a successful rising – a major imperial military engagement elsewhere and a coherently structured, well-armed revolutionary force prepared to take advantage of ‘England’s difficulty’ – were never realised. Forewarned by leaks, the government thwarted an attempted rising in March 1867 and an alternative approach – to attack Britain through Canada – failed on three occasions. Stephens’ leadership style was a source of continuing controversy within the movement and his reputation was damaged by his abandonment of the rising promised for 1866. Riven by splits, both at home and in the United States, and with little opportunity for revolutionary action, many IRB members became involved in agitation during the Land War (1879–82). Apart from a bombing campaign in England, the IRB was largely overshadowed by the Parnellite push for home rule in the 1880s. The movement was resuscitated in the early years of the next century with the emergence of Sinn Féin, the return to Ireland of the convicted republican bomber Thomas Clarke and the establishment of the militant Irish Freedom newspaper. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 provided an opportunity to strike while the British army was heavily committed in France. The 1916 rising was conceived largely by the supreme council of the IRB and every member of its military council was executed in the aftermath. With Michael Collins as its president, the IRB continued to work for an Irish republic after 1916 through the Irish Volunteers and Sinn Féin but separatism was now a popular issue and there was little necessity for secret societies. In 1921 the supreme council voted eleven to four to accept the Anglo-Irish treaty thereby splitting the movement along pro- and anti- lines during the subsequent civil war. The IRB was dissolved in 1924. (Williams, ‘The Irish Republican Brotherhood’, pp. 138–149.

  Irish Society. Formed in 1609 by 12 shareholding companies of the city of London, the Society of the Governors and Assistants, London, of the New Plantation in Ulster within the Realm of Ireland (or Irish Society) was granted the city and county of Derry to plant in return for fulfilling certain conditions. Solid defences were to be constructed about Derry city and Coleraine and the native Irish were to be expelled and replaced by imported British settlers. Slow progress in meeting these stipulations resulted in fines, sequestration of rents and revenues and the voiding of the society’s charter on several occasions. Nevertheless, the companies were reluctant to dispense with native Irish tenants who proved willing to pay high rents. The South Sea Bubble economic collapse in 1720 ended a profitable period for the shareholders forcing several companies to sell out and a few, strapped for cash, proceeded to lease at low rents but with high entry fines. The remaining holdings were disposed of in the late nineteenth century as a result of the Land War and the various land purchase acts. The Foyle fisheries, the last major asset of the society, were sold in 1952. (Moody, The Londonderry plantation; PRONI, Guide to the records of the Irish Society and the London companies.)

  Irish Society for Promoting the Education of the Native Irish through the Medium of their own Language. Founded in 1818, the Irish Society was a proselytising bible group which sought conversions in Ireland through the medium of the Irish language. Teaching missions were established in Cavan, Kerry, Tipperary, Limerick, in all the western counties and on the islands. The society established a system of elementary education involving paid teachers and inspectors and provided a supply of reading material. Its impact as a proselytising body was minimal. See Second Reformation.

  ironsides. Cromwellian soldiers.

  J

  j. The Roman numeral for the number 1 which was used at the end of a sequence of numbers probably to deter fraudulent additions. Thus, iijd. = 3d. The practice is still in use in medical prescriptions.

  jacks. Leather quilted coats, occasionally plated with iron, worn by native Irish horsemen during the sixteenth century.

  jamb. A wall, screen or partition in the lobby of a vernacular cottage. A spy window was usually inserted in the jamb to allow light to penetrate into the living area from the open door and to enable visitors to be viewed. Jamb walls are associated with centrally-located hearths and are typically eastern features. See hearth-lobby house, direct-entry house.

  jetsam. Goods or any other objects thrown overboard to keep a ship afloat.

  jointure. 1: An annuity payable to a landlord’s widow charged on the rents and profits of the land for her lifetime 2: An estate settled on a wife to be taken in lieu of dower. See widow’s dower.

  journey. A punitive incursion by crown forces into the territory of the native Irish. Journeys might be of a week’s duration and were assembled by writ of the governor’s privy seal. Incursions conducted by the sheriff and his posse comitatus were known as ‘roads’. See hosting.

  Judicature Act, Supreme Court of (1877). The Irish equivalent of legislation introduced in England in 1873–5, the Irish Judicature Act (40 & 41 Vict., c. 57) radically re-modelled the administration of the courts in Ireland. The existing courts (chancery, queen’s bench, common pleas, exchequer, probate, matrimonial causes, admiralty and landed estates) were united into one supreme court which was divided into the high court and the court of appeal in Ireland. The high court comprised five divisions initially: chancery, queen’s bench, common pleas, exchequer and probate and matrimonial (admiralty was to abolished and merged with queen’s bench upon the death or resignation of the then judge of admiralty). Two further judicature acts (1887, 1897) resulted in the amalgamation of the courts of common pleas, exchequer, probate and matrimonial and admiralty with queen’s bench so that by the close of the century the high court had but two divisions, queen’s bench and chancery. See king’s bench. (Newark, Notes, pp. 24–5.)

  jumper. A term used to disparage those Catholics who converted to Protestantism in return for material benefits during famine times. Also known as ‘soupers’. See souperism.

  jurats, jures. Aldermen, 24 of whom sat with the mayor in the upper house of Dublin corporation. It was from this body that the mayor was elected.

  justice of the peace. The local judicial official who conducted the quarter-sessions. In the middle ages as the scope of government increased the administration of justice proved beyond the capacity of the curia regis alone. In times of emergency local deputies called keepers of the peace or custodes pacis were appointed to police troubled areas and borders. Initially their function was a military one but this was gradually extended to include the requirement to maintain law and order in the jurisdiction and to prevent disorder by taking recognisances for the peace. From the fifteenth century the keepers of the peace were re-styled ‘justices of the peace’. They were appointed by a commission of the peace after taking the oaths of supremacy and loyalty. Until the seventeenth century the disturbed nature of the country prevented the establishment of an effective system of quarter-sessions in the localities but thereafter a system similar to the English model emerged. Irish justices exercised a much broader jurisdiction than their English counterparts, empowered as they were to try all cases except treason, murder, felonies punishable by penal servitude for life and felonies of a political or rebellious nature. The justices of the peace also developed an ‘out of session’ jurisdiction known as the petty sessions to deal with offences of a summary nature. The justice of the peace was responsible for the preliminary examination of suspects scheduled to appear before the assize courts. On the basis of the evidence before him he decided whether to discharge the suspect or return him to the quarter-sessions or assizes. If he decided that the suspect had a case to answer a bill of indictment was presented to the grand jury which determined whether the bill was true or not. A true bill became an indictment triable before the petty sessions, quarter-sessions or assize courts. The justice of the peace failed to win the confidence of the gov
ernment or the population at large owing to the incompetence and inactivity of many appointees. Stipendiary magistrates – who exercised the powers of the justices and controlled the constabulary – were appointed in Dublin from 1795 to improve the effectiveness of the administration of justice in the localities and the success of this innovation led to its extension in 1814 to any area proclaimed as disturbed by the lord lieutenant. Permanent and salaried resident magistrates were appointed from 1822 and by the close of the century every district in Ireland had its own resident magistrate. See Supremacy, Act of.

  justiciar. The chief governor of Ireland in the pre-Tudor period, also known as the custos, deputy justiciar, king’s lieutenant, deputy king’s lieutenant or chief justice. Later he became known as lord deputy, lord lieutenant or lord justice and later again as the viceroy. The justiciar was an omnicompetent official, the senior military, administrative and judicial authority in the land. He was assisted by an advisory council which comprised key government officials (the treasurer, chancellor, escheator and chief baron of the exchequer, judges and the keeper of the rolls of chancery). From time to time the council was afforced (strengthened) by the addition of leading magnates and only rarely would the justiciar act without the assent of his councillors. The justiciar and his council exercised important judicial functions including the hearing of petitions and the resolution of disputes between great magnates, long after the professional courts had become established. See privy council.