ABSTRACT
The Great Social Problem in Ireland in the first half of the nineteenth century was that of the land. The Government of Sir Robert Peel had endeavoured to do something about the Irish land question. The tragic circumstances of the winter of 1846–7 helped to focus attention on agrarian issues, especially as the Government failed to introduce the long-awaited tenants’ compensation bill. The resistance of the Irish landlords and the growing fear that some meagre compensation bill would be brought forward by the Whig Government as a legal substitute for tenant-right strengthened the sense of watchfulness in Ulster and elsewhere in the country. The leaders of the Confederation, for example, were closely associated with the foundation of the Irish Council in the early summer of 1847. The continued failure of the attempts to win landlord support and the persistence of famine conditions had an important political consequence.
