Land, Leases, and Length of Tenure

Of all the explanations proposed in the nineteenth century for Ireland’s economic woes, one of the most influential is the hypothesis which places the responsibility on the system of land tenancy. Throughout the nineteenth century complaints of this nature were put forward by administrators, political economists, agricultural reformers, and visiting travelers. ¹ Many contemporaries viewed tenancy as the core of Ireland’s difficulties. The government’s response to this consensus on the cause of Ireland’s ever-more pressing economic hardship was to establish (in 1844) the Commission of Inquiry into the State of the Law and Practice in Relation to the Occupation of Land in Ireland, generally referred to as the Devon Commission.