Our next event takes place on Wednesday 18 November at 8pm via Google Meet. Johnny Burke will give a talk on The Land Question in North Galway, 1920.

In 1920 Dáil Éireann had established itself as an alternative administration to British rule with its own army, and the vast majority of County Councils had declared their allegiance to Dáil Éireann. Widespread attacks on RIC barracks resulted in the withdrawal of the police from rural to urban areas. While the national struggle for independence was in the ascendency, a separate undercurrent of discontent was simmering in relation to land.

The Land Acts of the late nineteenth-early twentieth century had failed to solve the problem of economic farms. These smallholdings were extensive throughout the West, with many families struggling to survive. Discontent resulted when large landowners and businessmen rented or purchased large tracts of grazing land for the purposes of cattle-rearing. Smallholders reacted in the Spring of 1920, in what was described as a ‘fever’ that ‘swept like a prairie fire over Connacht and portions of the other provinces’.

This talk will examine what caused this hunger for land, how land agitation was dealt with by Dáil Éireann, and the steps taken to address land redistribution.

The link to this virtual event is https://meet.google.com/ucz-axkr-hrs.

You can add the event to your calendar using the buttons below.