Editing Great Famine (Ireland) (section)

===Landlords and tenants===

The "middleman system" for managing [[landed property]] was introduced in the 18th century. Rent collection was left in the hands of the landlords' agents, or middlemen. This assured the landlord of a regular income and relieved them of direct responsibility while leaving tenants open to exploitation by the middlemen.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=22}} The ability of middlemen was measured by the rent income they could contrive to extract from tenants.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=22}} Middlemen leased large tracts of land from the landlords on long leases with fixed rents and sublet to tenants, keeping any money raised in excess to the rent paid to the landlord. This system, coupled with minimal oversight of the middlemen, incentivised harsh exploitation of tenants. Middlemen would split a holding into smaller and smaller parcels so as to increase the amount of rent they could obtain. Tenants could be evicted for reasons such as non-payment of rents (which were high), or a landlord's decision to raise sheep instead of [[Cereal|grain crops]]. [[Cotter (farmer)|Cottiers]] paid their rent by working for the landlord while the spalpeens (itinerant labourers) paid for short-term leases through temporary day work.{{sfn|Litton|2006|pp=9–10}}<ref>{{Citation |last=John. |first=Kelly |title=The graves are walking : the great famine and the saga of the Irish people |date=2015 |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/915811247 |access-date=21 January 2022 |publisher=Tantor Media |isbn=978-1-4526-2787-8 |oclc=915811247}}</ref>

A majority of Catholics, who constituted 80% of the Irish population, lived in conditions of [[poverty]] and insecurity. At the top of the social hierarchy was the [[Protestant Ascendancy|Ascendancy class]], composed of English and [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] families who owned most of the land and held more or less unchecked power over their tenants. Some of their estates were vast; for example, the [[Earl of Lucan]] owned more than {{convert|60000|acre|km2|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bingham, George Charles |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/bingham-george-charles-a0666 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |access-date=18 July 2024}}</ref> Many of these landowners lived in England and functioned as [[absentee landlord]]s. The rent revenue was mostly sent to England.{{sfn|Litton|1994|p={{page needed|date=September 2018}}}}

In 1800, the [[John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare|1st Earl of Clare]] observed of landlords that "confiscation is their common title".{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=21}}<ref>{{cite Hansard|title=Land Tenure (Ireland) Bill|jurisdiction=United Kingdom|house=House of Commons|date=29 March 1876|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1876-03-29/debates/24639591-0cf8-44fe-9b05-ec3a9f9fb2c2/LandTenure(Ireland)Bill|column=773|speaker=Butt, Isaac|author-link=Isaac Butt}}</ref> According to the historian [[Cecil Woodham-Smith]], landlords regarded the land as a source of income, from which as much as possible was to be extracted. With the peasantry "brooding over their discontent in sullen indignation" (in the words of the Earl of Clare), the landlords largely viewed the countryside as a hostile place in which to live. Some landlords visited their property only once or twice in a lifetime, if ever.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=21}} The rents from Ireland were generally spent elsewhere; an estimated £6,000,000 was remitted out of Ireland in 1842.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=21}}{{efn|About £{{inflation|UK|6|1842|fmt=c|r=-1}} million in {{Inflation/year|UK}}.}}

In 1843, the British Government recognized that the land management system in Ireland was the foundational cause of disaffection in the country. The Prime Minister established a [[Royal Commission]], chaired by the [[William Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon|Earl of Devon]] ([[Devon Commission]]), to enquire into the laws regarding the occupation of land. Irish politician [[Daniel O'Connell]] described this commission as "perfectly one-sided", being composed of landlords with no tenant representation.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|pp=20–21}}

In February 1845, Devon reported:
<blockquote>It would be impossible adequately to describe the privations which they [the Irish labourer and his family] habitually and silently endure&nbsp;... in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water&nbsp;... their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather&nbsp;... a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury&nbsp;... and nearly in all their pig and a manure heap constitute their only property.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=24}}</blockquote>

The Commissioners concluded they could not "forbear expressing our strong sense of the patient endurance which the labouring classes have exhibited under sufferings greater, we believe, than the people of any other country in Europe have to sustain".{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=24}} The Commission stated that bad relations between landlord and tenant were principally responsible for this suffering. Landlords were described in evidence before the commission as "land sharks", "bloodsuckers", and "the most oppressive species of tyrant that ever lent assistance to the destruction of a country".{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=22}}

As any improvement made on a holding by a tenant became the property of the landlord when the lease expired or was terminated, the incentive to make improvements was limited. Most tenants had no security of tenure on the land; as tenants "at will", they could be turned out whenever the landlord chose. The only exception to this arrangement was in [[Ulster]] where, under a practice known as [[Custom of Ulster|"tenant right"]], a tenant was compensated for any improvement they made to their holding. According to Woodham-Smith, the commission stated that "the superior prosperity and tranquillity of Ulster, compared with the rest of Ireland, were due to tenant right".{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=22}}

Landlords in Ireland often used their powers without [[compunction]], and tenants lived in dread of them. Woodham-Smith writes that, in these circumstances, "industry and enterprise were extinguished and a peasantry created which was one of the most destitute in Europe".{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=24}}