Boycott and Land Leagues in County Mayo, Ireland

Social and Economic Ostracism Initiated During Land Dispute

Oct 15, 2009 Kathleen Airdrie

The origin of the word 'boycott' is attributed to actions taken during a land dispute in Ireland in 1880.

The 1880 dispute was between Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott and tenant farmers in the Ballinrobe area of County Mayo, Ireland.

Mayo County Land Dispute with Captain Boycott

Low agricultural prices since 1874, and poor harvests due to bad weather, meant that many tenant farmers in Ireland could not pay their rents. The people were suffering near famine conditions once again.

The inflexible Irish land tenure system resulted in formation of local land league organizations. Those leagues, initiated in County Mayo in 1879 by Michael Davitt, James Daly, and others, became a national movement. The term Irish Land War was applied to the actions.

Captain Boycott held a lease on 300 acres on the eastern shore of Lough Mask, County Mayo. He was also the agent for Lord Erne who held a 5,000 acre estate. Boycott’s strictness and curtailment of simple privileges did not endear him to the tenant farmers.

He was described by some as a man who did whatever he could to benefit the tenants. By others he was described as eccentric and domineering. It was said that he subjected the tenants and laborers to many “petty deprivations and humiliations which have exasperated them”.

Isolated Socially and Economically

As instructed by Lord Erne, he offered a ten per cent rent reduction which was refused. He then obtained notices of eviction against tenants whose rent was overdue. Process server David Sears managed to serve several of the notices while escorted by a member of the constabulary. Confronted by local opposition, he was unable to complete his task.

Encouraged by parish priest Father John O’Malley, a member of the Land League, protesters gathered at Boycott’s home and told his servants and farm workers to leave.

Boycott and his family were left to tend to their own work. He was constantly ostracized whenever he left the house, but his family members were treated with respect. As requested, he received police protection, but was denied all services as mail deliverer, shopkeepers, and laborers ignored him. The tenant farmers’ request that Lord Erne replace Boycott as agent was refused.

Military Protection for Ulster Volunteers

Concerned that his crops would rot in the fields, Boycott wrote to the English press. A newspaper correspondent started a campaign to find help for him. Fifty Ulstermen travelled to Lough Mask Farm with military protection. When the harvesting of potatoes, turnips, and grain was completed, they returned to Ulster with the same protection. The expedition cost about ten thousand pounds.

During the agitation against the so-called ‘Boycott Relief Expedition’, Father O’Malley suggested the term ‘boycotting’. The word was much easier to pronounce than ‘ostracism’. As reported in Harpers Weekly, December 18, 1880, “Captain Boycott and his family have since left Ireland. The people of the country were very much incensed by his success in getting his crops gathered”.

Rural Ireland Boycotting Tactics Successful

Agrarian agitation using similar tactics continued in rural Ireland. People who assisted or served the offending individuals were boycotted. Anyone who moved onto the land of evicted tenant farmers was deliberately isolated. The actions were quite effective and unquestionably lawful.

After many years of struggle, Irish tenant farmers received the right to buy land. Michael Davitt was a national hero, and Captain Boycott's name became synonymous with social and economic isolation for a cause.

Charitable Organization Donations During Famine

Grosse Ile, Quebec Quarantine Station

Sources:

The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland: or The Story of the Land League Revolution by Michael Davitt, Harper & Brothers, London, 1904

Boycott in America: How Imagination and Ideology Shape the Legal Mind by Gary Minda, Southern Illinois University Press, 1999

The copyright of the article Boycott and Land Leagues in County Mayo, Ireland in UK/Irish History is owned by Kathleen Airdrie. Permission to republish Boycott and Land Leagues in County Mayo, Ireland in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.