Land reform and legislation in Ireland, 1800-2024

Terence Dooley, Tony McCarthy & Annie Tindley

This volume explores the provenance, mechanisms and impact of land legislation and land reform in Ireland from the 1800 to 2024, one of the dominant issues in Irish politics, society, economy and culture through the whole period. It takes a holistic perspective, including histories of tenant right movements and agitation, the views of landowners, government(s) and the impact of land reform on the landscape, agriculture and built environment of Ireland. It argues that it is impossible to understand the history of modern Ireland without understanding its relationship to land and land issues. It is structured into three thematic parts, while maintaining a chronological order. Firstly, it examines the drivers for land reform, including tenant right movements and political reform. Secondly, it covers all the principal Land Acts for Ireland from the 1830s to the 1990s and the final part draws in alternative perspectives and questions of the legacies of land reform for Ireland.

Terence Dooley is Head of Department, Full Professor of History, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates at the Department of History, Maynooth University. Tony McCarthy is a PhD graduate of Maynooth University and is an independent scholar. After a career spanning over forty years as an accountant, stockbroker and running his own investment business he now focusses on historical research and writing. A regular contributor to various newspapers and journals he is currently working on a book on George Wyndham’s time in Ireland. Annie Tindley is Professor of British and Irish Rural History at Newcastle University and since 2020 Head of the School of History, Classics & Archaeology. Her work interrogates land issues in the modern period including ownership, management and reform.