The Tenant Right Agitation of 1849–50: Crisis and Confrontation on the Londonderry Estates in County Down

The numerous sales of landed property which took place under the aegis of Ireland’s Encumbered Estates Court are testimony to the critical blow dealt to the finances of Irish estates by the repeated failure of the potato crop in the 1840s. On the Londonderry estates in County Down, however, the critical moment did not occur until late 1850, and was brought about primarily by the activities of the Tenant League and not the fungus Phytophthora infestans. This chapter discusses the resulting management crisis, unparalleled in the career of an agent of twenty-two years standing, which was not amenable to solution by conventional methods.