Dedication of Fr. O'Reilly's 1890 biography of Archbishop John MacHale

Is mise é

The Rule of St Columbanus (627 AD)

Senior. To what do you chiefly attribute the poverty of Ireland ?

Revans. To the system by which the landlords take advantage of the intense competition between the labourers to demand excessive rents for their farmlands. From the moment the farmer starts making a profit the landlord raises the rent. The result is that the farmer is afraid to make improvements lest the landlord should raise his rent by an amount greater than the value of the improvements, and is concerned simply to keep alive.

S. Is poverty here as great as it is said to be ?

R. It is horrible. The people live only on potatoes and often do not have even those.

A conversation between Mr. Senior and Mr. Revans (Secretary of the Poor Law Commission) on 1st June 1835 on the current state of Ireland recorded in Tocqueville's 'Journey to Ireland'

S. Are there many children?

R. Yes, it is said that the poorest have the most children. They believe they have nothing more to fear. They marry in despair and try to forget the future.

S. What is the state of morality in Ireland ?
R. That requires much explanation.

There is not a gentler people than the Irish once the moment of anger is passed. They forget injuries easily. They are very hospitable. There is not an Irishman so poor that he would not share his last potato with someone who needed it. Crime is very rare among them except theft, which occurs almost only to keep them alive. They steal things which will immediately serve as food. This is the good side. Here is the bad one: there is no other country where it is more difficult to get the truth out of a man.

A conversation between Mr. Senior and Mr. Revans (Secretary of the Poor Law Commission) on 1st June 1835 on the current state of Ireland recorded in Tocqueville's 'Journey to Ireland'

S. Is party spirit very strong in Ireland ?

R. To a degree almost impossible for you to imagine. It would take a foreigner ten years to understand the Parties. Party spirit pervades everything, particularly the administration of Justice in Ireland. To tell the truth, there is no justice in Ireland. Almost all the magistrates are at open war with the population. Moreover the population has no sense of public justice. In Ireland almost all justice is extra-legal. Unless Englishmen are sent to serve as judges, things will remain as they are. The jury system is almost impracticable in Ireland.

This is in relation to how the entire court system was dominated by Protestant Church of Ireland folk who were openly hostile to the native Catholic population. Related will be posted quote below.

S. Why do the Irish hate us [English] so much ?
R. Mainly because we have always supported the Orangemen whom they consider as their oppressors.

S. Of what is the Catholic Party composed ?
R. Almost the whole nation. But there are few men of fortune or vision in this Party which has always been oppressed. That is a great misfortune.

S. Could an agriculturalist bringing substantial capital into Ireland be sure of reaping the fruits of his diligence ?
R. No. The people are prey to too great wrongs, and are therefore in too great & continual a state of agitation for property to be secure. This lack of security is the greatest evil in Ireland.

S. Do you not think that this inferiority in the Irish compared to the English springs from racial inferiority ?
R. I do not know. But I am not inclined to believe it. In districts where the peasant's land is secure, he shows himself to be orderly and progressive.

Final part to conversation from 1835 on situation in Ireland recorded in Tocqueville's 'Journey to Ireland'

Going to do summary posts as to how the Irish peasantry got to this state in the 1830s - as looking into what was the faults in the past can help us understand what to improve for the present and future. This will also be generally important for any Nationalist worldwide, as the reasons for Irish misery back then show how Nationalist economic models are best to avoid the nation-state from entering these disastrous positions and is why many Irish Nationalists in the 18-20th Century advocated for things like Protectionism (Griffith, Collins, Carey Father and Son, Seán Mac Diarmada etc).

"With List—whose work on the National System of Political Economy I would wish to see in the hands of every Irishman—I reject that so-called political economy which neither recognises the principle of nationality nor takes into consideration the satisfaction of its interests." - Arthur Griffith - (check out this article here)

There are two key points to note as to how the Irish got to this miserable state:

1.) Deindustrialization via English Protectionist Policies
2.) Monetary/Fiscal Austerity
- both of which is happening in different ways today - see posts/article here.

Due to the completion of the Tudor conquest after 1604 and the Flight of the Earls in 1607, Ireland was totally reliant on England for trade due to being fully subjugated by her at this point. With this, England was now to introduce more rigorous trade restrictions on Ireland to stop Ireland from becoming an economic power, as if Ireland could be turned into an economic war machine again like during Hugh O'Neill's Nine Years War, it would pose a serious threat to England. It made geopolitical sense for Protestant England to do this, as a strong Catholic Ireland was of course a danger in the long run, the 1641 Rebellion and Catholic Confederacy proving this again to England. This is also when the Plantations of Ireland, particularly Ulster, began to scale in size to plant more loyal Protestant subjects to diminish Catholic influence.

Studying English economic history as List has done in his magnum opus along with Ha-Joon Chang in several of his books show clearly that England's early protectionist economics with its expanding Empire were the reasons for her success, so we'll be looking at England's Protectionist policies in relation to Ireland - and how they were successful for England but of course at the expense of destroying Ireland's industries and how today we must learn from this past or otherwise be subservient to the now dominate global financial interests.

During these posts, the following pieces of Literature will be used in this:

1. The Commercial Restraints of Ireland (1779) by John Hely Hutchinson, Provost of Trinity College
2. Robert Kane's, The Industrial Resources of Ireland (1844).
3. Carey Father and Sons books
4. Labour in Irish History - James Connolly
5. Journeys To England Ireland by Alexis De Tocqueville (1835)

Firstly, for several reasons won't be delving into, exportation of live cattle to England was the principal trade of Ireland throughout the early-mid 1600s.

In 1663, the English Act “for encouragement of Trade”! contained an insidious clause, imposing a penalty of £2 on each head of Irish cattle, and 10s on each sheep imported into England between July and December.

In 1666, the “Act against importing cattle from Ireland and other places beyond seas, and fish taken by foreigners” to further demolish the cattle trade was passed - This Act was made perpetual by the “Act of 1678, prohibiting the importation of cattle from Ireland.”

The Irish Woollen industry at the time of the ban, as noted by Hely, was in no way a threat to England. It had grown exponentially but

though this increase of export shows that the trade was advancing in Ireland, yet the total amount or the comparative increase since 1687 could scarcely “sink the value of lands and tend to the ruin of the trade and woollen manufactures of England." (Hely)

I’d say that as the Glorious Revolution was less than a decade ago and the English still had fears of Jacobite invasion via France - & Ireland of course having Jacobite sympathies - they didn’t want to risk anymore growth in a now booming Irish industry and so decided it was best to nip it in the bud.

You will notice in the King William quote that instead of Wool, the English offered the Irish Linen production instead.

Around this time also is when the Penal Laws began to be put in effect for Catholics, which would mean only Protestants in the 1700s would be able to start establishing industry anyway - more on this later

So with the cattle and now wool trades both dismantled - linen was now offered as the substitute.

But it came with conditions attached. One of these was that only the lowest forms of linen manufacturing were allowed. Another condition was that dyed and patterned linen were not to be exported by the Irish.

'A commercial country must cultivate every considerable manufacture of which she has or can get the primum.' (Hely) - complexity of manufacturing leads to premium prices and this is the catalyst of economic growth but this can't be done with the current restrictions. On top of all this, the Linen industry globally at this time was already highly competitive which made it even harder to replace wool.

This was the current state of Irish industry going into the 1700s, so let's view this period next as this would have implications for both Catholics and Protestants In Ireland.

Also another two points to add in about Linen vs Wool trade by Hely before we move on:

1 - The English ports in Asia, Africa, and America were then shut against our linens; and, when they were opened for our white and brown linens, the restraints of imports from thence to Ireland made that concession of less value, and she still found it her interest to send, for the most part, her linens to England.

The linen could not have been a compensation for the woollen manufacture, which employs by far a greater number of hands, and yields much greater profit to the public, as well as to the manufacturers.

Of this manufacture there are not many countries which have the primum in equal perfection with England and Ireland; and no countries, taking in the various kinds of those extensive manufactures, so fit for carrying them on. There cannot be many rivals in this trade: in the linen they are most numerous. Other parts of the world are more fit for it than Ireland, and many equally so.