1853 — 1915

Land & Liberty

The survivors organise. The Land League breaks landlordism, and Parnell makes Home Rule the question of British politics. The GAA in 1884 and the Gaelic League in 1893 rebuild a pride in games and in language. By 1914 Home Rule is law, and suspended for a world war. Ulster and Ireland are both armed and drilling.

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📜 The chronicle — events of this age
1858
The Fenians
The Irish Republican Brotherhood is founded in Dublin and New York on the same day, by design.
1866
The transatlantic cable at Valentia
From Valentia Island, Kerry, the first fully successful telegraph cable to America goes live — Europe and the New World now minutes, not weeks, apart.
1867
Fenian rising
The rebellion fizzles, but the Manchester Martyrs' deaths ignite a generation.
1879
Land War begins
Davitt's Land League rises in Mayo — the same year as the apparition at Knock.
1880
Captain Boycott ostracised
Mayo invents a word the whole world adopts within weeks.
1884
GAA founded
In Hayes's Hotel, Thurles, seven men organise Gaelic games into a national movement.
1886
First Home Rule Bill
Gladstone converts to Irish self-government; the bill splits his party and fails.
1893
Gaelic League founded
Douglas Hyde's movement to 'de-anglicise Ireland' — nursery of a revolutionary generation.
1904
Abbey Theatre opens
Yeats and Lady Gregory give the revival a national stage.
1907
The Crown Jewels vanish
The Irish Crown Jewels are discovered missing from Dublin Castle days before a royal visit. Despite a viceregal commission, they have never been found.
1912
Ulster Covenant
471,000 sign against Home Rule, some in blood; Belfast launches Titanic the same year.
1913
Lockout and Volunteers
Dublin's great labour war; rival volunteer armies begin to drill.
Quick answers
When was Land & Liberty in Ireland?

Land & Liberty spans 1853 to 1915 in this atlas. The survivors organise.

Who ruled Ireland during Land & Liberty?

United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland held the whole island in this atlas's reckoning. After the 1798 rising, the Act of Union (1801) abolished the Irish parliament. Ireland sent MPs to Westminster — and O'Connell, Parnell and Redmond fought there to loosen the knot.

What is a lesser-known fact about Land & Liberty?

The word 'boycott' is a Mayo export. In 1880 the Land League ostracised land agent Captain Charles Boycott so completely (no labourers, no shops, no postman) that within weeks his name was a verb in newspapers worldwide.

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