MICHAEL DAVITT
Landlords would abuse tenant farmers {639644}, and then evict them from their home and farm when they could not pay the rack-rents. The Land League fought back. When a landlord evicted a tenant, they would “urge” all other farmers not to rent that farm. If they did, they might be identified and bad things might happen to their livestock or crops. Few would rent a farm where the previous tenant had been evicted after this “program”.
Michael Davitt was an Irish republican activist for a variety of causes, especially Home Rule and land reform. Following an eviction when he was four years old, Davitt's family emigrated to England. He began his career as an organiser of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which resisted British rule in Ireland with violence. Convicted of treason felony for arms trafficking in 1870, he served seven years in prison. Upon his release, Davitt pioneered the New Departure strategy of cooperation between the physical-force and constitutional wings of Irish nationalism on the issue of land reform. With Charles Stewart Parnell, he co-founded the Irish National Land League in 1879, in which capacity he enjoyed the peak of his influence before being jailed again in 1881.
