The Plan of Campaign was a stratagem adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, co-ordinated by Irish politicians for the benefit of tenant farmers, against mainly absentee and rack-rent landlords. It was launched to counter agricultural distress caused by the continual depression in prices of dairy products and cattle from the mid-1870s, which left many tenants in arrears with rent. Bad weather in 1885 and 1886 also caused crop failure, making it harder to pay rents. The Land War of the early 1880s was about to be renewed after evictions increased and outrages became widespread.
Eviction scene, Woodford Galway 1888, during the Plan of Campaign. The Woodford evictions would become some of the most highly resisted with numerous pamphlets, during the period, referring to them. Further photographs of evictions at Woodford, are available.
Evicted building in Michelstown 1887 during the Plan of Campaign
New Tipperary in construction 1890
The Land War was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland that began in 1879. It may refer specifically to the first and most intense period of agitation between 1879 and 1882, or include later outbreaks of agitation that periodically reignited until 1923, especially the 1886–1891 Plan of Campaign and the 1906–1909 Ranch War. The agitation was led by the Irish National Land League and its successors, the Irish National League and the United Irish League, and aimed to secure fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure for tenant farmers and ultimately peasant proprietorship of the land they worked.
An Irish family in Moyasta, County Clare being evicted c. 1879
Irish landlord reduced to begging for rent, 1880 caricature
Land League poster from the No Rent Manifesto period
Eviction in Woodford, County Galway, in 1888, during the Plan of Campaign