Today, August the 16th, marks the 142nd anniversary of the foundation of the Land League. Let us pause for a moment and remember Michael Davitt and all those other brave men and women who took on the might of the British Empire, and won.
Their principle aims were to improve the plight of the tenant farmers and to ultimately return the land of Ireland to its rightful owners – the ordinary people who tilled the soil for generations.
Both objectives would eventually be achieved.
The men and women ‘who made the Land League’ were the sons and daughters of those who went through the horrors of the “Great Hunger”.
In remembering James Daly and Charles Stewart Parnell, we recall slogans such as “The Land for the People” and “Keep a Firm Grip on your Homesteads”.
Newspaper Report from the era
“Michael Davitt will rid us of the Landlords as surely as Saint Patrick banished the snakes”.
“May those who drink the water never forget the debt to those who dug the well”.