levo

Ireland Under the Union 1800–1900

Davitt, the Land League and the New Departure

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 1

Overview

Michael Davitt's background, league's aims and new Departure.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

What was Michael Davitt's background?

Key term

How did Davitt's own aims differ from Parnell's?

Evaluation

How successful was the land agitation by 1900?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was Michael Davitt's background?

    Model answer

    Michael Davitt was born in County Mayo in 1846 into a family evicted during the Famine years, lost an arm as a child worker in a Lancashire mill, and served seven years of a fifteen-year sentence for Fenian arms dealing before his release in 1877.

  2. 2

    What conditions produced the land agitation of 1879?

    Model answer

    Three bad harvests, the collapse of prices under competition from American grain and a partial potato failure in the west raised the fear of a second famine among tenants who could no longer pay their rents.

  3. 3

    When and where was the Irish National Land League founded?

    Model answer

    The Land League was founded in Dublin in October 1879, with Parnell as president and Davitt as one of its secretaries, after a first meeting at Irishtown in County Mayo that April.

  4. 4

    What were the League's aims?

    Model answer

    The League demanded an immediate reduction of rack rents to save the tenants of the moment, and in the longer term the transfer of the ownership of the soil to those who worked it.

  5. 5

    How did Davitt's own aims differ from Parnell's?

    Model answer

    Davitt came to argue for the nationalisation of the land in the interest of labourers as well as farmers, while Parnell wanted peasant proprietorship, and the League's practical programme followed Parnell.

  6. 6

    What was the New Departure?

    Model answer

    The New Departure was the understanding proposed in 1878 by John Devoy of Clan na Gael, by which American and Irish revolutionaries would support constitutional politicians on the land question in return for an unambiguous demand for national self-government.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

See a huge jump in your memorisation

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

England 1509–58
England 1603–49
Britain in the Age of Reform 1830–80
Italy and Germany 1815–71

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Henry cited .
LeviticusGenesisExodus

Blank Blitz consolidates the facts

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AImpeachment failed for want of proof.
BThe Commons passed an Act of Attainder.
CCharles signed his execution warrant in May 1641.

Build It trains answer structure

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Rent reduction made the tenancy bearable.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Ireland Under the Union 1800–1900, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.