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| 1873–77 |
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| The HOME RULE MOVEMENT gathered momentum in Ireland despite the failure to win support in Parliament. Butt addressed a meeting in Manchester, which led to the foundation of a Home Rule Confederation in Great Britain. Home Rule M.P.'s then decided to form a separate party (1874). Butt initiated debates over Home Rule in the Commons (June 30–July 1, 1876) but failed to obtain his objective. Meanwhile, the IRB adopted a resolution to stop providing support to the Home Rule movement (Aug. 20). Charles Parnell replaced Butt as president of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain (1877). | 1 |
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| 1879, April 20 |
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| A mass meeting held at Irishtown, county Mayo. Local leaders organized to protest rising rents and thus sparked the LAND WAR. It combined refusals to pay unfair rents, intimidation, breaking down fences, and boycotts in an effort to force unfair landholders to lower rents. Tenants renewed demands for fair rents because crop failures and agricultural depressions had decreased their incomes while their rents remained unchanged. | 2 |
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| Oct. 21 |
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| The Irish National Land League was founded in Dublin. Parnell served as president and Davitt as one of several secretaries. The Land League combined the resources of the IRB with the Home Rulers. Fanny Parnell founded the Ladies' Land League, organized in New York (1880) and in the following year in Dublin. The Ladies' Land League violated the long tradition that kept Irish women outside politics. | 3 |
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