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57-650: The immediate occasion for the formation of the League was the Encumbered Estates Act of 1849. The legislation failed to acknowledge the Ulster tenant right . The un-codified custom in Ireland's northern province restrained the freedom of landowners to rack rent and to evict paying tenants at will . It also allowed that in working his holding a tenant acquired an interest, a "right", that he might sell on at

114-502: A complaint against Cullen to Rome only further alienated clerical support. Neither the League nor its parliamentary grouping survived the decade. Lucas died in October 1855 shortly after the failure of his mission to Rome. A month later Duffy published a farewell address to his constituents, declaring that it was no longer possible to accomplish the task for which he had solicited their votes He emigrated to Victoria, Australia , where on

171-563: A desire on the part of the tenant to sell his farm , made the tenant-right of considerable capital value, amounting often to many years rent. The Evesham Custom is one example of a tenant-right custom still in 21st century operation, having been given a specific exemption from the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 . This law -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . County Down County Down ( Irish : Contae an Dúin )

228-450: A machinery for arbitrating rent. Finding themselves reduced to not much more than a receiver of rents, landlords denounced the concessions as "confiscation". For tenants in Ulster , including Protestants who had flocked to Land League meetings only the year before, the Act was seen as fulfilling their key demands and they immediately used the Act to adjust rents. After a few years' experience of

285-552: A measure embodying the principles" of a tenant-right bill that Sharman Crawford (then MP for Rochdale in England) had unsuccessfully proposed in 1852. The engagement of Ulster protestants, though considerable to begin with, soon fell away. Of the 48 pledged MP who from 1852 were to sit at Westminster as the Independent Irish Party only one had been returned from Ulster: William Kirk from Newry where, despite

342-409: A new generation, who came afterwards to be known as Young Ulster, sat beside [Catholic] priests who had lived through the horrors of a famine which left their churches empty and their graveyards overflowing; flanked by farmers who survived that evil time like the veterans of a hard campaign; while citizens, professional men, the popular journalists from the four provinces, and the founders and officers of

399-649: A number of English Radicals . In the House of Commons, the Radical leader John Bright noted in the wake of the Dublin convention that "Instead of the [tenant-right] agitation being confined, as heretofore to the Roman Catholics and their clergy, Protestant and Dissenting clergymen seem to be amalgamated with Roman Catholics at present; indeed, there seems an amalgamation of all sects on this question", and he advised

456-605: A platform of land reform he re-entered politics. By 1856, the parliamentary strength of the independents had dwindled to a dozen. When, in 1858, the Conservatives returned to office with a stable majority, "the temptation to trade Irish votes for Irish concessions became in the end irresistible". David Bell left for England where in 1864 he was inducted by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa into the Irish Republican ["Fenian"] Brotherhood , and from 1867 lived in exile in

513-472: A public institution, created by state", landlordism should be "regulated by law". Together with Frederick Lucas , former Quaker and founder of the progressive international Catholic weekly, The Tablet , and John Gray , owner of the leading nationalist paper, the Freeman's Journal , Duffy and MacKnight issued writs for a national tenant-right convention . The convention met on September 8, 1850, in

570-511: Is also home to the No.1-ranked golf course, Royal County Down Golf Club , in not just Ireland, but the entire Great Britain , according to Today's Golfer . Former No.1 golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy , originates from Holywood , which is situated in the north of the county. " Star of the County Down " is a popular Irish ballad. The county is named in the lyrics of the song " Around

627-465: Is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland , one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland . It covers an area of 961 sq mi (2,490 km ) and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the north, the Irish Sea to the east, County Armagh to the west, and County Louth across Carlingford Lough to the southwest. In

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684-539: The 2021 census , County Down had a population of 552,261, making it the second most populous county in Northern Ireland. According to the 2021 UK census in County Down: The county was administered by Down County Council from 1899 until the abolition of county councils in Northern Ireland in 1973. County Down is now served by the following local government districts : Former railways within

741-538: The City Assembly House at Dublin. Duffy recalls "upwards of forty members of Parliament, about two hundred Catholic and Presbyterian clergymen, and gentlemen farmers, traders, and professional men from every district in the country" answering "the call". Reserved, stern Covenanters [Presbyterian traditionalists] from the North, ministers and their elders for the most part, with a group of brighter recruits of

798-541: The House of Commons in 1853 and 1854, but failed win consent of the landed grandees in the House of Lords . The bill had little impressed the League and its MPs as landlords would been left free to pass on the costs of compensation through their still unrestricted freedom to raise rents. Holding the balance of power in the House of Commons, the Independent Irish MPs voted to bring down the government. But in

855-476: The Londonderry Standard, William Sharman Crawford MP, a progressive County Down landlord, and group of radical Presbyterian ministers, that there was a basis for a national movement. In his paper The Nation Duffy reproduced an address by their newly formed Ulster Tenant Right Association in which McKnight proposed that "all proprietary right has its foundation in human labour'" and that, "as

912-653: The Mourne Mountains , Silent Valley Reservoir, Ben Crom Reservoir, Spelga Dam and Lough Shannagh. The River Lagan forms most of the border with County Antrim. The River Bann also flows through the southwestern areas of the county. Other rivers include the Clanrye and Quoile . There are several islands off the Down coast: Mew Island, Light House Island and the Copeland Islands , all of which lie to

969-834: The Mourne Mountains . There is a Narnia trail in Kilbroney Park, in Rostrevor . Sam Hanna Bell based his novel of Ulster rural life, December Bride (1951) in the Ards peninsula. A film version of the novel, also called December Bride , was produced in 1990 and released in November 1991. Several areas of County Down served as filming locations for the HBO series Game of Thrones including Castle Ward ( Winterfell ), Inch Abby ( Riverlands ), and Tollymore Forest Park . The Academy Award-winning short film The Shore (2011)

1026-405: The Act land agitation revived in the south and west, but the basis for cooperation with Protestant tenants in the north had been further reduced. Custom of Ulster Tenant-right is a term in the common law system expressing the right to compensation which a tenant has, either by custom or by law, against his landlord for increment at the termination of his tenancy. In England , it

1083-460: The County Down in the lyrics to several songs including "Northern Muse (Solid Ground)", "Mystic of the East" and the nostalgic " Coney Island ", which names several places and landmarks in the county. Van Morrison also covered "Star of the County Down" with The Chieftains as a part of their collaboration album Irish Heartbeat . C. S. Lewis , author of The Chronicles of Narnia , was inspired by

1140-772: The Glynes with the Raughlines, Momerie and Carie, the Rowte M'William ( McQuillan ) and all lands between lough Coine and lough Eaghe, and the water of Strangforde and the Banne. To certify their proceedings before the 1st August." The county was privately planted during the Plantation period (16th–17th centuries). During the Williamite War in Ireland (1689–1691) the county was a centre of Protestant rebellion against

1197-402: The House to "resolutely legislate on it." In the 1852 general election , the League appeared to triumph. Some 48 Tenant-Right candidates, including Duffy and Lucas, were returned to parliament having taken the pledge "to hold themselves perfectly independent of, and in opposition to, all governments which do not make it part of their policy and a cabinet question to give the tenantry of Ireland

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1254-617: The Irish word for dun or fort, which is a common root in Gaelic place names (such as Dundee , Dunfermline and Dumbarton in Scotland and Donegal and Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland). The fort in question was in the historic town of Downpatrick , originally known as Dún Lethglaise ("fort of the green side" or "fort of the two broken fetters"). During the 2nd century the region

1311-687: The League programme did not touch directly on the question of land ownership. Neither did it address the distress of the landless and un-enfranchised rural majority: "cottiers", "farm servants" and their dependants. Despite its populist rhetoric, the League consisted "almost exclusively of well-off farmers", and could be represented by "improving landowners" such as William Sharman Crawford in County Down and George Henry Moore in County Mayo . County meetings in Wexford and Kilkenny hosted MacKnight,

1368-467: The League were involved. Together with the presence of so many Repealers (ready to support a Catholic-majority parliament in Dublin), the determination to remove restrictions on the titles assumed by a revived Catholic episcopate in both Ireland and Great Britain heightened the suspicion that the League was being used for political purposes beyond its declared agenda. It was the case as well that landowners in

1425-519: The Rev. David Bell , John Rogers and other Presbyterian ministers who the Belfast News Letter accused of endeavouring, “to inspire a bitter hatred against the class" of landlords, and of advocating theories, “calculated to stir up animosities between the landlord and the tenant classes", "infinitely more bitter", than any previously. Bell returned the favour inviting Catholic delegates from

1482-674: The Tenant League a "union of north and south in one glorious brotherhood for the regeneration of their common country" was to be elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in 1863, replacing Henry Cooke who had accused him of preaching communism, and again in 1864. But for an all-Ireland tenant league, an early difficulty in the north was the campaign for the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 in which Lucas and several prominent member of

1539-564: The Tenant Protection Societies completed the assembly. With MacKnight presiding, the assembled formed the all-Ireland Tenant Right League. A council was elected of 120 representatives from the four Irish provinces, dedicated to a reform of land tenure popularly summarised as the " Three F's ". Although free sale (the Ulster Custom) implied that tenants possessed property rights in land they did not legally own,

1596-602: The Ulaiden's refusal to offer him sanctuary from Brian Boru the previous year. The region was invaded by the Normans in 1177. From the 1180s–1600s the region saw waves of English and Scottish immigration. In 1569 the Irish Parliament passed "An Act for turning of Countries that be not yet Shire Grounds into Shire Grounds". In 1570 a commission was issued in pursuance of that statute "to survey and make enquiry in

1653-548: The Ulster Custom as dangerous to "the just rights of property". Landlords who followed the Commission suggestion and chose either to ignore or to trivialise the custom, had had their actions upheld by the courts. Against this background, and with additional distress of the enveloping Famine that bore down on those still able to sustain themselves in rising Poor Law rates, otherwise loyal Protestant farmers interpreted

1710-591: The United States Agricultural prices began to rise from 1853, and were given an additional stimulus by the onset of the Crimean War in the following years. Tenant-right agitation died down. MacKnight remained active in a movement for whom the notorious Derryveagh evictions of 1861 served as a sharp reminder of the still unrestricted power of the landowner. Shortly before MacKnight's death, and as agrarian conditions again deteriorated, there

1767-502: The World ", from the film Around the World in 80 Days , which was an American top ten hit for Bing Crosby and UK top ten hit for Ronnie Hilton , both in 1957, although it was Mantovani 's instrumental version which was actually used in the film. Rihanna 's video " We Found Love " was filmed there in 2011, causing complaints when the singer removed her clothes to reveal a bikini. The Ulster singer Van Morrison has made reference to

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1824-548: The area's modern rail network. In association football, the NIFL Premiership , which operates as the top division, has three teams in the county: Newry City F.C. , Ards F.C. and Warrenpoint Town F.C. , with Banbridge Town F.C. , Bangor F.C. and Lisburn Distillery F.C. competing in the NIFL Championship , which operates as levels two and three. The Down County Board administers Gaelic games in

1881-459: The countries and territories ... that are not shire ground, or are doubtful to what shire they belong; to limit and nominate them a shire or county; to divide them into countries, baronies or hundreds, or to join them to any existing shire or barony" "for the countries or territories of Arde, as well this side Blackstafe as the other side, Copelande islands, the Dufferin, Clandeboy, Kilultoghe,

1938-474: The county include the Great Northern Railway of Ireland and Belfast and County Down Railway both of which were formed in the 19th century and were closed (or amalgamated) in the 1950s. The Downpatrick and County Down Railway operates a short section of the former Belfast and County Down line as a heritage railway between Downpatrick and Inch Abbey . Northern Ireland Railways operates

1995-431: The county. Down is the most successful team north of the border in terms of All-Ireland Senior Football Championships won with five (1960, 1961, 1968, 1991 and 1994) in total. In terms of Ulster, they share that accolade with Cavan who also have 5 titles. They currently have four minor All-Ireland titles, twelve Ulster titles and one under 21 all Ireland title (1979). The Ards peninsula is a hurling stronghold. County Down

2052-472: The east of the county is Strangford Lough and the Ards Peninsula . The largest settlement is Bangor , a city on the northeast coast. Three other large towns and cities are on its border: Newry lies on the western border with County Armagh, while Lisburn and Belfast lie on the northern border with County Antrim. Down contains both the southernmost point of Northern Ireland ( Cranfield Point ) and

2109-435: The easternmost point of Ireland ( Burr Point ). It was one of two counties of Northern Ireland to have a Protestant majority at the time of the 2001 census . The other Protestant-majority County was County Antrim to the north. However, as of the 2021 Census, it is now the only county in which there is a Protestant background majority, as Antrim has Protestant background plurality. In the 2021 census, Ards and North Down had

2166-436: The end of his tenancy. Typically this took the form of demanding from the incoming tenant a lump sum payment (often as high as £ 10 an acre) that might, for example, be enough cash to allow the outgoing tenant to take his family to America. Supporters argued that by granting farmers a degree of security and by allowing them to at least share in the benefits of their own improvements to the land (clearing, fencing, drainage etc),

2223-578: The highest number of "No Religion" responses (30.6%) for Northern Ireland. In March 2018, The Sunday Times published its list of Best Places to Live in Britain, including five in Northern Ireland. The list included three in County Down: Holywood , Newcastle , and Strangford . The county has two cities: Newry and Bangor . The latter is the more recent, gaining city status on 2 December 2022. County Down takes its name from dún ,

2280-592: The increasingly strident nationalism of southern League spokesman and their supporters. The Catholic Primate , Archbishop Paul Cullen , who had been sceptical of the independent opposition policy from the outset, sought to rein in clerical support for the remaining IIP in the constituencies. This was accompanied by the defection from the League of the Catholic Defence Association (to it detractors, "the Pope's Brass Band"). Lucas's decision to take

2337-601: The landlords' authority, Conservatives expressed a willingness to give the Ulster Custom legal force. But as in 1852, they relied heavily on confusing tenant-righters with Catholic nationalists and their separatist cause. The Conservatives triumph in Ulster was not as complete as in 1852: two tenant-right Liberals were returned from County Londonderry , and in Down James Sharman Crawford succeeded where in 1852 his father William had failed. However, in

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2394-597: The north of the Ards Peninsula. Gunn Island lies off the Lecale coast. In addition, there are at least seventy islands (several inhabited) along with many islets – or pladdies – in Strangford Lough, although folk tradition says there are 365 islands in Strangford Lough, one for every day of the year. County Down is where, in the words of the song by Percy French , " The mountains of Mourne sweep down to

2451-423: The north threatened to withdraw their consent for the existing Ulster Custom if their Conservative nominees were not elected, and that they had League electoral meetings broken up by Orange "bludgeon men". In November 1852, Lord Derby's short-lived Conservative government introduced a land bill to compensate Irish tenants on eviction for improvements they had made to the land. The Tenant Compensation Bill passed in

2508-441: The omission of tenant right from Act as an existential threat. Increasing evictions (of which there were officially over 100,000 in 1849). also provoked new tenant protection societies (commonly under the guidance of local Roman Catholic clergy ) in the south for whom an extension of the Ulster Custom was a minimum demand. The Young Ireland veteran Charles Gavan Duffy was persuaded by the initiative of James MacKnight , editor of

2565-605: The process two of the leading members, John Sadlier and William Keogh , broke their pledges of independent opposition and accepted positions (respectively as a junior Lord of the Treasury and as Solicitor General ) in a new, on the issue of tenant rights equally unsympathetic, Whig - Peelite administration.. Significantly in a League debate in February 1853 MacKnight, wary of any sign of Irish separatism, did not support Duffy in condemning these desertions. Rather, he protested

2622-520: The property franchise, the Catholic vote was determinant. In Monaghan, Bell was to find that of his 100 congregants who had signed the requisition asking John Gray to stand in their constituency only 11 voted for him. In Down , Sharman Crawford had his meetings broken up by Orange vigilantes. In the 1857 general election Samuel MacCurdy Greer won on a platform of the three F's in the City of Derry , but it

2679-568: The rest of East Ulster of Jacobite troops. Down contains two significant peninsulas : Ards Peninsula and Lecale peninsula . The county has a coastline along Belfast Lough to the north and Carlingford Lough to the south (both of which have access to the sea). Strangford Lough lies between the Ards Peninsula and the mainland. Down also contains part of the shore of Lough Neagh . Smaller loughs include Lough Island Reavy and Castlewellan Lake near Castlewellan, Clea Lough near Killyleagh, Lough Money and Loughinisland near Downpatrick and, within

2736-761: The rule of the Catholic James II . After forming a scratch force the Protestants were defeated by the Irish Army at the Break of Dromore and forced to retreat, leading to the whole of Down falling under Jacobite control. Later the same year Marshal Schomberg 's large Williamite expedition arrived in Belfast Lough and captured Bangor. After laying siege to Carrickfergus , Schomberg marched south to Dundalk Camp , clearing County Down and much of

2793-925: The sea", and the area around the granite Mourne Mountains continues to be known for its scenery. Slieve Donard , at 849 m (2,785 ft), is the highest peak in the Mournes, in Northern Ireland and in the province of Ulster. Another important peak is Slieve Croob , at 534 m (1,752 ft), the source of the River Lagan. Baronies Parishes Townlands (population of 75,000 or more at 2001 Census) (population of 18,000 or more and under 75,000 at 2001 Census) (Population of 10,000 or more and under 18,000 at 2001 Census) (Population of 4,500 or more and under 10,000 at 2001 Census) (Population of 2,250 or more and under 4,500 at 2001 Census) (Population of 1,000 or more and under 2,250 at 2001 Census) (Population of less than 1,000 at 2001 Census) As of

2850-494: The south and west the tenant-right movement clearly aligned with Home Rulers. With the formation in 1879 of the Irish National Land League the struggle for rights to the land advanced under the openly nationalist leadership of Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell . The second Land Act introduced by William Ewart Gladstone in 1881 conceded free sale, improved security of tenure, and introduced

2907-597: The south to an assembly of tenant farmers at Ballybay , in County Monaghan , where, Duffy enthused, "resolutions were proposed by Masters of Orange Lodges , and seconded by Catholic priests". The Tenant Right League built in strength under its national organiser, the Young Irelander from Newry, John Martin . It had the support of the surviving Repealers in the British House of Commons ; and of

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2964-545: The tenant right was the key to Ulster's relative prosperity. Attacks upon it by landowners and land speculators had provoked serious agrarian disturbances in the 1770s, the Hearts of Steel disturbances , and in the 1830s these had begun to recur with a new tenant fraternity, the "Tommy Downshire Boys". The 1849 Act had been preceded in 1843 by the Devon Commission , which in its report on the Irish land system rejected

3021-411: Was a determination to organise parliamentary constituencies so as to return Members pledged to tenant rights. The challenge, however, came sooner than expected. A general election was called for February. In the south the tenant programme was adopted by candidates of the new Home Rule League , while in the north it was championed by Liberals . Conscious that the [secret] Ballot Act 1872 had weakened

3078-556: Was an attempt to revive an all-Ireland league. In January 1874, the Route Tenants Defence Association ( Ballymoney ) for whom MacKnight had been an inspiration, organised a major North-South National Tenants Rights conference in Belfast. In addition to the three F's, resolutions called for loans to facilitate tenant purchase of land and for breaking the landlord monopoly on local government. Once again there

3135-673: Was by identifying with the British Radicals (later the Liberal Party ) not with the IIP. "In language reminiscent of 1798 ", Presbyterian journalists, tenants and ministers roundly denounced Irish landlords, and their auxiliaries, the established Church of Ireland and the Orange Order , and they did not desert the tenant cause. John Rogers (of Comber ) who likened landlords to "locusts that came up on Judea" and who saw in

3192-466: Was governed for most part by the Agricultural Holdings Acts and the Allotments and Small Holdings Acts. The preceding were reformed by the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 . In Ireland , tenant-right was a custom, prevailing particularly in Ulster , known as the Custom of Ulster, by which the tenant acquired a right not to have his rent raised arbitrarily at the expiration of his term. This resulted in Ulster in considerable fixity of tenure and, in case of

3249-408: Was home to the Voluntii tribe, according to Ptolemy . From the 400s–1177 County Down formed a central part of the kingdom of Ulaid . Ulaid was a frequent target of Viking raids in the eighth and ninth centuries, however fierce local resistance prevented the Norse from setting up permanent settlements in the region. In 1001 a fleet led by Sigtrygg Silkbeard raided much of the region in retribution for

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