Voyage A Rabais Quebec

The Gregory Clause

In the Poor Law Act of 1847 , a clause called the Gregory Clause was included at the behest of the largest landowners in Ireland. This clause stated that no tenant holding more than a quarter of an acre of land could be eligible for public assistance. The Landlords felt if they were to be held responsible for their tenantry, they wanted a reason to move tenants from unworkable plots of land.

Absentee Landlords

These included Lord Palmerston, The Foreign Secretary of the British Government,Lord Clanricarde, the PostMaster General, Denis Mahon of Strokestown, The Marquis of Sligo and The Earl of Lucan, all of whom had many of their tenants evicted and forced into emigration.

The Earl of Lucan , who owned over 60,000 acres in County Mayo , evicted over 2,000 tenants and the ground cleared for grazing cattle.