Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881

The Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c. 49) was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1881.

The Liberal government of William Ewart Gladstone had previously passed the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 in an attempt to solve the problem of tenant-landlord relations in Ireland. However, the Act was seen to have failed in its purpose. The Home Rule Party had been formed in 1873 and was rapidly turning previously Liberal seats into Home Rule seats.

Gladstone visited Ireland in autumn 1877, spending almost a month in County Wicklow and Dublin. Gladstone wrote in his diary that he ensured he visited "farms, cottages & people", including conversing with Irishmen and "turning my small opportunities to account as well as I could". When he had to spend a day in Dublin amongst the English establishment there, he lamented: "...not enough of Ireland".

The Liberals were elected in 1880. The Cabinet discussed the Coercion Act and an extension of the Bright Land Purchase clauses of the 1870 Act and decided that it was unnecessary to renew the Coercion Act that would expire on 1 June and that amending the Land Act was too complex for that year, the 1880 parliamentary session being a short one. Gladstone wrote to the Duke of Argyll on 14 June, regarding the eviction of tenants: "We never considered the question of ejectments connected with the present distress in Ireland.... I was under the impression that ejectments were diminishing, but I now find from figures first seen on Saturday [12 June] that they seem rather to increase... the duty of enquiring, where I had not previously known there was urgent cause to inquire".

A Royal Commission under Lord Bessborough (who held an Irish earldom) was set up in June to enquire into the workings of the 1870 Act and it sat between September and January 1881. It held 65 sessions, heard evidence from 80 landlords, 70 agents, 500 tenants as well from a diverse range of other people. The Commission looked into all aspects of Irish agriculture and the effects of the agricultural depression caused by the export of huge quantities of cheap food from the prairie farms of North America. The Report of the Commission decided for the three Fs: fixity of tenure, fair rents and free sale.

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