The Tithe Grievance
Above : Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister At The Time
Although in theory the tithes paid in earlier ages to the Catholic clergy had been assigned at the time of the Reformation to the Ministers of the State Church, yet it was not till after the Revolution that these were regularly and systematically levied from the masses of the Irish population. They must always have been regarded as a grievance by the Catholics, since it was obviously unjust that they should be required to pay to clergy of an alien creed, Whose ministrations they refused, what was established as a salary for the discharge of spiritual duties in their regard.
The tithes were not uniform over Ireland ; various customs in regard to them prevailing in different districts. In some cases they were extremely heavy. As a rule the duty of valuing and levying the tithes was entrusted by the clergy to an official who paid his costs and salary by a percentage on the money collected. Probably no class of persons in Ireland was so cordially detested as the tithe proctors. It was always possible for them, if offended or merely spiteful, to revenge themselves on an individual tenant by such methods as neglecting to come to inspect and value the growing crop till the favourable time for harvest operations was passed, or valuing unfairly, so as to increase the amount to be paid.
As the position of the Catholics improved, they grew to resent more keenly the injustice of the tithe system. In 1827, an Act was passed by which tithes could be, at the request of either the clergy or the tithe-payers, commuted for a fixed annual payment.
This, though it possessed certain advantages, did little good to the poorer tenants, and an encounter between the people and police at Graigue-na-Managh, Co. Kilkenny, in which the help of the military was obliged finally to be invoked, began what is usually styled ” the Tithe War’ (1830). Conflicts took place in various parts of the country, and the payment of tithes was generally refused. The clergy of the Established Church, most of whom were far from rich, found themselves deprived of their chief source of income and were in great distress These proposals were embodied in what is known as ” Stanley’s Act” (1832). The failure of the concluding portion of the measure was absolute and complete. Within a few months there were 12,000 attachments for tithes pending, and £12,000 of arrears had been collected at an expense to the public of £27,000. Besides this, there was widespread irritation and many disturbances. In 1834 at Rathcormack, Co. Cork, an attempt to collect tithes from a widow named Ryan ended in a regular battle, in which about fifty persons were killed or severely injured. This year a Bill for commuting tithes to a land charge of 80 per cent, of their value was passed by the Commons, but rejected by the Lords.
