The Tithe War in Ireland (1831-36) refers to a series of periodic skirmishes and violent incidents connected to resistance to the obligation of Catholics in Ireland to pay tithes for the upkeep of the Church of Ireland.

Background

The payment of tithes was an obligation on those working the land to pay an annual tithe of 10% of the value of certain types of agricultural produce for the upkeep of the church. On the introduction of the Penal Laws from the 1600s, these payments went to the Anglican (Episcopal) Church of Ireland, despite the fact that the vast majority of the population were Roman Catholic. Despite Daniel O’Connell’s achievement of having most remaining Penal Laws repealed in 1829 (Catholic Emancipation), the obligation to pay tithes remained. More often than not, tithes were collected in the form of goods, especially livestock, as opposed to payment of monies, as little cash was available in the countryside.

There had been a campaign of largely peaceful resistance to collection since 1829 and it soon had a financial effect on the Anglican Clergy, who began in 1831 to record lists of defaulters. These lists of “Tithe Defaulters” identified almost 30,000 individuals, with heavy concentrations of non-payers in counties Kilkenny, Tipperary and Wexford. The lists were passed on to the Irish Constabulary, which had been established in 1822 to take over functions of the militia.

The "War" 1831-36

The first clash of the Tithe war took place on 3 March, 1831 in Graiguenamanagh, county Kilkenny when a force of 120 armed police forcibly took possession of cattle belonging to a Roman Catholic priest, in lieu of Tithes. He had, with the approval of his bishop, organised people to resist Tithe collection; his example soon spread, and shortly afterwards, in Bunclody, county Wexford, a crowd resisting the seizure of cattle was fired upon by the Constabulary, resulting in twelve deaths and twenty fatally wounded. This massacre caused people to organise their resistance with agreed signals such as warning the community of the approach of police by the ringing of chapel bells. Such a warning resulted on 14 December, 1831 in an ambush of a detachment of 40 police at Carrickshock in County Kilkenny; they were routed by the forewarned inhabitants and had 19 of their number killed, including their Chief Constable.

The British Government poured troops into the country, fearing a repeat of the 1798 uprising with tithe defaulters cast as potential rebels and Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Movement feared as its Trojan Horse. Taking stock of the continuing resistance, it compiled a list of 242 homicides, 1,179 robberies, 401 burglaries, 568 burnings, 280 cases of cattle-maiming, 161 assaults, 203 riots and 723 attacks on property directly attributed to tithe-enforcement in 1831, but continued its policy of enforcing payment. The “war” came to a head in 1835 with the Rathcormac massacre, County Cork, when military and police killed 17 and wounded some 30 more in an attempt to collect a tithe of 40 shillings from a widow.

Outcome

The British Government was alarmed by several aspects of this massacre: by the fact that the order to fire was given by a Clergyman, by the pittance involved in relation to the bloodshed, and by the fact that the people had withstood several volleys and at least one charge by the troops without breaking. Finding the task of collection and the associated outrages an increasing strain, one official lamenting that “it cost a shilling to collect tuppence”, collections were suspended and a Tithes Commutation Act was introduced in 1839, which reduced the amount payable by about a quarter and made the remainder payable to landlords who would in turn, pass payment onto the Clergy. Tithes were effectively added to a tenant's rent payment. This partial relief and elimination of confrontational manner of collection ended the uprising, but Catholics were still required to pay towards the upkeep of the Church of Ireland until its final disestablishment in 1869.