Rightboys

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"The Right Boys Paying Their Tythes", a propagandist engraving from c. 1786

The Rightboys were a secret Irish agrarian organisation in 18th-century Ireland which, from 1785 to 1788, protested against the payment of tithes, the charges imposed by clergy from both Catholic and Anglican churches, perceived unfair rents and agricultural labourers' wages.[1] Compared by some sources to the Whiteboys,[2][3] which had been active from the 1760s,[4] the Rightboy movement was active initially in County Cork,[5] with protest activities subsequently spreading to counties Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, and Waterford.[6] The group was reputedly led by the fictitious "Captain Right".[7][8] As with similar agrarian agitation movements of the 18th century, the group engaged in violent resistance and protest,[5] and were reputedly responsible for four deaths in County Cork during the 1780s.[9] The group was also involved in non-violent forms of protest and succeeded, in some cases, in ensuring that Catholic bishops "fixed maximum payments for clerical services".[10] The activities of the Rightboy movement saw a "lull" from 1787, when there was perceived expectation of political action on some of the group's grievances.[4] The movement was ultimately superseded by groups such as the Society of United Irishmen (founded 1791).[1]

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References[edit]

  1. ^ a b O'Donoghue/Ross, Elizabeth (2013). "Captain Right: The Rightboy Movement of the Late 18th Century". Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society. 2. 13.
  2. ^ McDermott, CB (2017), The Moral Economy of Ireland's Whiteboys, 1761-1787, Rightboys: A secret agrarian society loyal to 'Captain Right' which was similar to the. Whiteboys. Their protests lasted from roughly 1785-1788
  3. ^ Weston Joyce, Patrick (1910). "More Secret Societies (1785-1790)". A Concise History of Ireland.
  4. ^ a b Bric, Maurice J. (August 1983). "Priests, Parsons and Politics: The Rightboy Protest in County Cork 1785-1788". Past & Present. 100 (100). Oxford University Press: 100–123. doi:10.1093/past/100.1.100. JSTOR 650622. The Rightboy disturbances of 1785-8 were part of a great wave of social and agrarian protest which began with the earlier Whiteboy movement (1761-5) [..] explanation for a Rightboy lull must be that there was widespread hope in early 1787 that the reconvened House of Commons would examine Lord Luttrell's report and redress Rightboy grievances
  5. ^ a b Donnelly, James S. Jr.; Donnelly, James J. Jr. (1977). "The Rightboy Movement 1785-8". Studia Hibernica (17). Liverpool University Press: 120–202. JSTOR 20496124.
  6. ^ Connolly, S. J., ed. (2002). "Rightboys". The Oxford Companion to Irish History (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199234837.
  7. ^ Connolly, S.J. (2008). "Rulers and Ruled". Divided Kingdom: Ireland 1630-1800. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199543472.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-954347-2. A third [period of unrest], in 1785–8, involving Rightboys or followers of a supposed 'Captain Right', began in County Cork and once again spread into Tipperary and Kilkenny
  8. ^ Small, Stephen, ed. (2002). "Protestant Ascendancy and the Revival of Radicalism, 1786-1791". Political Thought in Ireland 1776-1798: Republicanism, Patriotism, and Radicalism. pp. 155–189. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199257799.003.0006. ISBN 978-0-19-925779-9. In 1785, widespread agrarian disorder erupted in Munster, where armed gangs of Rightboys (so-called after their mythical leader, Captain Right)
  9. ^ Patterson, James G. (2004). "'Educated Whiteboyism': the Cork tithe war, 1798–9". History Ireland. Vol. 12, no. 4. the widespread Rightboy Movement of the 1780s [..] were responsible for as few as four deaths during the six years in which they were active in County Cork
  10. ^ Moraghan, Seán (2013). "The Revolts of the Rural Working Class before The Famine" (PDF). Irish Marxist Review. 2 (6).
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