There is one point in which the Leinster plantations differed very materially from that in Ulster. The mass of the Irish inhabitants were not expelled to make room for tenants of British extraction. It is true that the Undertakers were all Protestants, and almost exclusively British, and that they were bound to settle a certain number of British families on their lands. But they were allowed to have Irish tenants on the residue. To these, or at least to as many of them as had before been landowners, they should have given leases. But in most cases neither of these conditions was fulfilled. Very few British families were established—even the Undertakers themselves often were absentees—and the Irish seldom obtained leases, very largely it seems because they themselves preferred yearly tenancies.
Another point to be noticed is that the Irish landowners in these districts were forbidden to sell or give leases for more than forty years to any Irish—it is not clear whether old English were included in this prohibition.
The results of James' policy were that some years before his death the lands forming the present County Wicklow were almost the only Leinster districts in possession of the old Irish in which there had been no definite scheme of confiscation and plantation.[1]
- ↑ Cal. St. Paps., May, 1623, p. 409, Ranelagh, Imale, Glencap, Cosha, part of Birnes', Shilelagh and Duffry not yet settled. Duffry was in Co. Wexford. Imale belonged to the O'Tooles. These also claimed Glencap, but the government held that it belonged to freeholders, dependent directly oa the Crown. Cosha was between Aughrim and Tinahely, in Wicklow.
