Taxation riots and the culture of popular protest in Ireland, 1714–1740

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the connection that existed between government attempts to increase taxation yields in Ireland during the 1720s and 1730s and the rise in the number of violent protests. It challenges the generally-held view that rural popular violence was uncommon in early eighteenth-century Ireland. The first part of the article examines government measures to tackle illicit trade and challenge corrupt revenue officers. The extra revenue gained by these measures was used to pay for 12,000 British soldiers on the Irish establishment and a network of new barracks in Ireland. The article assesses the impact that the tax-raising measures had, not just on the ability of tax collectors to gather revenue but also on the relationships that existed between law enforcers and the public, and more generally rulers and the ruled. A study of reported cases of ‘riot and rescue’, which have been extracted from newspapers and the relatively under-used revenue commissioners’ minute books, explains more fully the causes, composition and character of resistance to taxation. Other aspects of taxation riots and government responses to the disorder are also explored. The restrained nature of the violence between rioters and law enforcers and the popular antipathy to informers points to a moral compass being used during conflict, on both sides. Finally, an examination of the nature of violence also helps to define the limits of the power of authorities and of mobs in early eighteenth-century Ireland.