In eastern and northern Ireland, tenant farmers form societies to campaign for rent reductions and fixity of tenure. James Fintan Lalor writes articles calling for a social revolution of tenant against landlord. Relief is concentrated in the hands of the Treasury in London and is almost exclusively administered by the Poor Law Administration in Ireland. Instructions are issued on how to launch attacks on British troops. Destitution and starvation is still increasing.
People commit crimes in order to be fed in the perniciously overcrowded prisons.
The spring is cold. Snow falls in February. Household furniture and clothes are sold to buy seed potatoes. People stake everything they have on the hope of a good potato crop. Almost no other vegetables are sown.