Crumlin Road and Newgate
The most consequential Irish measure passed in 1883 was the Labourers (Ireland) Act, which received royal assent on 25 August. Its title—“An Act to better the condition of Labourers in Ireland”—was unusually direct. Earlier land legislation had chiefly concerned the relationship between landlord and tenant farmer. Agricultural labourers, dependent on wages and commonly housed in cottages tied to employment, had much less leverage. They were not automatically beneficiaries of the fair-rent machinery established by the Land Act of 1881.