The word, Boycott, meaning to join with others in refusing to have any dealings with some other individual or group, is derived from an incident that occurred at Lough Mask House near Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland in 1880.

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott was an unpopular English landlord who moved to the Ballinrobe area in 1873 after an inheritance allowed him to take a thirty-one year lease on three hundred acres near Lough Mask. He also became an agent on the nearly one thousand five hundred acres estate of Lord Erne. There were 38 small tenant farmers on Lord Erne"s estates near Lough Mask and Castlebar.

Captain Boycott was reportedly very strict with his tenants. He was considered a petty tyrant who curtailed privileges that had previously been enjoyed, like collecting wood and taking short cuts across the farm. He showed no leniency when rents were in arrears.

Times were hard in 1879 and 1880 and there was again famine. Boycott, with instructions from Lord Erne, was prepared to allow a 10% reduction in the rents. Most of the tenants insisted on a 25% reduction. Boycott obtained eviction notices against eleven tenants for failure to pay their rent. On September 22, 1880 the local process server, David Sears, accompanied by an escort of "constabulary" succeeded in serving several notices. Then some local women started to harass Sears and his escort by throwing mud and manure at them while yelling and shouting at them. The ladies managed to intimidate them to the point that they took shelter in the Boycott house and were unable to serve the rest of the notices. The next day Sears was preparing to make another attempt to serve the notices but a large group of people gathered and marched towards Lough Mask House. Egged on by Father John O'Malley, the parish priest at the Neale, they arrived on the Boycott farm and "advised" all of Boycott's servants and farm workers to leave and not return. By the evening of September 23 Boycott and his family were alone on the farm.

Note: Father O'Mally was the only priest in the area who was active in the Land League.

Once the process started it did not stop. The letterboy refused to deliver the mail. The shopkeepers of Ballinrobe refused to wait on the Boycott family. All of the local Catholic population refused to provide any services. Whenever any member of the Boycott household tried to leave the property they were booed and hissed. Boycott applied and was granted police protection. This, in and of itself, was not uncommon in parts of Ireland where there was unrest. The issue at this point remained a local one.

The tenants appealed to Lord Erne to dismiss Boycott and replace him with another agent. Lord Erne, who was elderly and perhaps senile, refused. The locals kept up their isolation of Boycott. A letter from Captain Boycott to the "Times" drew attention to his dilemma. In part he said:

".....people collect in crowds upon my farm and order off all my workmen. The shopkeepers have been warned to stop all supplies to my house. My farm is public property, I can get no workmen to do anything, and my ruin is openly avowed as the object of the Land League unless I throw up everything and leave the country"

The Ulster volunteers took the train as far as Claremorris where they had expected to be met by carts that would take them to Ballinrobe. The local cart drivers refused to offer their services and the volunteers, escorted my military troops, were forced to march the fourteen miles from Claremorris to Ballinrobe. They did not set off until late in the afternoon and darkness fell early at that time of the year. Hindered by driving rain and various delays it was only after fives hours of marching that they reached Ballinrobe where they were greeted by crowds of cat calling, jeering, and booing locals and where there was basically no shelter or food for them.

The little town of Ballinrobe was completely overrun with outsiders including at least a 1,000 soldiers, newsmen from around the world and the Ulster volunteers.

On the morning of November 12, the troops, with swords raised, escorted the volunteers out of town as all the locals again turned out to jeer. The crowds thinned as they left town and they continued on through the drizzling rain the three miles to Lough Mask House.

Over the next two weeks, tortured by continuous cold and torrential rains, the volunteers brought in the harvest of turnips, mangolds¹, potatoes and corn². On Saturday, November 27 they were escorted back to Ballinrobe where they again spent the night. The next day they were escorted to Claremorris to take the train back to Ulster.

Boycott himself quietly decided go to England. Captain Boycott, his wife and niece were forced to ride in an Army ambulance as no local drivers could be found to take them to the train in Claremorris.

See Ballinrobe Chronicles for local coverage of the event.

See Land Issues for a picture of Boycott related incidences.

The name boycott was given to this form of social and economic isolation by by the American journalist, James Redpath, who covered the story for the American press. He credited Father O'Malley with having come with the idea of using the word.

¹Mangolds are a beet like root crop fed to cattle.

² What the English call corn and Americans call wheat.

"Lough Mask Farm, which is likely to become a famous place in the history of Ireland, is situated in the county of Cannaught, almost in the centre of the district know as the "nursery of the Land League," the first meeting of that organization having been held at Balla, a village near Castlebar. Captain BOYCOTT, besides managing his own farm, has been for some years agent to Lord ERNE, who, it is said, bears an excellent reputation as a landlord. Captain BOYCOTT himself is spoken of by some as a kindly hearted man, who not only never did any one any harm, but had done all he possible could for the benefit of the tenants; on the other hand, it is alleged that he is eccentric and domineering, and that he has subjected the tenants and laborers to a series of petty deprivations and humiliations which have exasperated them without benefiting the landlord. Be that as it may, the attempt to serve a number of ejectments in September last led the tenants to appeal to Lord ERNE to dismiss him. His lordship refused, and from that day Captain BOYCOTT became a marked man. No labourer dared to work for him, no tradesman to serve him with goods. He was isolated by order of the Land Leaguers, and was compelled to accept the service of constabulary to protect the lives of himself and family. His case is a typical one, and for some time attracted little attention, although he and his wife and daughters were left to get in the crops as best they could.

A newspaper correspondent first started the idea of sending assistance to Captain BOYCOTT. He soon flooded the correspondence offering every kind of co-operation, and one person alone promised to get together 30,000 volunteers. Mr FORESTER, Chief Secretary for Ireland, at once vetoed the project of an armed invasion, at the some time offering to afford military protection to whatever number of men were required for the bona fide purpose of saving the crops. It was accordingly decided to pick out some fifty or sixty from the great number of Cavan and Monaghan men who were anxious to go. Under military protection these men harvested Captain BOYCOTT'S crops, and then returned to their own homes. The cost of this singular expedition was about ten thousand pounds, while the value of the harvest gathered did not, it is said, exceed five hundred pounds. Captain BOYCOTT and his family have since left Ireland. The people of the country were very much incensed by his success in getting his crops gathered, and, although his family was treated with respect, he was hooted and cursed wherever he appeared.

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