Engraving showing the serving of an eviction notice on a small cottage near Headford in Galway, Ireland, in 1880. During the 19th century agricultural depression in Ireland many tenant farmers were evicted because they could not pay their rents. Landlords were largely absentee english aristocrats. The peasant farmers faced complete ruin and starvation, those who could afford to emigrated, whilst others joined the Land League, which used increasingly violent methods to oppose the landlords.