Free sale, fixity of tenure, and fair rent, also known as the Three Fs, were a set of demands first issued by the

Tenant Right League The Tenant Right League was a federation of local societies formed in Ireland in the wake of the Great Famine to check the power of landlords and advance the rights of tenant farmers. An initiative of northern unionists and southern nationali ...

during their campaign for

land reform Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Lan ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

starting in the 1850s. They were: * Free sale—meaning a tenant could sell the interest in their holding to an incoming tenant without landlord interference; * Fixity of

tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...

—meaning that a tenant could not be evicted if the rent was paid; * Fair rent—meaning

rent control Rent regulation is a system of laws for the rental market of dwellings, with controversial effects on affordability of housing and tenancies. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves: *Price controls, limits on the rent that a landlord ...

: for the first time in the United Kingdom, fair rent would be decided by land courts, not by the landlords. Many historians contend that their absence contributed significantly to the

Great Irish Famine The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger ( ), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact o ...

(1846–49), as it enabled the mass eviction of starving tenants. The Three Fs were advocated by several political movements, notably the

Independent Irish Party The Independent Irish Party (IIP) was the designation chosen by the 48 Members of the United Kingdom Parliament returned from Ireland with the endorsement of the Tenant Right League in the 1852 general election. The League had secured their ...

(1852–1858) and later the

Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nati ...

during the

Land War The Land War () was a period of agrarian agitation in rural History of Ireland (1801–1923), Ireland (then wholly part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom) that began in 1879. It may refer specifically to the firs ...

(from 1878). The British Government conceded to these demands through a series of

Irish Land Acts The Land Acts (officially Land Law (Ireland) Acts) were a series of measures to deal with the question of tenancy contracts and peasant proprietorship of land in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Five such acts were introduced by ...

enacted from the 1870s onward, with nearly full implementation in the

Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881 The Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c. 49) was the second Land Acts (Ireland), Irish land act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Background The Liberal Party (UK), Liberal government of William Ewart Gladstone had previ ...

.Michael McDonnell
Ireland and the Home Rule Movement.
Maunsel and Co., Dublin, 1908; page 61.

References

History of Ireland (1801–1923) Land reform in Ireland Landlord–tenant law Rent regulation Regulation in Ireland {{Ireland-politics-stub