SNIPPET: New Tipperary, was a development in the 'Plan of Campaign' (see below) initiated by William O'BRIEN. In response to the action of the largest landlord of Tipperary town, A. H. SMITH-BARRY, who pursued wholesale evictions against tenants withholding rents, nationalists resorted to the extreme measure of building a substitute 'town' nearby. Opened with great fanfare on 12 April 1890, New Tipperary was a disastrously expensive venture, greatly depleting Plan funds and undermining the whole strategy. 'The 'Plan of Campaign' was a Nationalist response to the problems of agricultural depression, tenant distress and evictions that continued despite the Land Act of 1881. (Land Acts were to be passed over a period of more than half a century transforming landholding from a system of territorial landlordism to one of owner occupancy). Initiated by William O'BRIEN and other leading Parnellities (though not PARNELL) the plan was published in 'United Ireland' in October 1886 and proposed that where a landlord refused rent reductions tenants would offer rents they considered to be fair. On these being refused the sums involved would go into an 'estate fund.' for the support of tenants who could then expect to be evicted, with further financial support coming, as needed from the National League. Operating chiefly in the south and west of Ireland during 1886-90, the plan met with well-organized landlord and government opposition. It heavily depleted Nationalist funds and was less than wholly successful. Disputes on 84 of 116 estates involved were resolved by agreement, some after conflicts; 15 were settled on the landlord's terms while 18 were still unresolved in 1891 The Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 (GLADSTONE's first land act) had given the force of law to customary tenant right where it existed and created similar rights elsewhere in the country, provided for compensation for disturbance of tenants evicted other than for non-payment of rent, and made provision for compensation for improvements in the case of a departing tenant. Its so-called 'Bright clauses' allowed tenants to purchase their holdings. The Land Law (Ireland) Act of 1881 (Gladstone's second land act) granted the "three Fs" and instituted the Land Commission, with authority to adjudicate on fair rents and to make loans of up to 75% of the purchase price to tenants purchasing their holdings. (The "three Fs," the alliterative label widely used in post-Famine Ireland to describe long-standing, but in reality ambiguous, tenant demands for fair rents, fixity of tenure, and free sale, another name for tenant right). Free sale, together with fixity of tenure, was a particular demand of larger tenant farmers. Fair rents were of more importance for poorer tenants. All three rights were given legal status throughout Ireland under GLADSTONE's second Land Act of 1881. The Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 (the Ashbourne Act) increased the loan limit to 100%. William Ewart GLADSTONE, British prime minister and Liberal Party leader, was the son of a Liverpool merchant, educated at Eton and Oxford. He first entered parliament as Conservative MP for Oxford 1832. He was to resign as president of the Board of Trade due to differences. As prime minister (1868-74) he carried through the disestablishment of the Anglican church 1869, and enacted the symbolically important Land Act of 1870. His Land Act of 1881 effectively ended the Land War, while his Kilmainham treaty signified his acceptance of Charles Stewart PARNELL (born into a Protestant landlord family in Avondale, Co. Wicklow) as a nationalist leader with whom a settlement of the Irish question might be made. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to effect this with the home rule bill of 1886. GLADSTONE's conversion to home rule split the Liberal Party. His second attempt to enact home rule, in 1893, also failed. In March 1894 he resigned as a prime minister. A complex personality, GLADSTONE's commitment to Ireland was based on a variety of motives -- a profound moral sense, an acceptance, born of the Fenian rising of 1867, that Ireland was a separate nationality requiring distinctive treatment, and, relatedly, the realization that constitutional reorganization was necessary if the essential integrity of the United Kingdom and its interests were to be safeguarded. .