Excessively large tracts of prime land had been granted by Britain to British lords, effectively forcing the indigenous Irish farming community to rent back and work the land their forefathers had worked for generations before them. This act of oppression led to cheap labour and increased revenue for 'absentee' British landlords, some of whom managed their affairs very badly, and cared little for the plight of their 'tenants'. The increased pressure on the native Irish meant long hard toil, and bare subsistence living. Traditional methods of supplementing the diet, such as game hunting and fishing often resulted in imprisonment and deportation to other parts of the British colonies (notably Australia and Tasmania), because the land and the wildlife thereon now belonged to the British landlords. Excessive rents often led to evictions and compounded the problems, with many Irish families left homeless.
