T. W. Russell and the compulsory-land-purchase campaign in Ulster, 1900–3

At the beginning of the twentieth century, land purchase in Ireland conducted in compliance with the land-purchase acts passed by the British government between 1881 and 1896 had ground to a virtual standstill. The numbers within the landlord class who wished to sell had been exhausted, yet tenants were anxious for a comprehensive land-purchase measure. The Wyndham Land Act was introduced in the House of Commons on 25 March 1903. The act – the pinnacle of George Wyndham's term of office as chief secretary of Ireland – was hailed as one of the most important pieces of social legislation since the Act of Union.