Who were cottiers in 19th-century Ireland?

In 19th-century Ireland, cottiers were landless labourers who lived and worked on the farms of tenant farmers.1

These individuals were permitted to reside on these farms and maintain their own small potato plots. Because the rural poor relied heavily on the potato as a staple crop, a typical cottier family consumed approximately eight pounds of potatoes per person daily, which accounted for at least 80 percent of their total caloric intake.1

The term is also broadly defined as a peasant farmer or a tenant who rented a small farm under a rack-rent system, where land was let to the highest bidder. During the Great Famine, this population was among the most vulnerable to starvation and disease, and many were eventually evicted from the land as landowners struggled to maintain their holdings.21