 Agriculture shifts increasingly to cattle raising and export  Ireland increasingly tied into global market trends  Some rise in living standards, but subject to sharp recessions 1859-63, 1877-80  Expansion of commerce, shops, credit, literacy  But continuing poverty and high emigration especially from rural west  Five million emigrants 1851-1914  Tensions between 'improving' landlords and tenant farmers, especially early 1850s, later 1860s, later 1870s – forces Gladstone's first land act, 1870
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