Captain Boycott

The account is set in nineteenth century Ireland. Captain Charles Boycott manages an estate. The land belongs to Lord Erne, who lives in England. Boycott runs his tenants in County Mayo on his behalf. He keeps the rents high. Those who cannot pay are turned off the land. The tenants are driven into poverty. In the end they band together to claim their rights. A farmer named Hugh Davin leads them. They do not choose violence. Instead they shut Boycott out entirely, so that nobody speaks to him and nobody works for him. He spends his fortune trying to repair his name and puts what is left on a horse race, and this is where the English word boycott comes from. Stewart Granger and Kathleen Ryan lead, with Cecil Parker as Boycott, in the ninety three minute film, a British production Frank Launder finished in 1947.