The Route Tenants' Defence Association (R.T.D.A.), originally called the Route Tenant-Right Association, was founded in
Ballymoney
Ballymoney ( , meaning 'townland of the moor') is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. The civil parish of Ballymoney is situated ...
in 1869. It campaigned for the rights of tenant farmers in the area of
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...
known as
The Route.
[Samuel Clark, James S. Donnelly, Jr, (editors)]
Irish Peasants: Violence and Political Unrest, 1780-1914
{{ISBN, 0299093743, (2003), page 206
Key members of the group included Thomas McElderry, chairman of the Ballymoney town commissioners and lessee of the markets in the town, and Samuel C. McElroy, editor of the ''
Ballymoney Free Press'' and an auctioneer.
The R.T.D.A. was hostile to the
Land League
The Irish National Land League ( Irish: ''Conradh na Talún''), also known as the Land League, was an Irish political organisation of the late 19th century which organised tenant farmers in their resistance to exactions of landowners. Its prima ...
, believing the latter's objectives were too extreme.
References
Irish agrarian protest societies
1869 establishments in Ireland