In June 1918, Lord Lieutenant French issued a proclamation, with the aim of replenishing the Irish divisions at the Western Front by 50,000 men before 1 October. In this proclamation, French expressly promised land grants for returning war veterans as an incentive for recruitment. It was aimed specifically at shop assistants, and other urban workers, who according to the Irish Times happened to be transplanted countrymen, and the sons of small farmers. The British government honoured their commitment to Irish war veterans, when on 23 December 1919, the ‘Irish Land (Provisions for Sailors and Soldiers) Act’ received royal assent. By which time, two very important events had taken place in Ireland. Sinn Féin had become the dominant nationalist political force in Ireland as a result of the 1918 general election. This was followed by the setting up of the first Dáil Eireann, which met on the 21 January 1919. This date is also significant because it is often regarded as the start date of the War of Independence, when nine volunteers killed two policemen in an ambush at Soloheadbeg in Co. Tipperary. Therefore during this period of political and social unrest in Ireland, the British government passed an important land act that authorised the Land Commission to purchase untenanted land for Irish war veterans. Due to the political and social context of the time, the veterans who received land found themselves in the midst of what can be described as the last significant phase of agrarian agitation in Ireland, which began in 1917. A central research question for this thesis involves the reappraisal of the role of the land question in the Irish revolution. Traditionally, the importance of the land question in the Irish revolution has been underplayed by historians. However, since the 1970s the role of the land question in this area has begun to be teased out by such historians as Paul Bew, Fergus Campbell, and Terence Dooley etc. In particular this thesis focuses on the origins, implementation, and the implications that the 1919 Land Act had for returning veterans who fell under section one of its remit.