The Whiteboys were a secret society in 18th century Ireland who intimidated and beat landlords and debt collectors, and harassed British garrisons. They opposed rack-rents, tithes to the Church of Ireland and evictions, and destroyed obstructions to the Gaelic common land system.

They were referred to as ‘Levellers’ by the British administration, but called themselves ‘Queen Sadhbh’s Children’, referencing the mother of Oisín in Irish mythology. They often sang Jacobite songs and were innovators in maximising the effectiveness of oath-swearing.

The Whiteboys (na Buachaillí Bána) dug graves in public roads and erected gallows to warn those who ignored their demands. They had 14,000 members in Co. Tipperary alone. It took mass arrests and the development of a near-famine situation to stop their spread.

The suppression was often brutal. The Dublin Journal noted: “[Tipperary] is almost waste, and the houses of many locked up, or inhabited by women and old men only; such has been the terror the approach of the Light Dragoons has thrown them into." A ‘Whiteboy Act’ passed in 1765.