The title of Earl of Leitrim was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1795. It became extinct upon the death of the 5th Earl in 1952.
The Earls bore the subsidiary titles of Viscount Leitrim (1793) and Baron Leitrim (1783) in the Peerage of Ireland. The 2nd Earl was also created Baron Clements in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831.
Leitrim had one of the highest emigration rates of all - due mostly to a combination of large number of smallholdings and high rates of eviction.
Leitrim would have been no different from other places except that, as time went on, the general discontent among tenants was exacerbated by resentment against Lord Leitrim's increasingly high-handed, and eventually tyrannical, approach to managing his estates.
The Earl had no tolerance for disobedience and dealt quickly with any recalcitrance from his estate staff: he sacked his best flsmith simply because the man, in contravention of Lord Leitrim's dictate, allowed tenants to warm themselves by his fire while they waited to pay their rent.
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