James Godkin

James Godkin (1806 – 2 May 1879) was an Irish author and journalist who was influential on ecclesiastical and land questions.

Early life and family Godkin was born at Gorey in County Wexford, into a Roman Catholic farming family. As a young man he married Sarah, a daughter of Anthony Lawrence, described as a "comfortable proprietor" of County Wicklow, who was of Cromwellian settler ancestry. Together, they had three daughters and two sons, one of whom was Edwin Lawrence Godkin. A British government led by Gladstone decided to support the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, and the Irish Church Act 1869 took effect on 1 January 1871. In the 1860s, Godkin's work on Irish subjects appeared in the Fortnightly Review.

In 1869, he travelled around much of Ulster and the rest of Ireland to test public opinion on the land question, which led to his book The Land War in Ireland (1870).