Brewer's: Ribbonism

A Catholic association organised in Ireland about 1808. Its two main objects were (1) to secure “fixity of tenure,” called the tenant-right; and (2) to deter anyone from taking land from which a tenant has been ejected. The name arises from a ribbon worn as a badge in the button-hole.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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