Green Songs 2

Orange Songs

“And Ulster Will be Right”— Unionism to the Covenant. 

INTRODUCTION.   Louis MacNeice (1907-1963), Irish poet.  Richard Murphy, Irish poet.  Church of Ireland + Presbyterian = "little Union."  "Never Surrender"; Derry apprentices @ siege of Derry.

I.  INDUSTRIALIZATION & THE ECONOMIC BASIS OF UNIONISM.  

A.  URBAN GROWTH IN IRELAND.  1841-1911: Dublin = +131% (304,802); Belfast = +514% (386,947).

B.  THE RISE OF BELFAST.  Industrial district = Belfast-Dungannon-Newry region.  Linen (Lagan Valley).  Shipbuilding:  Harlan and Wolf (1858); White Star Line; Workman and Clark (the "wee yard").  Belfast (1907):  75% of workforce in industry, 5% in professions, 8% in domestic service--vs. Dublin (54% industry).  Labor: a segregated market.

II.  THE CULTURAL BASIS OF UNIONISM.  Politics and Religion:  "Were we to exchange for servitude to Westminster servitude to ... any body of cardinals in Rome, then I would say good-bye for ever to the struggle for Irish freedom" (John Blake Dillon, May 1888).

A.  BUILDING THE "LITTLE UNION."  Orange Society (founded, Co. Armagh 1795) ==>  Orange Order.  The Orange oath.  Thomas Drew , Vicar of Christ Church (Ch. of I.), Twenty Reasons for Being an Orangeman (1857).  Hugh ("Roaring Hugh" Hanna, minister of Berry St. Presbyterian Church and later of St. Enoch's (Ch. of I.).  July 12 = anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne (1690).

B.  THE ORANGE CARD.  Lord Randolph Churchhill (1849-1895), the third son of the Duke of Marlborough.  The "Hawarden Kite" of Herbert Gladstone (December 1885).  Randolph Churchill:  "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right"; "I decided some time ago that if the G.O.M. [Grand Old Man = Gladstone] went for Home Rule, the Orange card would be the one to play.  Please God it may turn out the ace of trumps and not the two."

C.  BIRTH OF UNIONIST  PARTY.  Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union (May 1885).  Irish Unionist Alliance (November 1885).  General elections (January 1886) ==> Liberal/Irish victory.  Second Irish Home Rule Bill, defeated in the House of Lords (January 1893).  Ulster Unionist Council (1905).

III.  HOME RULE: THE LAST FIGHT.  General election (January 1910) ==> Liberal/Home ruler victory ==> Third Home Rule Bill.  Sir Edward Carson (1854-1935).

A.  EDWARD CARSON.  Wilde v Marquis of Queensbury.  James Craig (1871-1940), Unionist politician, first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (1921-1940).

B.  THE COVENANT.   Solemn League and Covenant:  Scotland, 28 Feb. 1638; Westminster (London), 25 Sept. 1644; Belfast (28 Sept. 1912 = "Ulster Day).  Ulster Volunteer Force (January 1913); Field-Marshall Lord Roberts; Lord Milner; General Sir Henry; Army of Ulster.  "Drilling is illegal, the Volunteers are illegal and the government knows they are illegal, and the government does not interfere with them.  Don't be afraid of illegalities" (Edward Carson).

Sir Edward Carson had a cat

That sat upon a stool,

And every time it caught a rat