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The Spirit of Carson
Above: Sir Edward Carson signing the Ulster Covenant.
When I was at university it was fashionable to support the Irish Republican movement, however I have always been adamant that it is right and proper that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom, so long as it reflects the will of the majority of the Northern Irish people. It is a matter of self-determination, nothing more, nothing less.
It is often said that Loyal Ulstermen are essentially descended from colonisers who appropriated the land, however historical sources show this is not the case:
The really effective plantation of Ulster took place from a different source altogether - through an originally small privately-organized Protestant settlement of Scots that had begun on the Ards peninsula of Ulster's east coast a few years earlier. There, Scotland lies only just across the water. For centuries, before the Reformation, Scots had been coming across this North Channel and settling in this part of of Ireland, usually becoming indistinguishable from the Gaelic Irish people among whom they settled. But just before the 1610 plantation -in 1606 - a private settlement had been undertaken by two Scottish Protestant adventurers named Montgomery and Hamilton after a deal with the local Gaelic chieftain. This eastern Protestant planation of Ulster prospered rapidly and became the bridgehead by which, for the rest of the century and beyond, individual Scottish settlers flocked to Northern Ireland. They spread outward from there through the town of Belfast, over the whole of Antrim and Down. They even spread right across Ulster to fill the gaps left in the official plantation of the west. The geographical distributions of Protestant and Catholic in Northern Ireland today still reveal clearly the two separate settlements of Ulster of over 300 years ago.
Ireland, A History; Robert Kee; Abacus, London; Chapter 3, No Surrender; pp 41, 42.
Additionally, Michael Collins and the government of the Irish Free State ratified the Anglo-Irish Treaty, thus accepting the partition of the island, and therefore Northern Ireland as a legitimate state. However, the fact that the six counties today remains part of the United Kingdom is due to the will, determination and sheer obstinacy of Unionists, particularly Sir Edward Carson.
The spectre of Irish Home Rule had existed for decades, ever since Gladstone first submitted the first Bill in 1896. This and subsequent Bills were thwarted in part due to the intervention of the House of Lords. However, after the passing of the Parliament Act of 1911 which assured the supremacy of the House of Commons, it seemed Home Rule for Ireland was inevitable.
Carson was determined that Ulster would not be ruled from Dublin, and thus used his influence to ensure the province was exempt from the Home Rule Bill. He was the first to sign The Ulster Covenant:
It was signed by more than 500,000 Ulstermen and women. The phrase 'using all means which may be found necessary' implied that the signatories were prepared to use force to ensure that they were not subjected to government from Dublin, and a people that they believed didn't value their religion, culture and traditions.Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant
Being convinced in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as of the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship and perilous to the unity of the Empire, we, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal subjects of his Gracious Majesty King George V, humbly relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently trusted, do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant throughout this our time of threatened calamity to stand by one another in defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom and in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland. And in the event of such a Parliament being forced upon us we further solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority. In sure confidence that God will defend the right we hereto subscribe our names. And further, we individually declare that we have not already signed this Covenant.
The above was signed by me at ___________________
Ulster Day, Saturday 28th, September, 1912.
God Save the King
In order to ensure their message didn't fall upon deaf ears, the people of Ulster established the Ulster Volunteer Force:
The Ulster Volunteer Force UVF was established in January 1913, as a militant expression of Ulster Unionist opposition to the Third Home Rule Bill. It built on the foundations of pre-existing paramilitary activity and, at its height in early 1914, reached a strength of 100,000.
Above: Carson's statue outside Stormont
The Great War meant that Home Rule never materialised, and 32,186 men from the UVF who fought in the 36th (Ulster) Division were killed, wounded or missing. Meanwhile, while these brave volunteers were in France risking their lives, the Republican Movement saw their chance to overthrow British rule and after the 1916 Easter Rising resorted to terrorist tactics under the leadership of Michael Collins and eventually succeeded in establishing an Irish Republic, though six counties of Ulster to this day remain part of the United Kingdom.
Had it not been for the spirit of Carson et al, the Northern Irish people would probably be citizens of the Republic of Ireland today. He galvanised the people of Ulster and made Westminster sit up and take notice of them.
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Originally Posted by British and Proud
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