EPOCHS IN IRISH HISTORY

Otago Witness, Issue 2010, 1 September 1892, Page 45

EPOCHS IN IRISH HISTORY

Bx R. N» £&&£.%.

No. LXXXIII.

PEEP 0> DAYBOYS AND DEFENDERS.

POSSESSION OF ARMS,

While the southern and western counties had been allowed to fall into the power and rapacity of Whiteboys and subsequently Rightboys, the northern parts were not ignorant of the success of the gangs who had made the persons and properties of Protestants the chief objects of their savage cruelty. As the volunteer movement went down, the arms with which the jnembers of the corps bad been provided were taken in some instances to stores, and in others they were allowed to remain in the hands of the men who had used them. In the south and also the north many Roman Catholics bad been enlisted and trained in the volunteer companies, and were not only supplied with arms, but also trained to use them. It was the possession of this supply that made it possible for the Bight boys to perpetrate those outrages, and to fill the country with fear> for they" not only had weapons of war themselves, but had in large districts completely deprived tbe few Protestants who lived among them of anything of the same sorb. Through the whole history of Ireland when anything like this had oome about it wa3 shortly afterwards followed by an extensive and organised attack upon the Protestant community. Being aware of what had been done in this respect the Protestants of the north were apprehensive of coming troubles, for there were growing signs of it from other quarters also. To a large extent, however, there bad been a considerable suppression of the old feeling of antagonism between Roman Catholic and Protestant inhabitants in most parts of Ulster for some years until this evidence of coming troubles appeared.

AN OLD GBTEVANCB.

' In returning to follow up the events of the Northern community, we must call to mind the 3hief land grievance of the eighteenth century. The Antrim evictions were neither atoned for nor amondedt The acts by which absentee landlords had sold the leases of their estates to the highest bidders, quite irrespective of character or the probability of payment being made, bad caused thousands of honest Protestants to retire from the competition, as the Roman Catholics were in almost all cases prepared to outbid them to beyond the capacity of the land's return. By that means many industrious Protestant families were turned out of the homes in which they had the fal] and justified expectation of continuing to live so long as they paid a reasonable rent. But absenteeism engendered despotism, and all the absent landlord knew was that he bad an estate in Ireland, and the more money be could get from his agents for rents the more he would have to spend on luxurious living, &c. In hope of meeting this demand the agents put the leases up to auction, and acoepted the highest offers, giving the old tenant notice to quit and make room for. the ntw one. The objects of the agents were in many cases not realised, but the Catholics bad got' possession of tbe soil, and the Protestants were ejected. The latter became poorer, while many of their noblest sons left for America, and the character of agriculture sank to a distressing level in the hands of the Catholics, and as a consequence industry also degenerated. The Protestants were witnesses and unfortunately victims of tbe change, and the fact was not likely to operate on them in the direction of increased goodwill. The farms they had laid out and cultivated with great labour, outlay, and care, the homes they had built, the farmsteads they had erected, were cruelly wrested from them and banded over to a race of men who bad ever been the enemies of progress, government, and Protestant Christianity, and were, by their want of skilJ, lack of thrift, and general habits of ignorance, bringing the agriculture of those fields back to its former condition. On tlie other hand, thoro was among tho Catholics of the North a strong sj mpatby with their kindred of the South. The Whiteboys and Rightboys were heroes in their estimation, and although they refrained from any similar organisation, they would have been quite ready to do so had events provided an opportunity, as will shortly appear.

NOBTHEBN TBOUBLES.

Insignificant affairs not unfrequently originate important movements. The insurrections of the North of Ireland rose from a personal quarrel and a fight between two men. It was, we are told, on the 4th July 1784 that those two men determined to settle this difference by muscular force upon each other near Marke thill, a small town in the county of Armagh. The fight was witnessed by two persons. The combatants were Protestants, the* onlookers were two Roman Catholic acquaintances of one of the men, bo that in a sense there were three to one. The victory was 'gained by ttte man who was acoompanied by the two friends, and the other became more wrathful over the Catholics having given advice to his antagonist than over his own defeat, and challenged his opponent to continue the contest another day. The two Catholics, however, were not present on the second day, as they had been warned of danger, as the thing had become public, and a strong party was expected to take the part of the vanquished Presbyterian. Their ab?ence was a disappointment, but the challenger then announced a horse race to be held in another place on a subsequent day, and the combat was again postponed. At the race the two antagonists met, each supported by a party. As before, che victor was supported by Roman Catholic friends, and this gave rise to an extended party strife, but not at first marked by distinctive lines of any religious nature, for both sides recruited from ail religious parties as opportunity afforded, the combatants being designated by the parishes to which they belonged. THE CONTENDING FLEETS. They adopted the peculiar title of « Fleets," and were known as "The Nappagh Fleet," " The Bawn Fleet," and so on. Each fleet had its captain, and adopted one or tbe other side of the quarrel. The Nappagh

Fleet Bad a ltoman Catholic for its first feaptaim while the Bunkers Hill Fleet were led by a dissenting minister. The Nappagh Fleet had first made raids on tbe neighbourhood of Bunkers Hill, and the residents combined for self-defence, and formed them into the Bawn Fleet to resist the operations of the Nappagh Fleet. Subsequently they adopted the appellation of "Defenders." Up to this point there seems to have been northing of a religious element in the disturbance. In March 1785 the Nappagh fleet numbered 700 men, "all well armed with guns, swords, and pistols," while tbe Bunkers Hill Defenders were much greater in number but poorly armed. The two parties, however, met, and were on the point of attacking each other in an engagement which must have caused great bloodshed when Mr Richard^ the member for Armagh in the Irish House of Commons, together with two other gentlemen, succeeded in inducing them to separate without having struck a blow.

SECTABIAN DIVISION.

The spirit of religious sectarianism now began to operate, and men began to choose tides under Roman Catholic and Protestant banners, and in doing so the old enmity which in former times characterised these parties became as violent as ever. The first effort; on the part of tbe Roman Catholics was to procure arm?, and put themselves in readiness for any extremity or v opportunity. Many of their leaders, having access to the arms depots which contained the stores of volunteer weapons, took them out and distributed them among their men. The stores were not Government property ; but as certainly they did not belong to the men who took them. They had been purchased by the Protestant gentry who headed the volunteer movement, and were stored by their orders to be used only with their consent Strictly speaking they were the property of the Protestant party, and for the JRoman Catholics to appropriate them was ah act of hostility; but it was done for the twofold purpose of preparing themselves for any circumstances that might arise, and to deprive the Protestants of the use of the weapons. In addition to this, it was still contrary to law for any Roman Catholic peasant to carry or possess arms, and in so doing they were setting the law at defiance. They were at the same time making ready-for a war upon the legalised forms of- religion. PEEP O' PAY BOYS.

The Peep o' Day Boys were companies of men who were loyal to the laws of the land, and whose object was to prevent the spread of* rebellion. Whether they were right in their manner of carrying out their intention is another question. They knew what had been done by the lawless bands of- Wbiteboys and R'ghtboye in the South ; they were aware how powerless the law had been to suppress the outrages ; and they were anxious to prevent the recurrence of any such practices in the North. _ With that end in view they banded themselves together to deprive the Catholics of the weapons of war they illegally, had in their possession For thie they had the example of the Rightboys, before them, in their operations against the Protestants of Munster, LieDster, Limerick, and Connaught, in which every Protestant's house was entered, and all arms carried away by force, while neither the Government nor the Legislature interfered. Although in that case the weapons were the property of the .Protestants, who posssessed them in oonformity'with the law. They naturally argued, "if it was no crime for the Rightboys to take and retain against the law weapons that belonged to the Protestants, it could surely be no worse, if not indeed a laudable action, for them to adopt less cruel means to take weapons from Catholics which did not belong to them, and while the law precluded them from either carrying or keeping them— more particularly, as for them to do this work they would be' doing only what the la,w required, although the Administration was not resolute enoughto enforce it."

THE DEFENDERS..

Nor was it unnatural that the Roman Catholics should organise themselves into companies for tho purpose of defence against the operations of the Peep o' Day Boys. Having got possession of arms, it was not likely they were going to submit to have them wrested from them by any persons, more especially by unauthorised bands, more resembliDg banditti than law-abiding inhabitants. Had the Protestants of the South adopted some similar means of ' defence against the Rightboys, perhaps there would sooner have been an end of that clreadful time of persecution. In their attempts to possess themselves of the arms held by' the Catholics, the Peep o' Day Boys, as was to be expected, met with stern resistance, which frequently resulted in blood and death on both sides, and the struggle became more fearful when it was found that, the patriots, who bad been too busy to interfere when the Southern insurrection 'was in its strongest progress, and indeed used their Parliamentary influence to save the rebels from the force of a repressive law, were now indignant and furious against the Peep o' Da> Boys, and clearly took the part of those who had first violated tbe law to procure arms, and then defied the law by keeping them. Encouraged by this Parliamentary aid the Defenders, as" the Catholic party was now called, went boldly into their work, and vigorously waged war on their antagonists until the straggle led co much mischief, carnage, death, and devastation. Had Parliament .been true to its own province, and voted that the Catholics must be called upon to surrender all arms in accordance with law, and had at once adopted proper measures to enforde the law, there would have been an immediate end of the Peep-o'-day movement. Instead of that, however, the action of the Protestant party was severely censured, while that of the Catholics was justified. This led to further barbarities in the form of the most atrocious cases of abduction which are to be found on the pages of any nation's history. Being no locget in danger of interference from tbe authorise?, the Defenders took up the aggressive form of their warfare, and enteriDg the houses of Protestants of fortune where it was [known that there were ladies of means, or having large settlements in their favour, they would carry them away to the hills or the woods, and there force them into marriages with their captors for the sake of securing their lands or money.

For these men history has usually few harsh words, while for the Peßp-o'-day Boys nothing but ,hard words seem ever to be written.