RELIGION OF NINETY-EIGHT MEN

New Zealand Tablet, 13 June 1912, Page 27

RELIGION OF NINETY-EIGHT MEN

An article appears elsewhere (says the Irish Weekly) regarding a misleading circular, or 'Manifesto,' addressed to the electors of East Nottingham by a number of noblemen and clerics, including the Duke of Abercorn, Lord Shaftesbury, the Rev. Dr. Davidson, the Rev. Dr. Kean, the Earl of Ranfurly, and the Provost of Trinity College. These worthy politicians appealed for support for the Unionist candidate on several grounds ; and, to strengthen this appeal, they inserted a cunning paragraph which conveyed to the minds of those who read their 'manifesto' the falsehood that the Act of Union was passed for the purpose of quelling ' religious disorders' that ' culminated in the rebellion of 1798.' The article mentioned showed that the people, Catholics and Protestants, were goaded into Insurrection in 1798 by the atrocities perpetrated in Down and Antrim just as in Wicklow and Kildare; and that these atrocities were committed by the Government's troops at the bidding of the Government. ' A rebellion was wanted,' writes Mr. Locker Lampson, the Unionist M.P. for Salisbury and a recent visitor to Belfast: ' and it mattered little by what means it was kindled, or how extinguished.' The erroneous idea that the ' Rising ' in 1798 was a Catholic outburst directed against Protestants has been assiduously impressed upon the minds of Ulster people who know nothing of their country's history, and who are, therefore, at the mercy of every fanatical politician that storms from a platform or a pulpit. Nothing could be more outrageously delusive than this idea.

The Society of United Irishmen

was founded by Protestants. Its membership was almost exclusively Protestant for some years. As many Presbyterians were in the field under McCracken and Munro as there were Catholics under Bagenal Harvey and Father John Murphy in Wexford. And an esteemed correspondent furnishes us with lists of the names of the prominent actors in the struggle, which should be preserved in the homes of people who wish to keep a record of the facts. Amongst the Protestants who played leading parts in the United Irish Society and the subsequent Insurrections were the following who lost their lives —

Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Theobald Walfe Tone, Thomas Russell', Henry Sheares, John Sheares, Anthony Perry, Bart. Tone, Bagenal Harvey, Matthew Keogh, Robert Emmet.

The list is quite incomplete, of course—and this remark applies to the following lists; but the names disprove the falsehood. Other Protestant leaders who suffered arrest or imprisonment, and who were undoubtedly United Irishmen, were —

Thomas Addis Emmet, Arthur O'Connor, Roger O'Connor, John Chambers, Matt. Dowling, Edward Hudson, William Dowdall, Robert Hunter, Hon. Simon Butler, A. 11. Rowan, Napper Tandy, Oliver Bond, John Russell, Thomas Wright, Levington Webb, William Hamilton, Richard Kirwan, James Reynolds, Dean Swift, Thomas Corbett, William Weir, John Allen, Thomas Beacon, Joseph Holt.

All these were men of ' substance' and ' good standing' — lawyers, physicians, merchants, landlords, and farmers. They belonged to the Episco-

palian Church. Did they ' rise in rebellion ' to injur* Protestants or Protestantism Turning to the Presbyterians of 'ninety-eight, we find the following very prominent names amongst those who were hanged for their patriotism William Orr, Samuel Orr, James Dickey, Henry Munro, Henry Joy McCracken, and Henry Byers; while the Presbyterians who escaped the gallows, though they were leading United Irishmen, included— Dr. William Drennan, Dr. William Tennent, Eobert Sims, Samuel Neilson, George Gumming, Joseph Cuthbert, Kev. Steele Dickson, Putnam McCabe, Wm. Simpson, J. Sinclair, Wm. Sinclair, Dr. G. Mcllvain, S. Kennedy, Eobert Hunter, Robert Orr, H. Grimes, Wm. Kean, James Burnside, James Greer, Rowley Osborne, Turner, W. Simms, John Robb, James Hope. Truly, a goodly company. Many of these names still survive in the North of Ireland. We have also a list of Catholic leaders, not so numerous as either the Protestants or Presbyterians; and we give the names of some of the principal Catholics who perished for the same cause that inspired the patriots already enumerated: William Michael Byrne, John McCann, Dr. John Esmond, Billy Byrne (of Ballynanus), Walter Devereaux, Esmond Kyan, Bartholomew Teeling, Felix Rourke, Colonel O'Dowd, John Kelly, John Clinch. Side by side we place the names of Catholic and Presbyterian clergymen who took active parts in the great struggle forced upon their people; and the reverend patriots who were executed are printed in italics: Catholics. Presbyterians. Father M. Kearns. Rev. Warwick. ~ John Murphy ~ Steele Dickson. ~ Redmond. ~ Wm. Porter. ~ Stafford. ~ —'Barber. ~ Michl. Murphy. ~ Mahon. ~ P. Roche. ~ Mirch. ~ P render ~ Ward. ~ Harold. ~ Smith. ~ J. Quiglcy. ~ Sinclair. ~ Denis Taaffe. ~ —• Stevelly. „ McNeill. ~ Simpson. It is to be hoped these facts will convince men who are open to conviction that the events of 1798 have been grossly misrepresented by the Tories for mean political ends. We have endeavoured to do justice to the dead who died for Ireland : and we honor the Protestants, Presbyterians, and Catholics without distinction of creed or cloth. They were all brave men and tolerant men; they suffered and died for National freedom: they were the enemies of sectarian Ascendancy and so are all honest Irish Nationalists to-day.