"THE ULSTER DIFFICULTY"

New Zealand Tablet, 13 January 1921, Page 9

"THE ULSTER DIFFICULTY"

(By Professor Eoin'MacNkill, National University of Ireland). -

(Continued from last week). The Classes Versus the Masses. In the meantime, a new factor had come into full play. In England, one of the results of the Home Rule proposal was a complete rearrangement of political parties., , Until 1886, , a large part of. the wealthy industrialist class, the,. capitalist class, and some of the . landed- gentry, had been traditionally attached to the Liberal Party. Ireland has supplied again and again the acid test of i English political principles. Many of these capitalists in land and industry quickly discovered that their natural class affinity was with Tory Imperialism, and over they went. For a time they saved their faces by calling themselves Liberal Unionists, but these distinctions are now remembered with amusement. The true aspect of the event was this, that a democratic victory over the joint forces of ‘Feudalism and Imperialist-Militarist government in Ireland* had started a line of cleavage between democracy and the same joint forces in Great Britainin Gladstone’s compendious phrase between the Classes and the Masses. A prolonged effort of skilful management by Liberal statesmen has succeeded in staying the cleavage during the last 30 years, for in England the Classes have an unrivalled command of political skill and experience, and the Masses are well nigh devoid of political acumen. In Ireland, politics on all sides have a clearer vision, and here, especially in the North-east, Feudalism and Capitalism were generations earlier in ranging themselves on the side of Imperialism against the national Democracy. In the industrial .region ,of Belfast, Dissenters who became wealthy seldom fostered any . illusions about remaining ‘‘Liberal.” Many of them transferred their religious allegiance to the Protestant Episcopal Church, and it was a common saying that a Presbyterian’s. carriage forgot the way to the meeting house. Another saying, often repeated, was “Sure, he’s no gentleman; he’s a Presbyterian.” DU Kitten/ the historian of his Chuich, was well aware of this social phenomenon. Presbyterians,” he writes, “have never formed any' considerable portion of the Irish aristocracy, and those among them who have attained high rank have generally evinced a disposition, sooner or later, to pass over into the Church as by law established.” Pie wrote before the Disestablishment. “It does not appear,” he adds, “that this change has added either to the piety pr the usefulness of the converts.” Elsewhere he says: It has often been said that Presbyterianism is not,a • religion- -for -a - gentleman.” . Nevertheless, a considerable number of the community rose to wealth in business and industry, and these naturally made common cause with the wealthy Episcopalians of the same class. O Nowhere in the| world do the wealthy watch and guard the interests of their wealth with' greater acuteness or singleness of purpose than in’ eastern Ulster- It may well bo imagined that the sectarian feuds, which have long distinguished that region, and which have effectually prevented any approach to solidarity among the wage-earning multitude, j, have caused no grievous - distress' of mind to the _ captains ,of industry. : t Protestant Ulster - has two chief organs, in the daily press, ,the Belfast. Newsletter and the Northern Whip. _ Outside of Belfast, there is no .daily, paper in the world that ministers so sedulously to sectarian bitterness as the News-Letter, the organ of . the Orange party. In Belfast, however, the News-Letter has to yield the palm in this respect to the Presbyterian organ, T controlled-by wealthy capitalists, the Northern Whip. : t Before the Disestablishment, this paper showed a good deaf of friendliness to Catholics, and' on one occasion its editor incurred a heavy fine for * censuring The action of a landlord magistrate : in a case in which, Catholics complained of a .gross perversion of the law. With the advent; of the ft ' ft ft ft- Ni - ■ ft jr 4 » %m dft

weakness of this kind. •’ In one of the most scandalous ’of the scandalous . history -of Dublin Castle, 'the; “Crossmaglen Conspiracy” case of 1882-1883, the ■Northern Whig made itself the direct agent of ; Dublin •Castle in a transaction of surpassing infamy. 1 T Within recent years, this formerly “Liberal” organ has consitently preached the doctrine that the ordinary rights of democracy cannot be conceded to Catholics, its formula being that Irish Protestants will not submit under any circumstances to be governed by “a Roman Catholic Parliament.” The Northern Whig represents one element in the triple alliance of English Imperialism, Irish Feudalism, and East-Ulster Capitalism, against the Irish National Democracy ; and its principal role is to keep the Presbyterians of Ulster up to the Orange standard of sectarian bitterness against the Catholics of Ulster and of all Ireland. Ulster Difficulty Made in England. The more recent militant phase of Ulster Unionist polities has been well advertised over the world in connection with the name of Sir Edward Carson. Carson, however, lias been no more than the well chosen and well .supported instrument of English politicians. He has not .originated the recent “Ulster” policy. We have. seen its early beginnings in the pretended massacre of 1641. • We have ssen its principle reduced. to a concise formula by the ! Englishman, Boulter, ' Protestant Archbishop of ; Armagh ; (1724-1738). Writing of the agitation raised ,by Dean Swift against “Wood’s halfpence,” Bbwlter said: “The worst of this is that it tends to unite Protestant with Papist, and whenever that happens, good-bye to the English interest in Ireland for ever!” ' We have seen the formula applied with success by. Pitt to bring 5 about the Legislative Union, his chief , agent, Castlereagh, “hallooing Protestant against Catholic and Catholic against Protestant.” We have seen it applied in their own interest by the East Ulster landlords of the same period, with the countenance and direct assistance of the English Government. In the nineteenth century, there are many manifestations of the same policy, some crude and palpable, others subtle and stealthy, which a volume of history would be required to expose. The Home Rule crisis of 1886 /caused the English statesmanship behind the scenes to ■step up to the footlights. It was then decided to excite the well-fostered sectarian enmities of East Ulster "to the point of menacing civil war, with the assurance ■of a powerful backing from the newly-braced-up com•bination of Feudalism and Capitalism in England; .•and Lord Randolph Churchill, with Sir Stafford Northcote, an ex-Minister of Cabinet rank, was sent over Ulster for this purpose. Churchill had not long before been the intermediary between Lord Carnarvon, following up the Newport speech of Lord Salisbury and Parnell, to discuss a Tory proposal of Home Rule. Gladstone saw what was coming and took the wind out of their sails. The Tories whereupon changed their course in the opposite direction. Gladstone’s Irish administration, with the help of the Northern Whig, had done a great deal to Orangize the Presbyterians of Ulster. Now, Ulster Protestantism was to be made the instrument of English Toryism to defeat a policy that the Tories in England had been the first to adopt. Churchill gave the prepared watchword to his Ulster hearers: “Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right.” Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill was introduced, and “Ulster’s” fight in the .first instance took the form of street rioting and the looting of Catholic houses in Belfast. Belfast had been the scene of many Orange riots, but the outbreak of 1886, if not worthy the name of civil war, was more violent and far more prolonged than any that had preceded it. - Belfast was still in a state of wild disorder when the defection of the “Liberal Unionists” put { Gladstone out and placed { the Tories in office. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach became Chief Secretary for Ireland. To show that “Ulster” was right,? he withdrew the entire apparatus ; of government ; from the disturbed quarter of Belfast, and left it under the rule of the Orange mob for weeks, until the performance became tiresome there and ’ a

scandal elsewhere, He justified his action as well as theirs' : by announcing that the Belfast Orangemen were "urged on to riot," not ; by English political leaders, but "by loyalty ! 'and. ' religion I!', : Some years later, Gladstone returned to power and once "more ■brought forward a Home Rule' Bill. Again > the policy of "Ulster will fight" was revived, and, as before,' not from Ulster. A Unionist Convention, mainly of landlords in close touch with the English Tories, was held in Dublin, and decided to promote the formation of "Unionist Clubsfl' throughout Ulster. These clubs were intended to form a basis for the organisation of "Civil War." Ajgain Gladstone was defeated, the Unionists returned to power in England, and the "Unionist Clubs" of Ulster disappeared from the scene. At last, in 1911, it appeared certain that the Liberals, under Asquith, would find themselves obliged to carry Home Rule unless they were provided with some satisfactory obstacle. Sir Edward • Carson, though he was inconsiderate enough to say that Asquith's Home Rule policy was "a hypocritical sham," undertook to raise the desired obstacle with adequate assistance from England. The Ulster Volunteers were organised, drilled, and armed. Sir Edward Carson is a master of dramatic effect, and the performance was so carefully staged as to create at a distance the impression that this long-deferred fulfilment of the Churchill prescription was a spontaneous uprising of Ulster, with all Ulster at the back of it. Carson carnivals were brought off with eclat, in the presence of London pressmen and press photographers, in places like Letterkenny, Omagh, Newry, where the programme would have made a very poor show in a counting of votes. . On these occasions the present Lord High Chancellor of England took the field mounted on a fiery charger. An insurance fund of £5,000,000 was guaranteed, not subscribed, in England to indemnify "Ulster" against prospective losses in the coming Civil War. An English auxiliary expeditionary force was organised. At all events on paper, by Lord Willoughby de Broke and other young bloods of antique Feudalism. The crowning event was the importation by sea of a considerable consignment of arms purchased with English money from the Hamburg dealers in discarded armament. The feat was announced in the press while the adventurous craft was as yet sailing the North Sea on its way around to Larne by the North of Scotland: Mr. Winston Churchill was then in charge of the British Navy, and with all filial regard for his father's great watchword, "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right," as well as for the difficulties of a "hypocritical sham," he could find no reason to dispute this running of guns. As with the original outbreak of Civil War in Belfast in 1886, so now in 1914 there was no interference on the part of the forces of the Crown with the landing of the arms at Larne and Bangor and their subsequent distribution by road and rail over the various parts of Ulster. The Prime Minister," however, from his place in Parliament, for Mr. Redmond's satisfaction, declared the whole performance to be "a grave and. unprecedented outrage So much indeed was Mr. Asquith distressed that he made use of. the outrage and all that had led up to it to force Mr. Redmond in secret to release- him from his public undertaking to establish a .parliament for the whole of Ireland. Everything seemed <toJ be working out smoothly, until both contrivers and . connivers at length realised that the Ulster Civil War plot had succeeded in loosening one of the main rivets of. English policy in Ireland. At the end of L November, \ 1913, a few of the believers in the right of Ireland to independence commenced the organisation of the Irish Volunteers, pledged, not to fight a Civil War in Ulster, but "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland." Discountenanced by Mr. Asquith's Government and by Mr. Redmond, within three months' time' the Irish Volunteer movement received the evident approval of the Nation, and Mr. Asquith, speaking this' time less emphatically but not less sincerely, described this? new development as "a serious complication" ''The same f identical phrase

expressed , the view of the leader of k the Unionists in . the House of Lords, Lord -Lansflowne. With this complication of their Irish policy, brought about by their own unscrupulous use of Ulster Protestantism, the English Imperialists were anxiously preparing to enter: xjrr o ~ “ upon the most momentous conflict in the secular history of --mankind/.' -Vfc v ~ W VV;„ - - 1 * It is a necessary feature of that Irish policy, that the Protestants of Ulster should be persuaded that it is they who are able to make use of England, not England of them. ■ * Ulster Makes No Separate Claim. The proposal of separate _ governmental provisionfor Ulster, or, as it is commonly called, the Ulster Partition policy, did not come to the front until the “serious complication” was recognised in the Spring , of 1914. We have seen that the distinct Ulster policy was first definitely announced by Lord Randolph Churchill, an Englishman, and did not then take shape in Ulster; was first put into working form by an AllIreland convention ,of the landlord party in Dublin, and was not even then adopted permanently in Ulster; finally, when the direction and shaping of the movement was taken in hands by Carson, it was liberally financed from England, and every move was prearranged with a view to being described and processpictured in the English press. All this time, no senorate claim was made for Ulster. That Ulster might be excluded from a measure of self-government which might be granted to the rest of Ireland—such a suggestion was mooted here or there: it was definitely discussed, denounced, and rejected at a further Unionist convention held in Dublin, and attended by Ulster delegates, the Right Hon. Walter Long voicing the sense of the meeting. The proposal to separate Ulster from the rest of Ireland, Mr. Long said, was the most ignominious and cowardly suggestion for the solution of the Irish problem that had ever been brought forward ; it was not Ulster that needed special treatment; under any settlement of Irish affairs Ulster was strong enough to protect its own interests; not Ulster, but the scattered Unionist minority in the other parts of Ireland, required special provisions for their protection. To this declaration no contrary voice was raised. In short, from the outset the object of the special Ulster agitation had been solely and simply to defeat Home Rule. The argument was that government by an Irish majority was intolerable to Ulster people, and -the conclusion was that Ulster people would not tolerate the establishment of such government in Ireland. At a still later stage, when the suggestion of a separate provision for six of the Ulster counties was brought forward, Sir Edward Carson dealt with it in a summary way: “I know nothing about six counties or about any number of counties.” Nor, up to the present hour, has any claim for such separate provision been Jormally and publicly made on behalf of the Ulster Unionists. The Solemn Covenant, drawn up by Sir Edward Carson and adopted on a Sunday at the places of worship of the various Protestant denominations in Ulster, was an engagement to resist Home Rule simply, not to resist its application tc/ Ulster or to any part of Ulster. It will be observed that, so far, in every stage and manifestation of the “Ulster difficulty,” everything is in consonance with the “English interest” doctrine of Primate Boulter and th& English policy., of Lord Randolph Churchill. (To be concluded next week.)