Derry~Londonderry the Ulster Covenant and the 1916 Proclamation Dr Henry A
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Derry~Londonderry The Ulster Covenant and the 1916 Proclamation Dr Henry A. Jefferies A programme supported by The Peace III Programme managed for the Special EU 1 Programmes Body by the North West Peace III Cluster taken from its Catholic population or St Luarach’s College (founded in Derry~Londonderry and and given to Protestant immigrants 1900). Unfortunately, the education from England and Scotland. Without of children in separate schools had the Partition of Ireland wealth, without the access to higher the effect of reinforcing already deep education that only the wealthy could divisions in society. Derry in 1900: afford at that time, and because of discrimination on religious grounds, Catholics and Protestants in Derry, Derry~Londonderry had a population The first ever film shot in Derry, by it was extremely difficult for Ulster as was common in the larger towns of 40,000 people in 1900. It was Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon in Catholics to claw their way out of and cities across Ulster, lived mostly typical of many smaller Victorian March 1902, shows scenes of people poverty. It was not until 1947 that in separate neighbourhoods, though cities at the time. Its people were walking in Waterloo Place and Rossville higher education was made free to there were some mixed community rigidly divided by social class, and Street. Some posed for the camera, all and not until 1976 that religious districts including, for example, the divisions were made very clear but most were oblivious to the fact discrimination was outlawed in Rosemount, around Northland Road by the clothes that people wore, the that people would be looking at their Northern Ireland. There were, of and, of course, on the Waterside. way they spoke and by their general images on a film long after they had course, poor Protestants in Ulster as They attended different churches, demeanour. Wealthy women strolled died. The film shows that most people well as Catholics, but being a Catholic read different newspapers, nurtured about the main streets of Derry in in Derry were reasonably well-fed, but in Ulster was an enormous liability different community identities and long, elegant dresses designed by had little money for nice clothes or when it came to looking for a job, or in many ways they led very separate couturiers in Paris and London, with other luxuries. It was a city with limited promotion, until the last quarter of the lives. That is not to say that there their hair piled high upon their heads job opportunities for men. Its shirt twentieth century. was no interaction between the two in the contemporary pompadour or factories, which were scattered around communities. They sometimes had chignon (“waterfall of curls”) fashions, the old heart of the city, made profits Yet, from late Victorian times, things neighbours who attended a different set off with very broad hats. Wealthy by employing women on low wages. were gradually changing. St Columb’s church to their own. They might men strode about in three piece At a time when married men were College (founded in 1879) and work side by side, and they shared a suits set off by top hats. They often expected to be the ‘bread-winners’ the High School (opened in 1887) common affection for their city. They sported beards, and moustaches that while their wives reared large families provided secondary education to a all supported their local soccer team, were sometimes curled. The lower of children at home, the lack of jobs fortunate though tiny minority of Derry Celtic. Yet they formed distinct middle classes bought ready-to-wear for men in Derry was a real problem Catholic boys and girls respectively, communities defined by religious factory-made clothes that crudely for society as a whole. but it would take time before a denominations. Trade unionists in mimicked the fashions of their sizeable Catholic middle class would Derry tried to persuade working-class betters, but their clothes were plainly The social class divisions in Derry in grow from among their alumni. In Catholics and Protestants that they cheaper, and were made in practical 1900 were made worse by religious Derry, as across Ireland generally, had a great deal in common with each colours of cloth that would wear well. divisions. The wealthy citizens were children were educated according to other, and that their bosses were Poorer people often had to make do mostly Protestants. However, society religious denomination. Protestant their true enemies by paying out with second-hand clothes, sometimes in Ulster had been shaped profoundly children fortunate enough to enjoy a paltry wages. However, it was hard ragged apparel of dark colours that by the British conquest and secondary education attended either to promote socialism in Ireland when were supposed to hide the dirt. colonisation of Ireland in which some Foyle College (founded in 1617), religion was such a dominating factor of the wealth of Ireland had been Victoria High School (founded in 1877) in people’s lives. 2 3 Nationalist Aspirations: necessity of establishing an Irish educated in school. The easing of matters such as taxation, foreign government. sectarian discrimination by the British policy, the Royal Mail and the military. Ireland had been incorporated into the state allowed Catholics to secure a The leaders of the IPP stated in United Kingdom of Great Britain and On the other hand, Nationalists reaped growing share of jobs in the British parliament that Home Rule was a Ireland in 1801, in order to copper- benefits from the United Kingdom civil service, the post office, and compromise arrangement that would fasten Britain’s control of its rebellious becoming increasingly democratic the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). satisfy Nationalists’ demands for an neighbour. Irish Nationalists were in the second half of the nineteenth However, being an Irish Catholic Irish government that would govern Irish men and women who believed century. Growing prosperity allowed continued to be a disadvantage when Ireland in the best interests of the that Ireland should be governed by more Catholics to have their children it came to promotion: for example, Irish people, while at the same time an Irish government elected by the while 70% of the police constables leaving Ireland as part of the United Irish people. That conviction was on the ground were Catholics, most Kingdom subject to the British crown. reinforced by Ireland’s catastrophic of the senior police officers were experience of the Great Famine of Protestants even as late as 1914. In 1910 two general elections resulted 1845-50 – in which one million people in a stalemate between Britain’s died, and another million were forced The Irish Parliamentary Party two main political parties, the to emigrate to escape death. (IPP), of which 86 of Ireland’s Conservative Party and the Liberal 105 MPs, were members in 1885, Party. John Redmond, leader of The British government’s famine relief campaigned tirelessly against the IPP, gave his party’s support to measures were woefully inadequate, religious discrimination, for equal Herbert Asquith, leader of the Liberal despite the fact that Britain was job opportunities, and for the Party, to be the prime minister - on the richest country in the world. better governance of Ireland from condition that the Liberals promised Nationalists at that time believed Westminster. Its central demand, to grant Home Rule to Ireland. With that hundreds of thousands of poor however, was for Home Rule. This was the votes of the Liberal Party, the Irish men, women and children were a form of devolved government for Irish Parliamentary Party and the new simply allowed to die. That belief was Ireland within the United Kingdom. Labour Party behind it, Ireland looked confirmed by The Irish Crisis, a book Under Home Rule there would set to achieve Home Rule. written by Sir Charles Trevelyan, the have been an Irish government in British government’s chief official who Dublin responsible for law making was responsible for organising famine in economic matters, education, relief in Ireland. Trevelyan wrote policing and justice – while Ireland that the famine was created by God would remain subject to the British to make Ireland a better place in the government’s control in imperial future – by getting rid of the poor! The sheer scale of death and depopulation was seen as proof of the British government’s indifference towards the Irish people. For Nationalists it demonstrated the Illustration showing a family during the Famine 4 5 Unionist Anxieties: established under Home Rule. Most in the context of their long-standing Kingdom – just like Scotland, Wales Protestants were worried about their animosity towards the pope in and Northern Ireland today – Ulster Unionists were Irish men and women prospects under an Irish government Rome. However, they should also be Unionists expressed their anxiety who supported the Act of Union that with a Catholic majority. seen in the context of Nationalists’ in the Covenant that Home Rule created the United Kingdom in 1801. demands for equal opportunities threatened their ‘cherished position They wanted Ireland to remain united Unionists’ anxieties about Home in securing jobs and promotions; in of equal citizenship in the United with Great Britain. Most of them were Rule were summarized by them in an economy that failed to generate Kingdom’. The Unionists knew that Protestants who traced their ancestry the Solemn League and Covenant, enough employment and wealth for most Irish Nationalists wanted Ireland to ‘British’ immigrants who had came a petition signed by half a million everyone, many Protestants feared to be free of British control, and they to Ireland since the early17th Century. Ulster Protestants on ‘Ulster Day’ that any progress made towards equal were afraid that the Nationalists would Unionists felt proud to be British, in September 1912.