In 1919 following Britain’s triumph in her Great War for Freedom, His Britannic Majesty’s Government banned a book made almost entirely of quotations of speeches made by Ministers of that Government when they had been His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition between the years 1910 and 1914.Some quotations are from men who were merely Unionist MPs, others from Unionist Bishops and other Clergymen and from newspapers and journals committed to the Unionist Cause. It’s title comes from a speech by the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith on October 5 1912 –
“The reckless rodomontade at Blenheim in the early summer,as developed and amplified in this Ulster Campaign, furnishes for the future a complete
grammar of anarchy.”
The Grammar of Anarchy was compiled by John Joseph Horgan, a Redmondite Home Rule MP who opposed Sinn Fein and Republicanism. It is a booklet rather than a book and has been republished, with an introduction by Brendan Clifford, by Athol Books (website www.atholbooks.org)
My quotation from Sir Edward Carson, in “Hating One’s Neighbours” came from that booklet.
A few others from him and his admirers follow –
“When we see the men of Ulster filled with that noble spirit of self-sacrifice on behalf of liberty which fired their ancestors, displaying more than any other men today their patriotic devotion which has made Britain what she is, we cannot hold aloof. The Covenant is a pledge to stand by one another in our resolve to save our country at all costs.It means that we are ready to make any sacrifice to avert the greatest of calamities. It rests upon the principle that when life and liberty are threatened, men are bound to risk all. In essence, it simply states what is true at all places and all times that men, true men, must be prepared to hold together in defence of their altars and their hearths, and to face all dangers.”
The Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Connor,
28 Sept 1912.
Non-Unionist men, born in Ulster of aboriginal Ulster stock are “non-persons” or aliens to Ulster in the Bishop’s sermon. The Home Rule Bill,
offering less autonomy than that enjoyed by Alsace and Lorraine under the Kaiser, was no threat to Britain nor to Ulster Unionists.No threat to life, nor
liberty, to altars or to hearths.Within a couple of years Irishmen, Nationalist and Unionists alike, flocked to the British Forces in alliance with Tsarist
Russia, where State-sponsored anti-Jewish pogroms were the norm. Irish Nationalists did not conduct pogroms nor did they use battering rams
to tumble the cabins of the poor or desecrate the hearths of the wealthy. The Bishop was either a fool or a knave.
“If anything could add to the gratification which I feel at the present moment it is that there should stand beside me here the Lord Primate of Ireland, if I may say so, a brother rebel.”
Sir Edward Carson at Armagh,
October 4th 1913.
“Almost everybody in Belfast knows that importation of arms into Belfast has been going on regularly for more than a year and a half.A good many thousand army rifles have been distributed during that period…..Rifles, and not only rifles, but machine guns and a large quantity of ammunition have
reached Ulster from many sources and under many aliases.” –
Report in The Northern Whig, Belfast
June 4 1913.
“Sir Edward Carson had the honour of receiving an invitation to lunch with the Kaiser last week in Homburg”
Belfast Evening Telegraph
August 27 1913
“They had pledges and promises from some of the greatest generals in the army that, when the time comes, and if it is necessary, they will come over to
help us to keep the old flag flying,and to defy those who would dare invade our liberties.”-
Carson
Antrim Sept 20,1913.
“It may not be known to the rank and file of Unionists that we have the offer of aid from a powerful continental monarch, who,if Home Rule is forced on the
Protestants of Ireland, is prepared to send an army sufficient to release England of any further trouble in Ireland by attaching it to his dominion ……………”
The Irish Churchman
November 14 1913
“Despite all their fleet, and all their preparations, I am going to have more Mausers.”
Carson, June 2, 1914
Carson was referring to His Britannic Majesty’s fleet.
“The Army has killed the Home Rule Bill, and the sooner the Government recognises the fact the better for the country.”
The Morning Post (London)
March 26 19i4.
(The British Army was not asked, just some of its Senior Officers!)
When the Great War was over, Carson on 12 July 1919 spoke in Belfast’s Ulster Hall-
“The resolution I have to propose- that we demand the repeal of the Home Rule Act- is a very easy one to move.
That old Act was still-born.
It was put on the Statute Book, it was born,it died and it was buried the same day – (laughter) and I will tell you who buried it- the Ulster Volunteers (cheers). Yes, and in proposing this resolution, all we are asking is that the putrid remains may be taken away may be obliterated from the sight and scent of man.(laughter and cheers).We always told the Government perfectly honestly that we would not have it,and we won’t….Don’t let us merely talk…
……I tell the British people….. that if there is any attempt to take away one jot or tittle of your (his Belfast audience) rights …..I will call out the Ulster Volunteers.”
There were many more threats made by Carson, Bonar Law, F.E.Smith and other worthies before 1914 against the British Government and even the King of England, before, without even an Election, those worthies joined tha tGovernment. The Orangemen were well armed and from 1912 had been organised into the Ulster Volunteers,and other paramilitary forces (even in Dublin) long before the Irish Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers were founded inlate 1913 in Dublin.
Again and again most Irish people were explicitly referred to with hatred and contempt and most of mankind implicitly.
Those who claim that the 1916 Rising introduced the gun into Irish politics, robbed John Redmond of the prize of Home Rule and caused the partition of Ireland have never given even a cursory glance at the the Parliamentary, extra-Parliamentary, anti-Parliamentary and Paramilitary shenanigans of the Unionists before,during and after the Great War.
“THE GRAMMAR OF ANARCHY: Force Or Law -Which?” can be read in two hours by a slow reader. Most slow readers would be well-equipped to refute
the merit-free assertions of many an Emeritus Professor, learned commentator and loot-laden writer of criminal fiction.
It seems J J Horgan blamed not Carson or the Bishop on the partition of Ireland but extremist republicans. Moreover I can’t see where the Bishop is saying he hates aborigines or aliens.
Horgan also wrote in 1948 ‘It is hard to conceive a procedure more cynical or undemocratic, or, from a Catholic point of view, more wicked’. That was in reference to a rising in Dublin
One word ‘Drumcree’ was when it was lost. After that we got rid of the sectarian RUC and now 20 years later we are finally equals,despite the best efforts of the DUP.
after that we got rid of the sectarian ruc (in name only)
Looking at it from the British point of view they had no easy choices.
Enmeshed in an epic war on the continent. An uprising in Ireland and a clearly determined heavily armed force led by Carson, law et al.that , if not mollified ,could lead to being in the midst of a civil war .
So just do as always. Coercrce the rebels , avoid armed resistance by the men of Ulster and kick the can down the road.
And what a long Road it is.
The Root of Unionism is Hatred and Sectarianism, one glance at History confirms that. To say Unionism is democratic or had a love of “Liberties” is ridiculous, especially when you read up on the like of Carson or Paisley. Whether Unionism in the North has a future awaits to be seen but something tells me the current leaders of Unionism don’t have the stomach for change, and especially equality.
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.”–Abraham Lincoln
The root of Hatred and Sectarianism is fear.
The cause of fear is mistrust instilled by a long and bloody history of divided loyalties.
Loyalties are as divided today as they ever were.
Do you think if britain left here tomorrow we would have freedom?
There is only one road to avoid conflict, the path of truth and reconciliation.
I see no difference in your demonisation of Sinn Fein as I do in the worst of the DUPs demonisation.
To pull down Stormont is to deny freedom to others and leave the path of reconciliation.
There are many points of view, it is impossible to please all
Colin
The aboriginal Ulstermen were there in the time of Niall of the Nine Hostages and the surname
O’Neill indicates that their many of their descendants are still in the Province. Likewise O’Donnell after an anscestor named Donal, then there’s Maguires. O’Kanes, Devlin, and many more. To that Bishop these people were not “Ulster” men or women, but, at best outsiders, aliens or outlanders.
An aboriginal Irishman myself, I have acquired sufficient knowledge of the ENGLISH language
to use words such as “aboriginal” and “alien” with an understanding of their roots.
Nevertheless I always keep an English Dictionary handy, lest I fall into error.
Donal
Well I used the same terms as yourself so no need for the English lesson, or the genealogy one for that matter. What I was saying is you were putting words into the good Bishop’s mouth and you’re still at it. I also thought you were misrepresenting JJ Horgan to make your points. My English dictionary says ancestor btw, but it’s probably an error.
Damned English, always causing problems