Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T22:13:06.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ulster opposition to Catholic emancipation, 1828–9

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Suzanne T. Kingon
Suzanne T. Kingon*
Affiliation:
School of History, Queen’s University of Belfast
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The centre stage of early nineteenth-century Irish politics has long been held by Daniel O’Connell and the Catholic Association. This may be justifiable, as O’Connell created a mass constitutional movement for liberal reform out of a Catholic, peasant population on the fringe of Europe. Less justifiable is the single perspective that sees the struggle for Catholic emancipation as Catholic Ireland’s battle with the British establishment. In 1828 and 1829 there was also a massive Protestant political campaign in Ireland. This centred on the new Brunswick Clubs and Ulster. Yet anti-Catholic and Ulster politics merit few sentences in narratives of these years. Indeed, there is a general neglect of Ulster politics in the first half of the nineteenth century. Presbyterianism, the evangelical revival, Catholicism, sectarian conflict, the Orange Order, the Irish Yeomanry, the economy and the growth of Belfast as a city have all received detailed treatment, but the nuances of politics remain vague. The Catholic Association appears to have reduced Ulster’s importance in shaping political developments in the island as a whole from its high-water mark of the 1790s. This does not, however, justify simply leaving Ulster out of the story. This article aims to look at the Ulster anti-emancipation campaign and to correct the skewed picture of Ireland in these years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 34 , Issue 134 , November 2004 , pp. 137 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Brooke, Peter, Ulster Presbyterianism: the historical perspective, 1610-1970 (Dublin, 1987)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Controversies in Ulster Presbyterianism, 1790-1836’ (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, 1980)Google Scholar; Holmes, Finlay, Henry Cooke (Belfast, 1981)Google Scholar; idem, Our Irish Presbyterian heritage (Belfast, 1985)Google Scholar; idem, The Presbyterian church in Ireland: a popular history (Dublin, 2000)Google Scholar; Reid, James Seaton, History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, ed. Killen, W.D. (3 vols, Belfast, 1867)Google Scholar.

2 Hempton, David and Hill, Myrtle, Evangelical Protestantism in Ulster society, 1740-1890 (London, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Connolly, S.J., ‘Catholicism in Ulster, 1800-50’ in Roebuck, Peter (ed.), Plantation to partition: essays in Ulster history in honour of McCracken, J.L. (Belfast, 1981), pp 157-71Google Scholar; Elliott, Marianne, The Catholics of Ulster: a history (London, 2000)Google Scholar.

4 Bowen, Desmond, The Protestant crusade in Ireland, 1800-70: a study of Protestant-Catholic relations between the Act of Union and disestablishment (Dublin, 1978)Google Scholar; Farrell, Seán, Rituals and riots: sectarian violence and political culture in Ulster, 1784-1886 (Lexington, Ky., 2000)Google Scholar.

5 Senior, Hereward, Orangeism in Ireland and Britain, 1795-1836 (London, 1966)Google Scholar.

6 Blackstock, Allan, An ascendancy army: the Irish Yeomanry, 1796-1834 (Dublin, 1998)Google Scholar; idem, ‘“A dangerous species of ally”: Orangeism and the Irish Yeomanry’ in I.H.S., xxx, no. 119 (May 1997), pp 393–405 Google Scholar.

7 Kennedy, Liam, An economic history of Ulster, 1820-1940 (Manchester, 1985)Google Scholar.

8 Bardon, Jonathan, Belfast: an illustrated history (Belfast, 1982)Google Scholar; idem and Conlin, Stephen, Belfast: 1000 years (Belfast, 1985)Google Scholar; Chambers, George, Faces of change: the Belfast and Northern Ireland chambers of commerce and industry, 1783-1983 (Belfast, 1983)Google Scholar.

9 See Wright, Frank, Two lands on one soil: Ulster politics before home rule (Dublin, 1996), pp 47–69 Google Scholar.

10 Newry Commercial Telegraph, 11 Jan. 1828.

11 Belfast News-Letter, 22 July 1828.

12 Ibid., 3 Oct. 1828.

13 Star of Brunswick, 6 Dec. 1828.

14 James Cleland to John Waring Maxwell, 16 Dec. 1826 (P.R.O.N.I., Perceval-Maxwell papers, D/3244/G/1/40, unfoliated). Original emphasis.

15 Ibid.

16 Rev. Anthony Trail to Rev. Alexander Bullick, 28 Dec. 1826 (ibid., D/3244/G/1/41).

17 Belfast News-Letter, 15 Apr. 1828.

18 Ibid., 4 Dec. 1828.

19 Ibid., 24 Sept. 1828.

20 My own calculation, drawn from figures printed in Connolly, S.J., ‘Mass politics and sectarian conflict, 1823-30’ in New hist, Ire., v, 90 Google Scholar, and O’Ferrall, Fergus, Catholic emancipation: Daniel O’Connell and the birth of Irish democracy, 1820-30 (Dublin, 1985), p. 324 Google Scholar.

21 Elliott, Catholics of Ulster, p. 270.

22 Star of Brunswick, 29 Nov. 1828.

23 Farrell, Rituals & riots, pp 12-18.

24 Ibid., p. 14.

25 Blackstock, Ascendancy army, p. 291.

26 Gen. Thornton to earl of Wiltshire, 30 Sept. 1828 (P.R.O., HO 100/223, f. 73).

27 Bardon, Jonathan, A history of Ulster (2nd ed., Belfast, 2001), p. 245 Google Scholar.

28 Belfast News-Letter, 12 Sept. 1828.

29 Ibid. Emphasis added.

30 For full details of the officers of the Ulster Brunswick Constitutional Club see ibid., 26 Sept. 1828.

31 Ibid., 14 Oct. 1828.

32 Northern Whig, 9 Oct. 1828.

33 Ibid.

34 Belfast News-Letter, 3 Oct. 1828.

35 Ibid., 4 Nov. 1828.

36 Ibid., 11 Nov. 1828.

37 Ibid., 7Oct. 1828.

38 ‘Resolution that a Brunswick Club should be formed in Portadown’, n.d. (N.L.I., Brunswick Club papers, MS 5017, f. 3); ‘List to meet at Colonel Blacker’s Thursday next’, n.d. (ibid., f. 4); ‘Resolutions of gentlemen meeting to form the club’, 25 Sept. 1828 (ibid., ff 8-9).

39 Belfast News-Letter, 12 Sept. 1828.

40 D’Alton, Ian, Protestant society and politics in Cork, 1812-1844 (Cork, 1980), pp 138-41Google Scholar.

41 Belfast News-Letter, 30 Sept. 1828.

42 For details of all the committee meetings of the Portadown Brunswick Club see N.L.I., MS 5017, ff 55-60.

43 Rev. Charles King Irwin to J. O.Woodhouse, 30 Dec. 1828 (ibid., f. 45).

44 Petitions delivered to Col. Blacker, n.d. (ibid., f. 46).

45 Belfast News-Letter, 27 Jan. 1829.

46 Star of Brunswick, 6 Dec. 1828.

47 Belfast News-Utter, 7 Oct. 1828.

48 Ibid., 12 Sept. 1828.

49 ‘Resolutions at the foundation of the Portadown Brunswick Club’, 25 Sept. 1828 (N.L.I., MS 5017, f. 8).

50 Belfast News-Letter, 7 Oct. 1828.

51 Ibid., 12 Sept. 1828.

52 ‘Rules for forming auxiliary branches of the Brunswick Club’, n.d. (N.L.I., MS 5017, f.2).

53 Belfast News-Letter, 10 Jan. 1829.

54 Ibid., 26 Sept. 1828.

55 Newry Commercial Telegraph, 30 Sept. 1828.

56 Northern Whig, 13 Nov. 1828.

57 ‘Address to the Roman Catholics of this neighbourhood’, n.d. (N.L.I., MS 5017, f. 36). Original emphasis.

58 Ibid.

59 Belfast News-Letter, 25 Jan. 1828.

60 Ibid., 3 June 1828.

61 ‘Report on the foundation meeting of Portadown Brunswick Club’, n.d. (N.L.I., MS 5017, f. 10).

62 Belfast News-Letter, 14 Oct. 1828.

63 Ibid., 9 Jan. 1829.

64 Ibid., 10 Oct. 1828.

65 Hill, Jacqueline, From patriots to unionists: Dublin civic politics and Irish Protestant patriotism, 1660-1840 (Oxford, 1997), p. 338 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66 Star of Brunswick, 7 Mar. 1829.

67 Ibid.

68 Ibid., 10 Jan. 1829.

69 Belfast News-Letter, 9 Dec. 1828.

70 Ibid., 7 Oct. 1828.

71 Ibid.

72 B. Graham to William Gregory, 15 May 1829 (P.R.O., HO 100/227, ff 5-7).

73 Northern Whig, 4 Dec. 1828; Star of Brunswick, 6 Dec. 1828.

74 Northern Whig, 4 Dec. 1828.

75 Ibid., 5 Feb. 1829.

76 Gary Owens, ‘Nationalism without words: symbolism and ritual behaviour in the repeal “monster meetings” of 1843-5’ in Donnelly, J.S. Jr, and Miller, K.A. (eds), Irish popular culture, 1650-1850 (Dublin, 1998), pp 242-69Google Scholar; Cronin, Maura, ‘ “Of one mind”? O’Connellite crowds in the 1830s and 1840s’ in Jupp, P.J. and Magennis, Eoin (eds), Crowds in Ireland, c. 1720-1920 (London, 2000), pp 139-72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77 Lord Gosford to Lord Francis Leveson Gower, 5 Oct. 1828 (P.R.O., HO 100/223, f. 97).

78 Major Thomas D’Arcy to Leveson Gower, 12 Jan. 1829 (ibid., HO 100/226, f. 100).

79 Senior, Orangeism, p. 225.

80 Belfast News-Letter, 3 Oct. 1828.

81 Star of Brunswick, 6 Dec. 1828.

82 Belfast News-Letter, 2 Dec. 1828.

83 Rev. Holt Waring to J. W. Maxwell, 19 Sept. 1828 (P.R.O.N.I., D/3244/G/1/58).

84 Senior, Orangeism, p. 225.

85 Belfast News-Letter, 5 Dec. 1828.

86 Ibid., 24 Jan. 1829.

87 Major D’Arcy to Leveson Gower, 12 Jan. 1829 (P.R.O., HO 100/226, f. 100).

88 Belfast News-Letter, 8 July 1828.

89 Ibid., 30 Sept. 1828.

90 Star of Brunswick, 27 Dec. 1828.

91 Belfast News-Letter, 3 Oct. 1828.

92 Star of Brunswick, 10 Jan. 1829.

93 Ibid., 6 Dec. 1828.

94 Ibid., 29 Nov. 1828.

95 Quoted in Machin, G.I.T., The Catholic question in English politics, 1820-30 (Oxford, 1964), p. 158 Google Scholar.

96 Star of Brunswick, 28 Mar. 1829.

97 Machin, Catholic question, pp 154-5.

98 In December 1828 the Star of Brunswick estimated that 30,000 had assembled at Omagh. In March 1829 it was 20,000. The paper gave no figure of attendance for the Fermanagh meeting at Enniskillen on 26 Mar. 1829, but reminded its readers that at the last meeting of the county upwards of 30,000 had assembled.

99 See for example Bp Fowler of Ossory to Abp Beresford, 1 Mar. 1829 (P.R.O.N.I., Beresford papers, D/664/A/37, ff 173-4); Bp Verschoyle of Killala to Abp Beresford, 1 Mar. 1829 (ibid., D/664/A/38, ff 176-7); bp of Elphin to Abp Beresford, 8 Mar. 1829 (ibid., D/664/A/43A, ff 199-200).

100 Bp Fowler to Abp Beresford, 1 Mar. 1829 (ibid., D/664/A/37, ff 173-4).

101 Belfast News-Letter, 3 Apr. 1829.

102 Star of Brunswick, 14 Mar. 1829.

103 Belfast News-Letter, 17 Apr. 1829.

104 Star of Brunswick, 7 Mar. 1829. Emphasis added.

105 Ibid. Emphasis added.

106 Leveson Gower to Peel, 9 July 1829 (N.A.I., M736, Leveson Gower letter-books, i, 221).

107 For a detailed summary see Bardon, Ulster, p. 247.

108 Belfast News-Letter, 17, 21 July 1829.

109 Machin, Catholic question, p. 155.