7 minute read
The man who invented Northern Ireland
The man who invented
Northern Ireland
Prof Ian McBride looks at the history of the formation of Northern Ireland through the eyes of ‘An Ulster Presbyterian’.
Many years ago, I discovered a short pamphlet called Ulster on its Own, written in 1912. Its title page proclaims a revolutionary new idea: ‘A Proposal of Self-Government for the Five Counties around Lough Neagh’. The political background was the impending passage of the Third Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons, which meant that the establishment of a separate Irish parliament in Dublin was now almost certain. But all forms of home rule, the pamphlet insisted, suffered from the same fatal flaw. The mistake was the belief that the island’s inhabitants formed a single homogenous unit:
“In reality there is not one, but two Irelands, different ideals, different in outlook, entirely different in ways of life and mind, drifting further and further apart… more opposed to each other in all that makes for nationality than are, for instance, the Austrian and the Hun.”
This powerful argument had been heard before. And so too had the solution: what Ireland really needed was two parliaments, one for the dreamy Celts of the South and another for the industrious Protestants of the North. The Birmingham Liberal MP Joseph Chamberlain had called for an Ulster parliament 25 years earlier, when Gladstone’s first Home Rule Bill had been introduced. More recently the editors of the Spectator and Observer had adopted the same view. But this was the first time that the idea of partition had been seriously floated by an Irishman, and it is probably no accident that the anonymous author signed himself ‘An Ulster Presbyterian’.
Was there a distinctively Presbyterian view on the struggle that led to partition? When asked to imagine their future under a Dublin government, Unionists predicted religious persecution, economic ruin and the spread of disruption and disloyalty throughout the empire – in that order. When the Daily Mail surveyed 305 Ulster Protestant clergymen about the consequences of home rule in 1912, the Presbyterians were more likely than their Episcopalian counterparts to stress the religious factor, and less likely to raise economic fears, but the differences of emphasis were not very significant. The 88-year-old David Mitchel of Warrenpoint, brother of the famous nationalist revolutionary and later defender of American slavery John Mitchel, summed up thus: “Home rule would bring loyalists under the control of the disloyal and rebellious, and certainly lead to the ascendancy of a system always hostile to freedom and toleration.”
Two other features of the Ulster Unionist case particularly resonated with Presbyterians. One concerned the Ne temere decree issued by Pope Pius X in 1908 which regulated ‘mixed’ marriages. Marriage and education were very sensitive issues for Presbyterians, who nurtured bitter memories of discrimination on both counts by the Church of Ireland. The second was the central proposition of Ulster on its Own – that Belfast might become the “fitting capital” of a free and prosperous new state. Unlike the Church of Ireland, Presbyterianism was overwhelmingly concentrated in the northern counties and partition was consequently less painful. The author calculated that almost 90% of Presbyterians lived within “the five counties”, whereas the corresponding figure for the Church of Ireland was a bare majority of 51%. Part of the attraction of a Belfast parliament was that it would empower the northern Presbyterians, still excluded from political and legal office by the remnants of the “old ascendancy party”.
At the 1912 General Assembly, the Moderator echoed the theory put forward by Ulster on its Own: “There are two nations in Ireland, differing in race, in religion and in their sense of national and civic responsibilities.” The Witness (the Presbyterian newspaper) took this argument to its logical conclusion: “If Ireland should be separated from Britain, Ulster should be separated from Ireland”. But there was a flaw in the notion of self-government for ‘the five counties’. It was the same flaw that Unionists detected in Irish home rule: Ulster was not a homogeneous unit. In the northern province as a whole, Protestants formed about 55% of the inhabitants – hence the
plan to restrict the new Belfast parliament to Antrim, Down, Londonderry, Armagh and Tyrone (the last, despite its ‘slight’ Catholic majority, was included for ‘geographical’ reasons). Even in this semi-province, the author recognised that a third of its 1.2 million inhabitants were Catholic. Like Irish nationalists who campaigned for an all-Ireland government, he dealt with the problem with a bland reassurance that everything would be ok: the new parliament would be elected by large, multiple-member constituencies so that “a coherent minority would run no risk of being underrepresented or oppressed”. Otherwise, the wishes of the Catholic population were simply ignored.
If ‘An Ulster Presbyterian’ was still alive in 1921 he probably witnessed the opening of the Northern Ireland parliament in June. He would have been pleased that the Gamble Library of the Union Theological College temporarily served as the House of Commons while Stormont was being built. The central features of his world – the empire, the industrial supremacy of Belfast, the threat of ‘Rome rule’ – have long since vanished. What has endured is the existence of two opposing
communities, “different in ways of life and mind”, their relationship redefined by the Troubles and the peace process. The best way of commemorating the Northern Ireland centenary is surely to find new and better ways for them to live together.
Ian McBride is foster professor of Irish History, Hertford College, University of Oxford.
On These Steps
Karen Jardine outlines how PCI will mark the centenary of the partition of Ireland later this year.
It is hard to believe that we are coming towards the end of what was billed as the ‘Decade of Centenaries’. Starting with the events of 1912, we have remembered amongst other events, the Home Rule Bill, the start of World War One, the Easter Rising, Battle of the Somme, and Armistice Day. This year, 2021, marks the centenary of the partition of Ireland and creation of Northern Ireland.
Throughout the last 10 years PCI has sought to both reflect on its own story from 100 years ago and contribute to the public discourse. For example, the ‘Church in the Public Square’ event in 2016 brought together leading academics and commentators to discuss how the Easter Rising and Battle of the Somme came to exert such a central place in how Ireland views its past and present.
Continuing in this vein in 2021, PCI intends to mark the role that Assembly’s College (now Union Theological College) played in hosting the Northern Ireland parliament following its official opening in June 1921 by King George V, and before it moved to its new home on the Stormont Estate.
‘On These Steps’, to take place later this year, seeks to acknowledge the different experiences and perspectives across PCI, both historical and geographical, from the experiences of those living along the border, and from those in Co Cork to those in Co Antrim.
Taking place on the steps of Union Theological College, the event will have four main components. First Ian McBride, foster professor of Irish History at Oxford University, will provide an academic, historical perspective considering the formation and role of the new Northern Ireland parliament, and its connections with PCI. We will have an opportunity to step back in time with a dramatic reading of the King’s speech from the opening of the new parliament and a specially commissioned musical performance.
The Moderator, Dr David Bruce, will help us to step forward as we think about the changing relationships across these islands – east/west as well as north/south. What does it mean to be a Christian citizen in this context for the next 100 years?
And finally, recognising that the centenaries observed in 1921 have different meaning for different communities, invited political leaders from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will reflect from their own perspectives.
It is our intention that ‘On These Steps’ will be live streamed so as many people as possible can participate, no matter where they are on the island of Ireland, or further afield. Further information will be made available closer to the time. This is just one contribution to the many conversations and events about centenaries that will take place this year. We believe it to be important, building on the ‘Vision for Society’ statement which calls us to live as biblically faithful Christian peacebuilders, developing radically new attitudes and relationships throughout the whole of Ireland, and working together for the common good, where friend and foe can experience healing and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Karen Jardine is PCI’s Public Affairs Officer.
