"One with Britain, heart and soul:
One life, one flag, one fleet, one throne."
- The Ascendancy-Unionist Convention motto (1893)
"They were both driven by fear. The Protestants were convinced that they were regarded as foreigners and aliens by the Catholics, despite the fact that their families had been residents in Ireland for four, if not eight, hundred years and that, as such, they would endlessly persecuted in an Irish republic. They feared not only the dark spectre of Popish domination, but also the more practical and more realistic fear that if Ireland was separated from the British Empire, they and their children would be the physical victims of eight hundred years of built-up Catholic resentment. Nationalists, on the other hand, feared that if independence wasn't granted as soon as possible, Irish Catholics would become too comfortable under the economic benefits of British rule and that they would forget both the horrors of the 19th century and the emotional stirs of the Gaelic Revival. If independence was not secured now, it might never be. And they feared, of course, that if the Protestants were able to get their own way over the Union with Britain, it would a slippery slope back to the 18th century, when the Ascendancy had held Ireland completely in their aristocratic grasp."
- From a modern on-line history of Ulster
I am currently working on a new script based on the lives of a family of Protestant aristocrats - part of the Ascendancy class - in the years after 1911, when the island of Ireland became convulsed by the rivalries between those who wished to remain part of the British Empire and those who sought Irish independence.
It has been absolutely fascinating researching the way Protestants and Unionists thought in the 1900s, as well as to discover just how unbelievably prosperous and wealthy Belfast was, as a hub of some of the Empire's chief industries. It is my hope to show their story, which is so infrequently shown in the media, and the struggles - both the worthy and the horrifying - to keep their homeland part of the British Empire. I also plan to eventually include some Nationalist characters, as the storyline progresses and the lives of Irish Unionists and Nationalists became more and more intertwined as their country hurtled towards Civil War. In fact, one of the script's many stories is the journey of one young woman from her family's Unionism to her own personal Nationalism.
The plan is neither to romanticise nor condemn either side. The story of Ireland's politics has been the subject of enough mawkish sentimentality (on the nationalist side) and insular superiority (the unionist), without my adding to it.
So far, the books I am reading as preliminary research before writing the first scripts are: -
"A History of Ulster" by Professor Jonathan Bardon
"The Pursuit of the Heiress: Aristocratic Marriage in Ireland" by Dr. A.P.W. Malcomson
"The Fields of Athenry: A Journey through Irish History" by J.C. Roy
"Outside the Glow: Protestants and Irishness in Independent Ireland" by Heather K. Crawford
"Circe: The Life of Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry" by Anne de Courcy
"Annabel, An Unconventional Life: The Memoirs of Lady Annabel Goldsmith" by Lady Annabel Goldsmith
"The Pursuit of Laughter" by Diana, Lady Mosley
Some Quotes about the Ascendancy and the Irish Crisis of the 1910s: -
"One evening, I dined with the chairman of Harland & Wolff shipyards, Lord Pirrie, and asked if it were true that if Irish independence ever became law, without a separate Partition between North and South, his firm would withdraw their great shipbuilding works from Belfast, and take them to the Clyde. 'Most certainly,' he said, 'this would be done!' I put a similar question to the other great captains of Irish industry round the table and they all said that under an Irish Parliament and Government there would be no security for life nor property, no fair play to the [Protestant] Loyalists in the North of Ireland, and that under want of commercial confidence without which Belfast could not continue to prosper. They all agreed with their host that the great manufacturing and industrial enterprises of their city would have to seek a new home on the other side of the Irish Sea."
- From the papers of Thomas MacKnight
"All the progress of Belfast has made as a result of her Union with Britain... We have been wedded to the Empire and made a progress under it second to none... Why should we driven by force to abandon the convictions which have led to that success?"
- The Belfast Chamber of Commerce (1893)
"Irish nationalists were, to my childish mind, a dark, subtle and dangerous race, outwardly genial and friendly, but inwardly meditating fearful things and one could never tell the moment when they were ready to rise, murder my uncle, possess themselves of our estate and drive out my aunt and myself to perish on the mountains. I don't know why, but in my aunt's imagination, it was always on the mountains that we died."
- Leslie Alexander Montgomery, a member of the Ascendancy class (1873 - 1961)
"We cannot divide the nation! If we do, there will not be one, but two oppressed minorities. In the North, the Protestants will certainly discriminate against their Catholics neighbours, whilst in the South, the Catholics are equally certain to do the same against the Protestants!"
- Thomas Sexton, a Cork-born lawyer practising in west Belfast (1911)
I have Lady Annabel's book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I corresponded with her and she mischievously wrote "Lord Belmont" on the envelope to me! Lady A has a wicked sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteI was looking out for her at St Mark's N'ards, at her aunt's memorial service, though she did not attend.
Tim
I was examining World War One memorials in Western Europe and came across a monument to the Irish who died whilst fighting together in the British Army. Located in Belgium because of the area's links with both the 16th (Irish) Division and the 36th (Ulster) Division, the monument clearly represented the heroic efforts of Irish Unionist and Nationalist men who fought side by side during the Battle for Messines Ridge.
ReplyDeleteI don’t suppose it was easy for either the Unionists or the Nationalists to give up their political struggle at home to fight for the British abroad. After all, you noted that from 1911 on, the island of Ireland became convulsed by the rivalries, almost to the point of civil war. Yet by 1914 the men from both sides were soldiers together.
Tim, yes, Lady Annabel's book is hilarious and very moving. The description of life at Mount Stewart in the years between the Wars is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteHels, yes, indeed, they all fought very bravely in a war that it's difficult even to imagine the horrors of. The memorial tower to the 36th Ulster in the Somme is a replica of a tower that lay on the Ascendancy estate of Clandeboye, where the regiment had trained before deployment.
The 36th Ulster and 16th Irish both fought courageously and both in the expectation that Britain would reward their loyalty, if in very different ways. The 36th expected that in return for their sacrifice, Britain would grant the north of Ireland its own parliament in Belfast and partition her from the south and any Dublin-based Irish government. The 16th fought on the urging of moderate Irish nationalists like John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, who believed that in return for Irish lives, Britain would continue to push through the Home Rule bill for Ireland, as it had been doing (slowly) in the years before the War. Many Irish nationalists also believed it was their duty to help liberate "poor, Catholic Belgium" from the armies of a foreign, Protestant aggressor (Imperial Germany).
Sadly, today, the Irish Republic neither acknowledges nor commemorates the many Irishmen and women who fell in combat in 1914 - 1918 or even those who volunteered to help Britain against Nazism in 1939 - 1945. The wearing of the commemorative poppy is still something opposed by many Irish nationalists, both north and south of the border, as being "British" or "imperialist." A sentiment which I find unfortunate, at best.
In any case, you are absolutely right - the men and the boys of the Ulster 36th and the Irish 16th fought with great heroism and the memorials to them in France, where so many of them fell on active service, are incredibly moving. I only hope that when my script reaches the terrible years of the First World War, I am able to do write it effectively and with respect to all the men, regardless of their politics, who fought and died.
I'm sure you would find any of the books on Ireland written by Mark Bence-Jones to be of interest in shedding light on the Ascendancy period. He was an excellent writer and authority on the subject, being from an Ascendancy family himself.
ReplyDeleteThe Ascendancy is a particular interest of mine so I'm happy to correspond with you regarding your research. I'm on Facebook if you want to find me.