The Scots Presbyterians who migrated to Northern Ireland/Ulster beginning about 1605 are generally referred to as 'Ulster-Scots’; although sometimes in North America they are referred to as 'Scotch-Irish'. Both terms most commonly refer to those Scots who settled the northern counties of Ireland during the Plantation scheme. However, there were Scots in Ireland as early as the 1400s, such as the McDonalds of County Antrim.
There was also a steady stream of Scots migrating to Northern Ireland in the early 1800s as a result of the highland clearances in Scotland. It can therefore be considered that anyone, whose ancestors migrated from Scotland to Northern Ireland from 1400 onward, is of Ulster Scottish, protestant descent, although the term Ulster-Scot was born with the Plantation scheme.
The Plantation of Ulster
Although Scots had been settling in Ireland and more particularly Ulster for hundreds of years, it was not until 1606 that a major plantation occurred. The plantation was masterminded by two men, James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery. Both were native Scots but each saw major benefits in a settlement which would undoubtedly leave them as powerful landowners in Ulster.
The main player was Hugh Montgomery who in a dramatic episode helped a prominent Irish chieftain, Con O'Neill escape from jail in Carrickfergus. In return Con O'Neill was to sign over a major proportion of his lands of Upper Clannaboye (modern day North Down) to Montgomery.
However Montgomery's plan was disrupted by the efforts of James Hamilton. Upon hearing of Montgomery's exploits, Hamilton persuaded King James I that O'Neill's lands should be split three ways and thus the bedrock was laid for the plantation.The settlers were mainly lowland Scots from Ayrshire, Lanark, and Wigton and of course the Borders. They were mainly lowland farmers involved in both arable farming and rearing cattle.
However the Border families who came with them had a much more colourful background.These borderers were the notorious Reivers; warlike clans who had existed in a society where survival came through strength in combat and bounty obtained in murderous raids on other Reivers. Although these Reivers were not the mainstay of the settlement their influence was enormous and there is little doubt that those organising and funding the settlement felt the risks of their inclusion were outweighed by the benefits.
The plantation was focused on the land known as Upper Clannaboye (modern day North Down) with the first sizable settlements beginning at Donaghadee and Newtown (Newtownards). These early settlers undertook the work of the plantation with enormous energy and within a short while produce was being exported in abundance. This new land showed enormous potential with fertile pasture, rivers teaming with fish and extensive areas of woodland.However the early aspirations of the settlers was tempered with the knowledge that the native Irish peoples of the area had not been enthusiastic at their arrival and indeed some who had been displaced from their lands by this and earlier plantations were intent on revenge.
This led to the need to be watchful of raids and attacks by groups of native Irish known as 'woodkern'; named so because of their habit of hiding in dense woodland and attacking travellers or families in their area. Amongst the early settlements, fortified houses called 'bawns' began to be built as these at least gave their occupants some protection.With the help of such buildings and stubborn determination (later to be seen as the hallmark of the Scots-Irish) the settlement began to extend throughout Ulster. Hostility with the native Irish was limited due to the lack of co-ordination in their attacks. However, as time would prove, this situation was about to change dramatically.
On the 23 September 1641 a great rebellion of the native Irish began all over Ireland. However it was in Ulster that the full wrath of the rebellion was felt. Those areas such as Antrim, Down and Armagh that had been extensively settled by Scots were the subject of a tide of violence brought on by years of resentment and bitterness.The Scots had not only displaced the native Irish but their mainly Presbyterian beliefs were contrary to the Roman Catholic Irish. Added to this was the fact that they were seen as identifying with the growing puritan, anti-royalist and anti-Roman Catholic movement in England.
Against this background the rebellion was to yield stories of terrible violence, the most famous of which was the slaughter of a large number of protestant families at Portadown. Although some of the stories told of such incidents have been dismissed as exaggeration, there is little doubt from the extensive records of the time that the rebellion was a bloody one and some scholars have put the death toll amongst the settlers at over 10,000.The rebellion of 1641 was to be the first bloody landmark of the Scots-Irish and it was to leave an indelible mark on their attitudes and beliefs which remain even to the present day.
For many Scots-Irish today the bloody days of 1641 are as vivid as if they were yesterday.In the years to follow the Scots settlers would attempt to redress the losses of 1641 although initially this would end in failure at the battle of Benburb. The arrival of Cromwell in 1649 would see the delivery of a terrible and crushing blow against the native Irish and at least allow the settlers to begin to expand once again. However it would see the emergence of a new era and a new adversary in the form of the throne of England and an attack on their rights and religious beliefs.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
The Anglo-Irish
The term Anglo-Irish is used to denote Irish Protestants of English ancestry, who either settled Ireland during the Anglo-Norman or later English conquests. During the 18th century Anglicans were referred to simply as Protestants, while those of nonconformist denominations such as Ulster-Scottish Presbyterians were called "Dissenters".
English Rule in Ireland
King Henry II of England, great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was granted permission in 1155 to invade Ireland by the English Pope Adrian IV, in exchange for payment of taxes from Ireland to the Holy See. Henry II assumed the lordship of Ireland under the title "Dominus Hibernae"; he was therefore able to invade Ireland under the jurisdiction of a Papal Bull.
As Henry II was an Anglo-Norman, ruling from Anjou in France, the Lordship of Ireland was a affectively a Norman conquest; with the invasion of England in 1066 and disfranchisement of the Anglo-Saxons, Norman lords assumed the role of the aristocracy and brought its entitlements with them to Ireland in the 12th century.
In 1533 King Henry VIII of England was excommunicated by Pope Clement XIII after seeking a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he broke off all ties with the Church in Rome to establish his own English (Anglican) Church sparking an "English Reformation". Henry VIII became King of Ireland in 1545 when the Irish Parliament granted him the crown.
Protestant Ascendancy
Hoping to recover their lands and political dominance in Ireland, Catholics took the side of the Catholic king James II in England's Glorious Revolution of 1688 and thus shared in his defeat by William III at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The Irish Protestant elite consolidated its victory over what was left of a Catholic elite by enacting a number of Penal Laws designed to exclude the latter from property and power.
Protestants had not, however, won for their parliament the powers that the landed elite of England had won for theirs in the Glorious Revolution. Furthermore, British trade policies discriminated against Ireland, and many of the Scottish Presbyterians in Ulster began to emigrate to America, where their descendants became known as the "Scotch-Irish."
In 1782 a "Patriot" party led by Henry Grattan and backed by an army of Protestant volunteers persuaded the British government to amend Poynings's Law to give the Irish Parliament legislative independence, including the right to establish Ireland's own tariff policy.
Rebellion & Union
The immediate origins of the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland can be traced to the setting up of the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast in October 1791. Inspired by the French Revolution, and with great admiration for the new democracy of the United States.
The United Irishmen were led by Protestants Theobald Wolfe Tone, Thomas Russell and Dissenters Henry Joy McCracken and William Drennan. They came together to secure a reform of the Irish parliament; and they sought to achieve this goal by uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter in Ireland into a single movement.
The initial outbreak of the rebellion was confined to a ring of counties surrounding Dublin. The fighting in Kildare, Carlow, Wicklow and Meath had been largely suppressed by government forces, and the capital secured, when news arrived of a major rebel success in County Wexford.
On 29 May 1798 a terse communiqué was issued from Dublin Castle confirming the rumours that had swept the city a day earlier. For the first time in the rebellion, a detachment of soldiers - in this case over 100 men of the North Cork Militia - had been cut to pieces in an open engagement at Oulart, County Wexford. Wexford was ablaze.
The eruption of Wexford was a most unexpected (as well as most unwelcome) development for Dublin Castle for the county had, by and large, escaped official scrutiny in the months and years before the rebellion. The Castle had had very few informants (or informers) in Wexford and, most unwisely, it had clearly considered this lack of information as pointing towards a general quiescence among the people there. Accordingly, the garrison in that county numbered only a few hundred men.
A number of controversial and sectarian incidents occurred in County Wexford that caused support for rebellion to fall, particularly amongst Presbyterians, the news of atrocities by the rebels against Protestants at Scullabogue and on the bridge in Wexford.
One consequence of the rebellion caused little public interest at the time, but was to become a significant issue in Irish politics during the following century. This was the Act of Union, joining the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland to form the United Kingdom, in January 1801.
English Rule in Ireland
King Henry II of England, great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was granted permission in 1155 to invade Ireland by the English Pope Adrian IV, in exchange for payment of taxes from Ireland to the Holy See. Henry II assumed the lordship of Ireland under the title "Dominus Hibernae"; he was therefore able to invade Ireland under the jurisdiction of a Papal Bull.
As Henry II was an Anglo-Norman, ruling from Anjou in France, the Lordship of Ireland was a affectively a Norman conquest; with the invasion of England in 1066 and disfranchisement of the Anglo-Saxons, Norman lords assumed the role of the aristocracy and brought its entitlements with them to Ireland in the 12th century.
In 1533 King Henry VIII of England was excommunicated by Pope Clement XIII after seeking a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he broke off all ties with the Church in Rome to establish his own English (Anglican) Church sparking an "English Reformation". Henry VIII became King of Ireland in 1545 when the Irish Parliament granted him the crown.
Protestant Ascendancy
Hoping to recover their lands and political dominance in Ireland, Catholics took the side of the Catholic king James II in England's Glorious Revolution of 1688 and thus shared in his defeat by William III at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The Irish Protestant elite consolidated its victory over what was left of a Catholic elite by enacting a number of Penal Laws designed to exclude the latter from property and power.
Protestants had not, however, won for their parliament the powers that the landed elite of England had won for theirs in the Glorious Revolution. Furthermore, British trade policies discriminated against Ireland, and many of the Scottish Presbyterians in Ulster began to emigrate to America, where their descendants became known as the "Scotch-Irish."
In 1782 a "Patriot" party led by Henry Grattan and backed by an army of Protestant volunteers persuaded the British government to amend Poynings's Law to give the Irish Parliament legislative independence, including the right to establish Ireland's own tariff policy.
Rebellion & Union
The immediate origins of the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland can be traced to the setting up of the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast in October 1791. Inspired by the French Revolution, and with great admiration for the new democracy of the United States.
The United Irishmen were led by Protestants Theobald Wolfe Tone, Thomas Russell and Dissenters Henry Joy McCracken and William Drennan. They came together to secure a reform of the Irish parliament; and they sought to achieve this goal by uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter in Ireland into a single movement.
The initial outbreak of the rebellion was confined to a ring of counties surrounding Dublin. The fighting in Kildare, Carlow, Wicklow and Meath had been largely suppressed by government forces, and the capital secured, when news arrived of a major rebel success in County Wexford.
On 29 May 1798 a terse communiqué was issued from Dublin Castle confirming the rumours that had swept the city a day earlier. For the first time in the rebellion, a detachment of soldiers - in this case over 100 men of the North Cork Militia - had been cut to pieces in an open engagement at Oulart, County Wexford. Wexford was ablaze.
The eruption of Wexford was a most unexpected (as well as most unwelcome) development for Dublin Castle for the county had, by and large, escaped official scrutiny in the months and years before the rebellion. The Castle had had very few informants (or informers) in Wexford and, most unwisely, it had clearly considered this lack of information as pointing towards a general quiescence among the people there. Accordingly, the garrison in that county numbered only a few hundred men.
A number of controversial and sectarian incidents occurred in County Wexford that caused support for rebellion to fall, particularly amongst Presbyterians, the news of atrocities by the rebels against Protestants at Scullabogue and on the bridge in Wexford.
One consequence of the rebellion caused little public interest at the time, but was to become a significant issue in Irish politics during the following century. This was the Act of Union, joining the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland to form the United Kingdom, in January 1801.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
William III: Biography & Legacy
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King William III, also known as William of Orange, was born on November 14, 1650 in The Hague, Netherlands. He was the son of William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, the oldest daughter of King Charles I of England. He married his English first cousin Mary Stuart, Protestant daughter of Roman Catholic King James II, in 1677.
William and Mary were invited to England by seven leaders of the English political parties, the Tory and Whig, who were concerned about James' absolutist royal leanings, his inability to cooperate with Parliament and Catholic succession to the throne following the birth of a son to James in 1688.
William landed in Torbay at Devonshire with army of some 15,000 men on November 5, 1688. James' forces deserted him, whereupon he abdicated the throne and, in December, was allowed by William to flee to France with his wife and son. The new monarchs were crowned King William III and Queen Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland during a coronation in Westminster Abbey on April 11, 1689. William and Mary's ascension to the throne became known as the Glorious or Bloodless Revolution. It prevented the Catholic succession of the monarchy. In Virginia, it helped secure the General Assembly's legitimacy as a permanent branch of government.
William reigned during an almost unprecedented period in the transition to a parliamentary form of English government that marked the end of royal prerogative. The significant enhancement of the rights and powers of Parliament and the diminishment of those of the crown characterized this transition. William's signing of the Declaration of Rights (later called the Bill of Rights) in 1689 effectively specified the conditions upon which the throne was offered to the sovereigns. The Bill of Rights was a major victory for Parliament as it greatly limited royal powers such as the authority to suspend or dispense with laws, stipulated a Protestant line of royal succession, and reserved to Parliament control of taxation, finances and the army.
The Act of Settlement in 1701 specified royal succession required the monarch to be a member of the Church of England and placed the first parliamentary limits on the royal control of foreign policy and war-making authority.
The Triennial Act in 1694 required a new Parliament every three years. Other significant political developments during William's reign included:
1) Establishment of a national debt policy in 1692 and the Bank of England in 1694 that were directly related to England's more active role in international affairs
2) Enhancement of freedom of the press through the expiration of the License Act in 1695
3) Elimination of some of the legal disqualifications imposed upon Protestant nonconformists through the Toleration Act of 1689.
William's reign also transpired during the early years of the Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason), an intellectual movement that originated in England in the seventeenth century, but then had widespread global influence. The Age, which is considered a significant demarcation in the emergence of the modern world, was a period of extensive scientific discovery and political and social thought that fostered the belief in natural law and universal order and the confidence in human reason.
Rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political and economic matters encouraged a secular perception of the world, a general sense of progress and a belief that the state was its logical instrument. Among the most noteworthy of the English intellectuals who were emerging during William's rule were: Sir Isaac Newton, a mathematician and natural philosopher (physicist); John Locke, a philosopher and political theorist; Jonathan Swift, an author and satirist; and Sir Richard Steele, an essayist and playwright.
William was an adept soldier and astute diplomat. He spent much of his adult life in The Netherlands and England opposing through military means and political alliances among European countries French King Louis XIV's efforts to annex the Spanish Empire. His European alliances formed the opposition to Louis during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688-1697), or King William's War as it was known on the American continent and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) following his death. In Scotland, his victory over the Louis-supported Jacobites at Killicrankie in 1689 secured Scottish Presbyterianism. The Jacobites were supporters of the exiled royal House of Stuart that sought restoration of James II to the throne.
William defeated French and Jacobite Irish forces under James II on July 1, 1690 at the Battle of Boyne, near Dublin, Ireland. William's victory, James's flight to France and the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 ended the former monarch's counterrevolutionary attempt to reclaim the throne and resulted in harsher Penal Laws designed to keep Roman Catholics powerless. The Protestants of Ulster, Ireland, supported William and are still represented by the colour orange.
Rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political and economic matters encouraged a secular perception of the world, a general sense of progress and a belief that the state was its logical instrument. Among the most noteworthy of the English intellectuals who were emerging during William's rule were: Sir Isaac Newton, a mathematician and natural philosopher (physicist); John Locke, a philosopher and political theorist; Jonathan Swift, an author and satirist; and Sir Richard Steele, an essayist and playwright.
William was an adept soldier and astute diplomat. He spent much of his adult life in The Netherlands and England opposing through military means and political alliances among European countries French King Louis XIV's efforts to annex the Spanish Empire. His European alliances formed the opposition to Louis during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688-1697), or King William's War as it was known on the American continent and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) following his death. In Scotland, his victory over the Louis-supported Jacobites at Killicrankie in 1689 secured Scottish Presbyterianism. The Jacobites were supporters of the exiled royal House of Stuart that sought restoration of James II to the throne.
William defeated French and Jacobite Irish forces under James II on July 1, 1690 at the Battle of Boyne, near Dublin, Ireland. William's victory, James's flight to France and the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 ended the former monarch's counterrevolutionary attempt to reclaim the throne and resulted in harsher Penal Laws designed to keep Roman Catholics powerless. The Protestants of Ulster, Ireland, supported William and are still represented by the colour orange.
Monday, 18 May 2009
What’s with the Name?
Quite simply the name Orange derives from the orange fruit, whose name itself comes from the Sanskrit word nāraṅgaḥ or "orange tree". Transliterated into Latin as arangia it became orenge it Old French. The region of France known as Orange was named Arausio by the Romans:
"Arausio was a local Celtic water god who gave his name to the town of Arausio (Orange) in southern Gaul. Inscriptions attest to the presence of this presiding deity who gave the town its name."
The Roman and French names were conflated so the region became known as Orange.
The Principality of Orange (Principauté d'Orange) was established by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I in 1163 as an independent state under the house of Orange-Nassau. As part of the territory of the Dutch Republic the principality came under the auspices of William III.
Orange Protestants?
The colour orange has been associated with the majority of Irish Protestants since the 17th century after they sided with King William III of England, the Dutch Prince of Orange, won victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 against King James II.
Williams’s victory secured the success of the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-89 and its introduction of limited freedoms contained within the Bill of Rights; a move away from the absolutism advocated by King Louis XIV of France and his ally the deposed James II of England. Constitutional monarchy and modern democracy owes much to Williams European campaign against Louis XIV.
King Williams’s victory secured the temporary liberty of all Irish Protestants; however those of non-conformist denominations such as Presbyterians suffered persecution alongside Irish Catholics under the tyrannical Penal Laws.
"Arausio was a local Celtic water god who gave his name to the town of Arausio (Orange) in southern Gaul. Inscriptions attest to the presence of this presiding deity who gave the town its name."
The Roman and French names were conflated so the region became known as Orange.
The Principality of Orange (Principauté d'Orange) was established by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I in 1163 as an independent state under the house of Orange-Nassau. As part of the territory of the Dutch Republic the principality came under the auspices of William III.
Orange Protestants?
The colour orange has been associated with the majority of Irish Protestants since the 17th century after they sided with King William III of England, the Dutch Prince of Orange, won victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 against King James II.
Williams’s victory secured the success of the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-89 and its introduction of limited freedoms contained within the Bill of Rights; a move away from the absolutism advocated by King Louis XIV of France and his ally the deposed James II of England. Constitutional monarchy and modern democracy owes much to Williams European campaign against Louis XIV.
King Williams’s victory secured the temporary liberty of all Irish Protestants; however those of non-conformist denominations such as Presbyterians suffered persecution alongside Irish Catholics under the tyrannical Penal Laws.
Orange Culture: A Part of Ireland's Culture
This site is about the Orange culture and the traditions of Irelands Protestants, a unique look into the history and influence of Irelands largest minority, why Orange culture is important not only to Northern Irelands majority Unionist community but for all Irish people.
This site is not intended to be a political blog nor is it set up to defend the Orange Order or Protestant theology, all opinions and history presented here is the work only of the Admin.
This site is not intended to be a political blog nor is it set up to defend the Orange Order or Protestant theology, all opinions and history presented here is the work only of the Admin.
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