Ulster Solemn League and Covenant - Essay Example

The so -called 'Ulster Solemn League and Covenant' was the petition made by the Irish Protestants of Ulster to prevent the granting of autonomy or Home Rule to Ireland. Home Rule would have given the Irish their own Parliament for the first time since the Act of Union with Great Britain had been signed in 1801. The Ulster Protestants were the people in Ireland that were the strongest supporters of Ireland's union with Great Britain. Due to the Ulster Protestants strong sense of loyalty to the British state they were referred to as Ulster unionists, and the issue of Home Rule prompted them into forming groups that opposed the Liberal government in Westminster and the moderate Home Rule nationalists in Ireland itself. The Ulster unionists in 1912 believed that their situation was difficult although not completely lost. The leading Ulster unionists came to the conclusion that the Solemn League and Covenant and then the Ulster Volunteer Force were essential elements of preventing Home Rule leading to an independent Irish Republic dominated by Roman Catholics, their worst nightmare come true.1 The drawing - up of the Solemn League and Covenant amply demonstrated the general fear of the Ulster Protestants towards the Home Rule Act as passed by the British Parliament would be introduced throughout Ireland in 1912. The act was designed to provide Ireland with a high degree of autonomy, the Ulster unionists fearing it would sooner rather than later make Ireland an independent nation.2 The Ulster unionists did not want the granting of home rule for Ulster even if it was given to the rest of Ireland, as they wished to maintain their allegiance to the British crown. On the 28 September 1912, quickly dubbed Ulster Day, the solemn league and covenant was signed by more than 450,000 unionist supporters on the first day. The covenant publicly declared the Ulster unionist determination to stay loyal to the Crown and vehemently opposed the enforcement of home rule for Ireland as a whole.3 The Home Rule Act was primarily intended to give an Irish Parliament control over its internal affairs only' leaving it part of the United Kingdom. It would give the Irish autonomy whilst leaving defence, trade, and foreign to be run from London. The province of Ulster was made up of nine counties in the north-eastern part of Ireland with a Protestant majority. Another major factor was that Ulster had maintained its trade superiority over the rest of the Ireland. The unionists therefore, argued that Ulster needed to maintain its British and Protestant identity and the best way to do so were to remain loyal to the crown (the unionists are also refereed to as Loyalists). The moderate Irish nationalist leader was John Redmond the strongest advocate of Home Rule, and naturally enough argued that Ulster was included in Home Rule so that its heavy industry and generally successful commercial activities particularly in Belfast could be shared with the rest of Ireland. The Roman Catholics, who formed a majority of the Irish peoples, supported the autonomy that Home Rule would have granted them. Only a very small minority of Irish Roman Catholics supported the concept of a united Irish Republic completely free of British control and influence.4 The introduction of the Ulster Covenant, masterminded by Sir James Craig was subsequently signed by the vast majority of unionists they openly proclaimed their loyalty to the crown and were assisted by the Conservatives who worked behind the scenes to block or at least water down Home Rule legislation. The controversy over David Lloyd George's Peoples Budget of 1909 had the unforeseen consequence of inadvertently delaying the legislation for Irish Home Rule whilst the Parliament Act was passed to curb the power of the House of Lords. The crisis over the Peoples Budget gave the opponents of Home Rule in Ulster particular the opportunity as well as the time to organise resistance to its adoption. They were helped considerably by the Conservative party. However after two general elections the Liberal majority was greatly reduced, yet they were able to remove the House of Lords right to veto a bill more than twice making it less difficlut to pass the Home Rule Act.5 , there was hung parliament and the Home Rule party, headed by Redmond gave its support to liberals to come to power, in exchange of the Home Rule Act that would be passed in the parliament to become a law. It took three years and two unsuccessful passages in the parliament for the bill to become a law. Despairing that they would be unable to block the Home Rule legislation, the Ulster unionists decided that they would need to resist its implementation by armed force. To that end the most strident amongst the unionists went on to form the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (UVF). The UVF were actually heavily armed and were prepared to fight the British army as well as Irish nationalists to prevent their counties been part of the Home Rule process.6 The Home Rule activists also tried to arm themselves but failed in their efforts to do so as they did not have the covert backing of members of the British authorities within Ireland. The situation in Ireland in 1912 and 1913 became extremely volatile, with only the outbreak of the First World War calming things down. In Westminster the Conservative opposition talked the Liberal administration of Prime Minister Asquith to temporarily exclude four counties of the province of Ulster from the Home Rule Act. Despite the understandable protests of the moderate Irish nationalist Redmond protests, the bill was finally passed and was to be enacted in Ireland. To get the Home Rule legislation passed the inclusion of the 'County Option Scheme' gave the Ulster unionist the opportunity highly volatile condition was relatively diffused. The scheme proposed that the counties could exercise the option of having or not having Home Rule by voting in favour or against it. Due to the opt out clause in the legislation the four counties of Ulster were able to successfully postpone their participation in the Home Rule scheme for the following six years. The Home Rule Bill was enacted in September 1912 but was suspended due to the outbreak of the First World War until its finish.7 As far as the Ulster Protestants and the unionists were concerned it was the British government that was threatening them with the Home Rule measure that would eventually lead to Irish independence and leave them in a country dominated by Roman Catholics and Irish nationalists. Therefore the prospect of Home Rule in Ireland was regarded as being a very serious threat to the Protestant majority within the province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. The Ulster Unionists would have preferred of course that the Home Rule legislation had been thrown out of Parliament just as the bills of the latter part of the 19th century had failed to become law. The Parliament Act of 1911 meant that the Liberals with the votes of the Irish nationalists and the Labour party were able to defeat Conservative opposition to Home Rule.8 Thus the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant was mainly put forward in order to preserve the Ulster unionist position within the counties of the north, by excluding them from the imposition of Home Rule.9 In many respects therefore it was ultimately the unshakeable solidarity of the Ulster unionist movement that contributed greatly to the success of the covenant in achieving its objectives. At least over the short - term period the Ulster unionists were able to prevent the four largest of the Ulster counties been included in the Home Rule process. The covenant thus kept the north eastern counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down and Londonderry from inclusion within the framework of the Home Rule Act. Bibliography Townshend C, (1999) Ireland in the twentieth century, Arnold, London Read More