Absent Carson urges Ulster to reaffirm Covenant
Derry, 4 October 1919 - Despite being unable to attend in person, Sir Edward Carson delivered a familiar message to his Ulster unionist supporters who gathered at a meeting in the Guildhall in Derry to mark the anniversary of the Solemn League and Covenant.
He urged the Orangemen of the north-west of Ulster to ‘keep the old flag flying’ and ‘hold fast by the covenant and fear not’. Due to the ongoing railway workers’ strike, Carson was forced to cancel his trip, his message being delivered by telegram instead.
Despite Carson’s absence, the Duke of Abercorn, who presided over the Derry meeting, said that the gathering voiced its ‘unabated confidence’ in their leader.
Meetings to commemorate the signing of the covenant took place all over Ulster. In Portadown, Ronald McNeill explained that it was very important for Sir Edward to be in London where he could be in communication with the Prime Minister and the cabinet in the course of the present crisis.
Mr McNeill recalled Mr Carson’s 12 July speech when he threatened to call out the Ulster Volunteers and noted that though his remarks had caused some commotion in Britain and the United States of America, his outspokenness had proved useful to the unionist cause.
McNeill posed the question: ‘if there was going to be self-determination for the south and west, why not the same treatment for the north of Ireland?’ He continued by claiming that ‘what Sinn Féin was out for was domination over the loyal people of Ulster’ and he called on his audience to heed Mr Carson’s advice to strengthen the Orange institution which was the ‘backbone of the Unionist movement in Ulster’.
For all the efforts to evoke the pre-war spirit of unionist resistance, the nationalist press has been scathing in its characterisation of the current campaign across Ulster.
According to the Freeman’s Journal: ‘The Orange campaign, deprived of its ‘star’ turn is gloomily perambulating the province, but even its conductors scarcely disguise its hopeless failure.’ It also noted, with some amusement, that Irish Party MP, Joseph Devlin, managed to reach Belfast from London when Mr Carson’s allegedly couldn’t.
An editorial in the Cork Examiner has accused the Ulster leader of being out of step with the times. The war, it claims, has changed the world, yet Mr Carson remains unaltered. He continues to urge his followers to ‘hold by the Covenant’ as he again puts on ‘his war paint and defies the government to grant Home Rule to Ireland’.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
