Ulster’s Orangemen stage 12 July demonstrations

Belfast, 13 July 1917 - Despite the numbers of Orangemen away fighting on the Western Front, huge numbers held their Twelfth demonstrations across Ulster.

One year on from the sacrifice of members of the Ulster Division at the Somme, there was widespread remembrance of those who had lost their lives. Some 10,000 marched through the streets of Belfast, with flags flying and bands playing.

A resolution was passed after a meeting at the end of the parade urging the government to enforce conscription in Ireland as a way of seeing the war through to a complete victory. The meeting was told that Ulster unionists had agreed to attend the Irish Convention only because they had been assured by the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, that Ulster would not be coerced into being subject to a Home Rule government.

Similar speeches were made at a meeting of Orangemen in Dublin where there was absolute rejection of the Sinn Féin ‘Ourselves Alone’ ideal.

[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.]