The Exodus of 150.000 Protestants from the South

Taken from the "Orange Standard" - March 2001

The story in last month's 'Standard' of the intimadation of Protestants in Southern Ireland after Partition which led to the exodus of 150,000 Protestants and loyalists in the years immediately following the withdrawal of the British in 1922 has led to a number of readers contacting the Standard.

The readers, who wish to remain anonymous, are descendants of the Irish Protestants and welcomed the Standard reporting one of the great largely unpublished pogroms of the history of this island.

Southern Irish Protestants were the real losers in the so-called Treaty of 1921 between the British Government of Lloyd George and the IRA delegation led by Michael Collins.

The IRA and its supporters in Sinn Fein got an Irish republic in all but name called the Irish free state - it became the republic officially in 1949 - and Lloyd George was able to extricate the British largely from Ireland and its complexities.

Northern Ireland did get its Parilment in Belfast, but with limited powers and percious little guarantee for its own existence, a fact which was to become all too obvious in 1972.

But at least there was the guarantee of religious freedom for the one million Protestants in Northern Ireland, and the British subjects, both Protestant and Roman Catholic who favoured the link with the rest of the United Kingdom had their hopes realised.

But the poor isolated Protestants of the 26 counties were condemned to the 'mercy' of the ruthless republicanism and the British and World press largely ignored their plight.

Their suffering was intense and barbaric, and nowhere more so than in 'rebel' Cork where dozens were taken out and shot on the roadside. Only recently that excellant writer Peter Hart took the lid off the planned murder and intimadation of Cork Protestants in his book 'The IRA in Cork and its enemies'.

In particular, Protestants in the Orange and loyalist stronghold of Bandon received special attention. The Allin Institute where the Orange Lodges had met was taken over by IRA gunmen of the anti-treaty faction.

Before partition, the Orange Order had flourishing lodges in Cork as well as most southern counties. All, but the remanants in Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, as well as some in Dublin and Lietrim were driven out of existence.

They ceased to exist simply because their members were no longer there - forced to take the ship to England, the train to Belfast, or whatever other form of transport they could get their hands on. In many cases they simply walked or ran to the safety of Northern Ireland.

One lady contacted the 'Standard' to say that her mother carried her as a small child along the hedgerows in Cavan to cross into Northern Ireland. "She was desperately afraid that I might make a sound and we would be betrayed. She never forgot the terrible experience", she said.

That woman said her mother had never been a bitter person and had steadfastly refused to become bitter. "She was a dedicated Christian and taught her children to be the same. But she never trusted republicans after that and said they could never be expected to respect the rights of Unionists and Loyalists to promote their culture and ideas".

Another reader told the 'Standard' his father had arrived in Portadown as a young boy along with his parents and brothers and sisters in Cavan. "They stayed in Portadown for a year. It was the first big Protestant town on their way from Cavan and they were well received. They had not been able to bring any clothes apart from those they were wearing.

"Thanks to the kindness of Portadown Protestants they got a small house and furniture and clothing. They attended school in the Park Road area for a year, but my grandfather obtained work in Belfast and the family moved to the city," he said.

The man said the family had settled in the city and had done well. "Some members emigrated to Canada, but most stayed in East Belfast and joined the Orange Order. My father was not a bitter man, and was more bewildered than anything else by the treatment the family received.

"They had been well thought of in Cavan, were on good terms with their Roman Catholic neighbours. But they never made any secret of their loyalty and membership of the Orange Order. This was the only reason the family could think of for their explusion", he said.

Suffering

A descendant of another of another Southern Irish family, which moved to the Banbridge area, said few people realised the extent of the suffering of the Protestants from the South.

"That was the sad thing about it", he said. The intimadation and threats were bad enough, but it was the fact that their plight was largely ignored. The press at the time reported the reprisals carried out against Roman Catholics in Belfast, and no reasonable person would have objected to that.

"But the equally reprehensible persecution of Southern Irish Protestants did not get reported. First of all they had been betrayed by the British Government which promised it would never give in to the IRA".

"Then, the new Ulster Parliament was formed, but it was restricted to six counties and that left thousands of Protestants to their fate at the hands of republicans. And finally, when when the British Army left the South the Protestants had no protection and those considered to be loyal to the Crown were forced out of their homes. Many were murdered, but the majority were forced out of their homes and lost all their possessions. Many went to Northern Ireland and did well when the got settled in - a real asset to the country.

But many others went to Canada, and some to London, although they were largely ignored. No-one wanted to know about the Southern Irish Protestants. They were nobody's children and their fate was forgotten about in no time at all. There was no such word as ethic cleansing at that time, but that is what it amounted to" he said.

Only a handful of those Irish refugees of the 1920s are now alive, and their children and grandchildren are now citizens of Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK, or of Canada and Australia.

Like the Huguenots, another great people expelled for their Protestantism from France, they are now simply statistics in history books.

The one-third of the Protestant population who stayed in the Irish Free State were allowed to stay on as long as they maintained a very low profile. They had to keep their heads below the parapet and their Unionism and Orangeism was derided and destroyed.

Yet, this was a proud people. The Southern Irish Protestants had produced great people like Henry Grattan, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Edmund Burke, and many others, but it did not save them from intolerance and persecution.

Things may have improved to the extent that Protestantism today enjoys freedom which did not exist even as recently as the 1950s when Fethard-on-Sea and its boycott, as well as attacks on open-air evangelists proved.

But it is only lately that the soldiers of the Great War who fought for Britian are acknowledged as worthy of admiration, and there is still little toleration of anything that smacks of British.

The pressure exerted to prevent a small Orange ceremony in Dublin last year, and the decision to postpone the Queen's visit to the South show that in spite of the 'Cetlic Tiger' and the claims of a more 'liberal' society, there is still precious little evidence of parity of esteem or recognition of the rights of Protestants in the Irish Republic who have any leaning towards Unionism and Orangeism.

 

 

Exchangebanner.gif - 13664 Bytes