UCC approves exclusion of
Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan from new Northern Ireland state
Introduction from Chronology
The Ulster Unionist Council, with
Edward Carson presiding, decides to accept the proposals that partition should
be based on six counties rather than the nine counties of Ulster (accepting
Craig’s argument against the creation of potentially unstable and
‘ungovernable’ state if the new state took in the nine counties of Ulster).
More Detail
A resolution was put to the
Convention (by Lord Farnham from Cavan and seconded by Michael E. Knight from
Monaghan) that the partition should include all nine counties of Ulster (in
line with the Covenant) but this is defeated. This is condemned by unionists
from the three Ulster counties (Monaghan, Donegal and Cavan) who, inter alia, state that the Covenant had
been shown to be nothing more than a ‘mere scrap of paper’. Monaghan delegates subsequently resigned from
the UCC. Belfast unionist MP, Tom Moles,
argues that “in a sinking ship, with lifeboats sufficient for a only two-thirds of the ship’s company, were all to condemn
themselves to death because all could not be saved”.
There
was considerable dismay among unionists in the three excluded Ulster
counties. For example, on March 12th,
James Stronge, Grand Master of the Orange Lodge, when
writing to Montgomery said that Belfast unionists had thrown their fellow
unionists in Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan “to the wolves with very little
compunction”. Also, in May 1920, the
editor of the Northern Standard
newspaper said that “no array of figures could form an excuse for breaking such
an undertaking as the Ulster Covenant”.
However, the essence of the issue was distilled by John Gunning-Moore, a
Cookstown unionist “the whole question of ‘breach of the Covenant’ turns upon
numbers … the whole 9 will be such a rickety parliament that it must [almost]
at once be absorbed into the Dublin one”.
Many unionists in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan had a sense of betrayal
that they had been excluded. This was
similar to the sense of betrayal that the nationalists in Northern Ireland
(especially those in the new border counties) had in being ‘trapped’ in the
Northern Ireland after the deliberations of the Boundary Commission (see Dec-12-25/1).
However,
many unionists in the counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan would seem to
have quite quickly accommodated them themselves to the new political
situation. For example, as early as July
1920, J. C. W. Madden (a prominent Monaghan unionist), after denouncing Carson
for the exclusion of Monaghan, called on his fellow Orangemen to give their
allegiance to a southern parliament if is formed. Similarly, at July 12th celebrations
in Monaghan in 1923, Orange County Grand Master, Michael E. Knight, said that
“by acting as a law abiding people, they could build
up for themselves and for those who would come after them a strong position in
the county”. While there was undoubtedly
a sense of deracination among southern unionists, especially in the three
excluded Ulster counties, their experience was to be different to northern
nationalists living within the six counties. As Dooley has said, “In the
decades after independence, it is fair to say that Protestants in Monaghan
living under Dublin rule had less to grieve about than Catholics living in
neighbouring south Fermanagh, south Tyrone and south Armagh who were living
under Belfast rule” (Dooley (2017), pg 110).
Nevertheless,
Dooley also notes that there was a substantial decline in the number of
Protestants living in Monaghan. Between
the 1911 and 1926 censuses, there was a 9% drop in the total population of
Monaghan but a 23% decline in the Protestant population (Dooley (2017), pg 132).
Overall,
between 1911 and 1926, there was a 34% decline in the number of Anglicans in
the 26 counties; a 29% decline in the number of Presbyterians and a 35% decline
in the number of Methodists. (McNamara
(2018), pg
161). However, it should be noted that
this was the continuation (and acceleration) of an existing trend. To give one example, in the twenty years
between 1891 and 1911, there was a 33% decline in the number in the
congregations of the three major Protestant religions in what was to become the
Irish Free State.