Ulster Volunteers and Related Topics

Hazards of separation from Great Britain. Unionist postcard (1912)

Unionism in Ireland

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Political tradition on the island of Ireland that favours political union with Great Britain and professes loyalty to the British Crown and constitution.

Detail of the Battle of Ballynahinch 1798 by Thomas Robinson. Government Yeomanry prepare to hang United Irish insurgent Hugh McCulloch, a grocer.

1899 penny print of Henry Cooke's 1841 speech in "reply to Daniel O'Connell"

William Gladstone writing legislation under pressure from the Land League. Caricature 1881.

God Save the Queen, Erin Go Bragh, Ulster Unionist Convention, Belfast, 1892

Flag of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland, 1893–1907

Signing the Ulster Covenant Declaration, "Ulster Day” 1912

An Orange Order banner showing Carson the signing of the Ulster Covenant 1912

The 1918 general election result in Ireland. Sinn Féin sweeps the south and west

The Coat of Arms of the Government of Northern Ireland used between 1924 and 1973

The statue of Lord Edward Carson in front of Parliament Buildings, Stormont

Mural for the Red Hand Commando (UVF) which, uniquely, had an Irish-language motto, Lamh Dearg Abu (Victory to the Red Hand)

Campaign against the Anglo-Irish Agreement

Detail from 2015 Sinn Féin election flyer, North Belfast

The cross of St. Patrick superimposed on the Scottish Saltire with a six-county star, Red Hand of Ulster and no crown: the "Ulster national flag" variously employed by Loyalist groups to represent an independent, or distinctly Ulster-Scot, Northern-Ireland identity.

A flowchart illustrating all the political parties that have existed throughout the history of Northern Ireland and leading up to its formation (1889 onwards). Unionist parties are in orange.

Joined by loyalist labour, on the eve of World War I this broad opposition to Irish self-government concentrated in Belfast and its hinterlands as Ulster Unionism, and prepared an armed resistance—the Ulster Volunteers.

Northern Ireland

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Part of the United Kingdom that is variously described as a country, province, territory or region.

Signing of the Ulster Covenant in 1912 in opposition to Home Rule

Result of the 1918 general election in Ireland

Crowds in Belfast for the state opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament on 22 June 1921

The Coat of arms of Northern Ireland used between 1924 and 1973

James Craig (centre) with members of the first government of Northern Ireland

Opening of the Northern Ireland parliament buildings (Stormont) in 1932

Responsibility for Troubles-related deaths between 1969 and 2001

First Minister Ian Paisley (DUP) centre, and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) left, and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond right in 2008

Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast, seat of the assembly

ESA Sentinel-2 image of Northern Ireland

Köppen climate types of Northern Ireland

Goliath crane of Harland & Wolff in Belfast

2011 census: differences in proportions of those who are, or were brought up, either Catholic or Protestant/Other Christians

Map of predominant national identity in the 2011 census

Approximate boundaries of the current and historical English/Scots dialects in Ulster. South to north, the colour bands represent Hiberno-English, South-Ulster English, Mid-Ulster English and the three traditional Ulster Scots areas. The Irish-speaking Gaeltacht is not shown.

Percentage of people aged 3+ claiming to have some ability in Irish in the 2011 census

Percentage of people aged 3+ claiming to have some ability in Ulster Scots in the 2011 census

People carrying the Irish flag, overlooking those with the unionist Ulster Banner

George Best, Northern Irish international footballer and 1968 Ballon d'Or

Prominent Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy

Broadcasting House, Belfast, home of BBC Northern Ireland

In 1914, unionists smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition from Imperial Germany for use by the Ulster Volunteers (UVF), a paramilitary organisation formed to oppose Home Rule.

Partition of Ireland

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The process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.

Result in Ireland of the December 1910 United Kingdom general election showing a large majority for the Irish Parliamentary Party.

Ulster Volunteers marching in Belfast, 1914

Result of the 1918 general election in Ireland showing the dramatic swing in support for Sinn Féin

Catholic-owned businesses destroyed by loyalists in Lisburn, August 1920

Members of the Irish negotiation committee returning to Ireland in December 1921

North East Boundary Bureau recommendations May 1923

The Boundary Commission's proposed changes to the border

A republican anti-partition march in London, 1980s

This led to the Home Rule Crisis (1912–14), when Ulster unionists/loyalists founded a paramilitary movement, the Ulster Volunteers, to prevent Ulster being ruled by an Irish government.

Seán Hogan's flying column of the IRA's 3rd Tipperary Brigade during the war

Irish War of Independence

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Guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-military Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and its paramilitary forces the Auxiliaries and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC).

Result of the 1918 UK general election in Ireland

RIC and British Army personnel near Limerick, c.1920

Police wanted poster for Dan Breen, one of those involved in the Soloheadbeg Ambush in 1919.

Wall plaque in Great Denmark Street, Dublin where the Dublin IRA Active Service Unit was founded.

A group of "Black and Tans" and Auxiliaries in Dublin, April 1921

British soldiers and relatives of the victims outside Jervis Street Hospital during the military enquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings at Croke Park

Aftermath of the burning of Cork by British forces

A crowd gathers at the Mansion House in Dublin in the days before the truce

The funeral of Michael Collins
St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, August 1922

The Lord Lieutenant inspecting troops outside Belfast City Hall on the day Northern Ireland's parliament first met.

A mural in Belfast depicting revenge killings by police in Belfast.

Irish republican internees at Ballykinlar Internment Camp 1920

The symbol of the Republic:
The Irish tricolour which dated back to the Young Ireland rebellion of 1848.

A symbol of British rule:
The standard of the Lord Lieutenant, using the union flag created under the Act of Union 1800.

Monument to IRA fighters in Phibsborough, Dublin

Soldiers of a British cavalry regiment leaving Dublin in 1922

Constance Markievicz was a member of the Irish Citizen Army and fought in the Easter Rising. In 1919 she was appointed Minister for Labour in the Government of the Irish Republic

Conflict deaths in Belfast 1920–1922.
50–100 deaths per km2
100–150 deaths per km2
over 150 deaths per km2

The demand for Home Rule was eventually granted by the British Government in 1912, immediately prompting a prolonged crisis within the United Kingdom as Ulster unionists formed an armed organisation – the Ulster Volunteers (UVF) – to resist this measure of devolution, at least in territory they could control.

Ulster

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One of the four traditional Irish provinces.

Ulster (coloured), showing Northern Ireland in pink and the Republic of Ireland part in green

A bronze statue commemorating The Flight of the Earls at Rathmullan in north County Donegal.

A modern Protestant mural in Belfast celebrating Oliver Cromwell and his activities.

Royal Avenue, Belfast. Photochrom print circa 1890–1900.

The results of the 1918 Irish general election, in which Sinn Féin and the Irish Parliamentary Party won the majority of votes on the island of Ireland, shown in the color green and light green respectively, with the exception being primarily in the East of the province of Ulster.

The track of the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee (CDRJC) restored next to Lough Finn, near Fintown station.

This movement also set up the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

The Union Flag, Ulster Banner and Orange Order flags are often flown by loyalists in Northern Ireland

Ulster loyalism

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Strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland.

Loyalist graffiti and banner on a building in a side street off the Shankill Road, Belfast (1970)

A loyalist marching band on The Twelfth, 2011

During the Home Rule Crisis (1912–14), loyalists founded the paramilitary Ulster Volunteers to prevent Ulster becoming part of a self-governing Ireland.

An Irish Volunteer atop a memorial to the Irish War of Independence in Dublin by Leo Broe

Irish Volunteers

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Military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists.

It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Irish unionist/loyalist militia the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland".

Government of Ireland Act 1914

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The Government of Ireland Act 1914 (4 & 5 Geo.

By April 1912, the Irish Unionist Alliance's managing politician, Sir Edward Carson, could review 100,000 marching Ulster Volunteers.

The Irish harp, along with the coat of arms of the provinces of Ireland, played a prominent role in IPP literature.

Irish Parliamentary Party

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Formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the House of Commons at Westminster within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland up until 1918.

Charles Stewart Parnell, the founder of the IPP

Graph of Irish UK MPs 1885–1918 in numbers

After the Bill passed its first readings in 1913, Ulster Unionists' opposition became a repeat scenario of events in 1886 and 1893, their leader Sir Edward Carson approving of an Ulster Volunteer militia to oppose Home Rule.

Edward Carson

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Irish unionist politician, barrister and judge, who served as the Attorney General and Solicitor General for England, Wales and Ireland as well as the First Lord of the Admiralty for the British Royal Navy.

4 Harcourt Street, Dublin, where Carson was born in 1854

Carson addressing Parliament as depicted in Vanity Fair in 1893

Sir Edward Carson signing the Ulster Covenant.

St Anne's Cathedral; Carson's final resting place

Carson's ceremonial dress uniform, worn on his appointment as Solicitor General for England in 1900.

Sir Edward Carson mural in Belfast in 2006

On Sunday 28 September 1912, "Ulster Day", he was the first signatory on the Ulster Covenant, which bound 447,197 signatories to resist Home Rule with the threat that they would use "all means necessary" after Carson had established the Ulster Volunteers, the first loyalist paramilitary group.

A report on Ulster Volunteers

37 related topics with Alpha