The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-26 00:00:00

(From Mr. and Mrs. Hall's Ireland.)
Towards the close of the last century, when the French
Republic was arranging a descent upon the Irish coast, an-
ticipating a general rising of the Irish population against the
British government, and so contemplating the conjunction of
Ireland with France, the Roman Catholics of Ulster were
associated under the title of " Defenders ;" their avowed
object was to terminate the connexion between England and
Ireland. Upon this point it is needless to state further than
that—according to the authority of Theobald Wolfe Tone, a
conspicuous leader of the disaffected Irish, in French pay—
the oath of the Defenders was, " That they will be faithful
to the United Nations of France and Ireland." Into this
subject it is neither requisite nor desirable that we enter at
any length ; but so much is necessary to show that the par-
ties who combined for the opposite purpose—to continue and
maintain connexion with England—were acting upon the de-
fensive when they took up arms and formed themselves into
societies, which afterwards became known and recognised as
" Orange Societies ;" the adversaries of the " Defenders''
having previously been distinguished as " Peep-of-day boys."
It is difficult now to say, with certainty, how these two great
parties were first created. At that period the penal laws
against the Roman Catholics prohibited them from keeping
arms, and to obtain them they were driven to the practice
(still too common in disturbed districts in Ireland) of taking
them forcibly at night. There were then no organised po-
lice, and the law was very inefficiently administered. The
Protestants, therefore, became greatly alarmed—not without
reason, as the events of the few following years proved—and
in order to discover and prevent the robbery of arms, roamed
about the country in small armed bodies. From the hours
at which these patrols were made, they derived the name of
" Peep-o'-day boys." To oppose this system the Roman
Catholics found it necessary to organise their attacks, and
assumed the name of " Defenders." This account, though
probable enough, is, however, far from certain, and some
suppose that the two parties originated merely in some pri-
vate feud, which, after a time, was converted by political
agents into a religious war.
Their quarrels were conducted with the bitterest animosity,
and gave rise to much bloodshed. The Peep-o'-day boys
had no regular system of union, while their adversaries
formed a perfectly organised combination, with signs and
pass-words. The latter, therefore, in a short time became a
most powerful body—not confined to the north, but extend-
ing over a large portion of the kingdom. Outrage and blood-
shed—amounting sometimes to barbarous massacres—be-
came so common, especially in the northern counties, as to
awaken the serious alarm of the Irish Parliament. A select
committee of the Lords was appointed in 1793, who made a
very strong report upon the subject. To confute the opinion
that the violence of the Defenders had the countenance of
the heads of the Roman Catholic church, a pastoral admo-
nition was immediately afterwards circulated by Dr. Troy,
the Roman Catholic Archbishop, and the then great advo-
cate of the Roman Catholic claims.