New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-09-29
ULsTER'S holy WAR"

II would be idle TO attempt to dls'
g1ise the fact that the Ulster campaign
against Home Rule has its chief origin
in religious antagoniSm. Ulster Is
Protestant and the rest Of Ireland Is
Catholic That Is the case IN single
sentence. Ii is true that iD only four
of the Ulster counties are the Protes-
tantS in a majority, but they are the
most important Of all; ana even III
the county which contains tie feweSt
Protestants they are far more numer-
Gus than in any other In all Ireland
outside of the province OF Ulster
save two. The percentages Of Protes'
tantS i'm the Ulster counties are as fol
lows Antrim. 79.5; Down, T'S.4; AT
MACH. $40: Londonderry, SAP; Ty-
rome. 44G: Fermanagh. 1873; Mona
CHAN, 25.3; Donegal. 81, aud Cavan'
1873. The only other counties which
are comparable with even the last OF
these in the number Of non-Catholics
are Dublin. 2l2. and wicklow, 2o9.
In Cork their percentage is only 81,
I'm L,ongford s and I'm Galway 2.3.
II is not 10 be disputed--National-
ISIS and Unionists alike will readily
concede it-that It Is greatly to be re
GREETED and depl0red that religious ami
mositles and suspicious should continue
thus to prevail in this second decade
of the twentieth century. Yet 1t Is so,
AID the fact has both historical and
logical bases for existence. The Prot
estants Of Ulster were planted there
al a time. of bitter religious conflicts
and because Of those conflicts, and for
generations they were compelled to
continue the strife undated, They
had been prosecuted. and they had III
return prosecuted others. in England
and Scotland, and in Ireland the same
conditions were continued. IF there
are people in the world who have the
inbred and ingrained tradition of re-
ligious strife they are the men of
Ulster: and if is too much 10 expect
that the present generation should alto
Cether outgrOw tie legacy Of centuries.
Nor is the logical ground Of the
B Ulster protest less marked For the
third Of a century of its existence the
Home Rule movement has been chiefly
not entirely-Catholic The churches
have been its meeting places and the
clergy have been its leaders. II has
been largely protest against the
ruling Of Catholic ireland ny Protestant
England and this feature If the case
has been justified on the ground that
the Church is properly concerned with
the social and civic welfare Of the
people Now. I'm precisely the same way
this Ulster movement is protest against
the ruling Of the few Protestant coun-
ties by the many Catholic counties, and
as in the other case the churches are
largely used as meeting places and the
clergy are leaders Of the people. Every
argument for freeing Ireland from
British rule Is used for exempting
Ulster from the rule OF the rest OF
Ireland, nj least so far as the religious
arguments are concerned.
Yet IN both cases the holy war" Is
needless Protestant Britain Is not op-
pressing Catholic Ireland for faiths
sake, and Catholic Ireland would not
thus Cypress Protestant Ulster. The
appeal 70 religious passions is as un-
justifable as it is deplorable. And yet
the irony of it Is that this appeal is IN
both cases far stronger than the eco
nomic or any other, though It may he
deserving Of far less consideration.