The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-15
Writer Believes End Of
Ancient Feuds Is in
Sight and All Ulster
men Will Work To-
gether
~ JOHN r. CAMPBELL.


will be right" II the watch
" word Of n good many thou
sand men in the northeast
ern corner OF ireland just now. Ask
any Of them why they are going to
fight and they will probably answer:
I'VE will not have home rule"
1t should I've understood that the Ul-
ster that threatens to fight Is not the
Province OF Clster--the most northerly
of the four provinces Of Ireland.
The Province OF Ulster Is almost equally
divided on the question OF home rule.
At the last general election there
were 9S,507 votes given in the province
in favor OF home rule and 91.9s3 votes
against. There are thirty-three MEM
bers returned to the English Parliament
from Ulster. and Of these seventeen are
home rulers and sixteen are against
home rule.
Neither In the Ulster that threatens
TO night exclusively the Professionals Of
Ulster. for there are many Protestants
who are In favor Of home rule. But
the Ulster that has buckled on its
armor consists, 1t is estimated OF hve-
sixth OF the Protestant population of
the province. and Ia In a majority in
four out Of the nine Ulster counties.
A great deal has been said about
Ulster being Protestant. though there
- Q majority of Catholics in the prov
ince. The figures at the last census
(iSl1) were $50 900 Catholics and $751;
227 Professionals.
So the political Ulster. as distin-
guished from the geographical Ulster.
10 for all practical purposes the Protes-
tant majority In the four eastern coun-
tiesL
II 10 unfortunate for many reasons
that the lines Of religious and political
difference should so closely coincide,
and the reasons for this coincidence
are deeply hidden In the three centuries
Of turbulent history. They are little
understood even in ireland.
The historical causes of these relie-
ious and political differences may be
briefly outlined. In l64l the Irish clans
ross to arms to drive their common
enemy, the English. out Of Ireland.
They had some success AT FIRST. but
with the death OF Owen Roe O'Neill,
their leader. the clansmen faltered,
and the rising came to an end. The
English poisoned O'Neill and the lead
erless Irish were beaten by Cromwell
and his forces. There followed a vast
clearance of the Irish from their lands,
and English and Scotch settlers were
imported by Cromwell by thousands
and placed in the homes Of the Irish
clansmen and planted upon the soil
OF Ulster.
The land was given or sold to q class
called NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. who became
not owners. but middlemen between the
British Government and the settlers
and who held their land at hrst upon
half feudal agreement with the Eng
fish Crown. Among the conditions
upon which the undertakers held the
land. 1t was stipulated that they should
exclude any but Protestant settlers
and that they should maintain fortified
places and men armed and ready for
war. The smaller settlers were induced
20 come over upon the promises Of
getting farms on long leases and at
low rents. The leases were mostly for
ninety-nine years.
In the succeeding century the I'M
dertakers being In exclusive possession
or all parliamentary representation,
transformed themselves into landlords
and when the original leases began TO
expire and revert To the undertakers
they transformed the descendants OF
the Protestant settlers into tenants-at-
VIII, who were in many cases made
to pay eXorbitant rents for their hold
.ngs.
As result the Protestant farmers
Of Ulster started a furious land war
which ragged from 1888 almost to 1880
In many cases the landlords, finding
their Protestant tenants unruly and
their demands for a reimbursement o,
rents inconvenient, would clear them of
the land and replace them with Catholic
tenants. II these In turn became dis
satisfied with conditions and were no,
sufficiently submissive to their lords and
masters the lands were cleared again
and the Catholic tenants replaced by
Professionals.
Thus bitter religious rancor was i'm
ported Into what in reality was ar
agrarian war and the two sects wers
deliberately set at each others throat.
IN order that the landlord class NIGH
get large rents out Of the farmers ant
workers on the land.
These conditions have hong sine,
passed away. but their effects remain
and the peculiar intensity OF the bitter
ness between Protestant and Catholi,
in Ulster Is the result very largely Of
the long forgotten days when the two
sects were by the landlords made I,
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