Great Falls tribune., 1922-02-19

WQeQ LueEe WAS uoluiuA lol InClA ~
fight over except brown bull. OF
course, one side possessed the brown
bull, or ''tain-bo" and the other side
wanted it, which situation formed a
most excellent reason for a bloody
war in Ireland.
Ancient Ulster Territory
From the time of Queen Maev until
centuries after, Ulster was the coun..
ties Of Antrim, Down and section OF
Louth. When the O'Neills ruled in
Tyrone. they generally had one fight
under way on the east and another to
their west They acquired County
Donegal in the western war and cap
tured County Ulster to the east. Then
came the geographers and map-makers.
who labelled the northern counties as
Ulster. There have been battles over
some portion of Ulster since an Irish,
man first fashioned shiilalah and
found no better target than the head
of an enemy.
Most of Cavan, which is the south
ernmost of the counties accredited to
Ulster by historians, never belonged
to that section. In truth, a map show
ing the real political Ulster would be
collection of shreds and patches, OF
shades and of percentages: 1t would
he fairly solid as far south as North
Londonderry and North Armagh are
concerned. but after that it would go
all to pieces. Even Londonderry City,
the industrial prosperity of which has
induced a flow of cheap labor from
County Donegal. on its west, now has
nationalistic majority: Tyrone and
, Fermanagh both have slight nationalist
maiorities. The figures by religion
show 1875 Catholics and 9O,746
Protestants.
To mark off certain counties and to
label one part as Ulster and the other
part as southern Ireland. as was done
BY the act of parliament of 1920. has
been found to be hopelessly bad ar
rangement 1t was certain to lead to
trouble. Such delimination includes
thousands of red hot nationalists and
excludes thousands of equally red-hot
unionists.
Bitter Feeling Still Exists
! IF it be true that Lloyd George told
| the Irish delegation to go ahead and
! include in the Free State some OF the
sections Sir James Craig says Michael
! Collins intends to have as parts of
the Free State. then Ulster probably
means TO fight before these counties
are taken from it.
A boundary commission might set
tie the question in a general way with
| in d very few weeks. Certainly it
could with respect to Armagh, Honag-
| han. Fermanagh and Donegal. Every
mans religion and politics are known
| in Ulster from the cradle to his grave.
| A partition line that would hold half
of Armagh out of Ulster and bring
in one-third of Monaghan; that would
leave out half of Fermanagh and bring
in sections of Donegal, would result in
fair partition to most Of the resi-
dents of those counties.
| So far as Tyrone is concerned, any
| land division appears to be hopeless.
There are 10000 Catholics and 10000
Protestants in this county. Yet they
are so criss-crosse and intermingled
that any attempt to say which part OF
| it belonged to Ulster and which to the
Irish Free State would tax the wisdom
| of new Solomon. Tyrone lies in the
heart of Ulster. Any division of it
undoubtedly would result IN endless
| clashes.
How Plan Would Work
The deliminations recounted here
would put approximately 100000 Ul-
stermen in the Free state and the
same number of Free Staters IN Ill
ster, and it appears that SOM ething OF
TINS nature must DC uoHc IL tnC tliSu
problem is settled without resort to
arms.
Sir James Craig says, however, that
the Ulster counties as stipulated IN
the Act of Parliament of 1920 will be
considered by his government as be-
longing to the northern section. lie
refuses to accept the services OF
boundary commission, saving Ulster
was not consulted by Lloyd George or
the Irish delegation which solved the
differences between southern ireland
and the British crown. He declares
the act of parliament was accepted BY
Ulster and that the British premier de-
clared in letter to Eamonn de Va
lera last July that the settlement
must allow for full recognition of the
I existing powers and privileges of the
parliament and government of north
ern Ireland which can not be abro-
gated except by their own consent"
/ The fact that British troops have
left the Free State leaves the ques-
ton to be decided by armed force un-
\ less Lloyd Georges cleverness can find
way to circumvent resort to a civil
war by Ulstermen and the adherents
Of the new dominion.