Protestant Associational Culture in Donegal 1825-45

Dr Daragh CurranNUI Maynooth

Associational culture• Feeling of being bound by common religion/culture/gender etc

• Sense of togetherness/safety• Meeting friends• Monotony of every day life• Offers an escape/exclusivity• Excitement of ritual/mystery• Backdrop of post Waterloo economic recession

Religious demography

Barony of Banagh

% % %

ParishChurch of Ireland Catholic

Presbyterian

Total population

Ardara 19.69 80.31 n/a 6,154

Glencolmcille 7.2 92.8 n/a 3,752

Inver 21.94 78.06 n/a 11,785

Kilcar 5.04 94.96 n/a 4,319

Killatee 39.95 60.05 n/a 4,760

Killybegs 15.67 84.33 n/a 4,287

Killymard 33.22 63.75 3 4,798

Barony of Boylagh

% % %

ParishChurch of Ireland Catholic

Presbyterian

Total population

Inniskeel 6.87 93 0.13 8,266

Lettermacaward 5.69 94.31 n/a 2,039

Templecrone 5.33 94.67 n/a 8,198

Barony of Inishowen

% % %

ParishChurch of Ireland Catholic

Presbyterian

Total population

Burt 9.05 36.37 54.37 3,765

Cloncha 6.14 82.05 11.8 6,652

Clonmany 1.13 98.54 0.33 6,456

Culdaff 6.02 88.77 5.2 5,993

Desertegny 10.26 88.73 1 1,890

Donagh 11.61 80.73 7.65 5,357Faughan Lower 13.03 82 4.97 5,614Faughan Upper 16.63 59.09 24.27 3,234

Inch 10.48 51.45 38.06 1,135Moville Lower 13.1 80.7 6.19 5,783Moville Upper 13.68 74.56 11.75 4,902

Muff 15.29 42.25 42.45 4,009

Barony of Tirhugh

% % %

ParishChurch of Ireland Catholic

Presbyterian

Total population

Donegal 27.02 65.95 6.83 6,260

Drumholm 42.11 55.07 2.8 9,508

Kilbarron 27.1 72.32 n/a 10,521

Templecarne 43.78 53.3 2.91 5,461

Barony of Raphoe

% % %

ParishChurch of Ireland Catholic

Presbyterian

Total population

All Saints 16.03 32.74 51.22 4,004

Clonleigh 13.63 57.83 28.53 5,867

Convoy 9.37 59.44 31.19 5,380

Donaghmore 12.64 62.11 25.34 13,257

Killea 24.94 26.56 48.49 930

Kilteevock 20.38 78.36 1.23 4,365

Leck 8.65 57.54 33.81 4,046

Raphoe 17.86 42.45 39.68 6,134

Raymoghy 9.2 42.66 48.12 5,756

Stranolar 25.17 62.4 12.43 6,114

Taughboyne 11.74 34.1 54.15 6,335

Urney 17.65 55.94 26.39 7,277

Barony of Kilmacrennan

% % %

ParishChurch of Ireland Catholic

Presbyterian

Total population

Aghanunshin 13.8 46.37 39.82 1,848

Augnish 7.07 47.75 45.17 11,033

Clondahorky 20.18 75.12 4.7 6,477

Clondavaddog 12.66 81.4 5.94 9,567

Conwal 11.31 63.3 25.29 12,978

Gartan 23.24 76.76 n/a 2,109

Killygarvan 10.4 75.6 14 3,643

Kilmacrennan 7.71 71.5 20.77 9,251

Mevagh 14.04 84.9 1.06 4,794

Raymunteroney 11.44 87.87 0.68 2,193Tullaghobegley 3.17 96.56 0.27 8,464

Tullyfern* 7.96 47.46 44.57 4,382

Ardara• Population of village - 456• Parish population – 80.31% Catholic• 85 houses• Constabulary station• 4 schools• Principle seat – Major Nesbitt of Woodhill

• Reasonably prosperous by standards of the time

The Orange Order • 25 lodges – small by Ulster standards• MP Sir E.S. Hayes county Grand Master• Exclusively located in the east and south of the county

• 4 districts• Lifford (10 lodges), Ballintra (12 lodges), Donegal (2 lodges), Inishowen (1 lodge), lodges no. 454 and 849 unspecified

• Reflected the areas of Protestant population but not necessarily the Presbyterian population

Orange LodgesLifford 334 Mountcharles 1013 Carricknaharna

(Kilbarron) 1471 Manorcunningham 336

Ballintra 1146 Ballintra 1498

Ballyshannon 466 Beghy (Kilbarron) 1174

Carrigans 1499

Ballintra 773 St Johnston 1190 Clarn? (Ballyshannon) 1618

Donegal 757 Stranorlar 1319 Rossnowlagh 1627

Raphoe 774 Malin 1320 Unlisted 454

Ballyshannon 832 Ballymagearty (Drumholm) 1439

Unlisted 849

St Johnston 992 Manorcunningham 1441

Castlefinn 1007 Cashel? (Ballyshannon) 1452

Cross-class association• Lower classes able to mix with their social betters through membership

• Not typical of 19th century society• Elite society members included Sir Edmund Hayes MP

• Gentry served as County Grand Officers – Robert Montgomery (Convoy House), Daniel Todd (Buncrana Castle), John Beers (Leslie Hall, Raymoghy) etc

• District and local lodge masters came generally from the lower classes – Donegal District Grand Master Acheson Holmes was a publican

• Lodge no. 832 - lodge master was James Brown, a tailor/pawnbroker from Chapel St, Ballyshannon

• Lodge no. 1319 – lodge master was James Greer, a woollen-draper from Stranorlar

• Lodge no. 1439 – lodge master was James Crawford, a Tanner/Chandler from Drumholm

• Looked down upon by elitist society• Evident that lower classes were allowed a role at local level

The Yeomanry• Local defence force set up in 1796• Commanded by the upper classes• Major Nesbitt the Ardara commander• Orange oath taken by most members in Ulster

• 19 Yeomanry companies in Donegal• Armed and uniformed by the government• Provided military training • This training used in processions and parades

Under attack• Order had proved useful in 1798• But banned under the Unlawful Associations Act of 1825-28

• Yeomanry disbanded• Party Processions Act applied in 1832

• Government investigation in 1835• Order disbanded in 1836• Not revived until 1845

Obedient to GLOI?• 1839 Ballintra - 2 lodges assembled, flag unfurled but removed after stand-off with police

• 1841 Ballyshannon – no parade, lodges met indoors

• 1841 Ballintra – arches and flags erected, large crowd present but no trouble

• 1841 Cashel lodge visited their brethren at Rossnowlagh and Coolmore

• 1841 Pettigo – large numbers in town wearing colours, upper classes dined at Mr Thomas Read’s

Freemasons• Not exclusively Protestant• No religious agenda• But general Catholic withdrawal following Papal condemnation

• Relations not always cordial with Orange Order

• Only open to the better classes• Again located in south and east of the county

• 16 lodges in existence during this period

Masonic Lodges Ballyshannon 128 Newtowncunningham 670

Ballyshannon 287 Pettigo 215

Buncrana 939 Pettigo 907

Donegal 588 Port 407

Dunkineely/Port 558 Raphoe 346

Fahan 882 St Johnston 281

Inch/Londonderry 589 Stranorlar 341

Castlefinn 434 Tawnawilly 644

Erosion of the Protestant ascendancy

• Catholic emancipation granted in 1829• Whig government from 1830-41• National schools• Municipal reform• Electoral reform• Yeomanry disbanded• Attacks on the Established Church• Daniel O’Connell in alliance with the government

Response • Brunswick Clubs established in 1828 to oppose Catholic emancipation

• Clubs set up in Stranorlar, Letterkenny, Buncrana, Muff, Manorcunningham, Donegal Town, Lifford, Convoy, Malin, Pettigo, and Ballyshannon

• ‘All were unanimously of opinion that a barrier must be erected to Popish encroachment, to save Protestantism from subversion’.

• Petition and protest meetings the favoured weapons

• Ultimately a failure

Conservative clubs• Party politics took shape in the early 1830s• Stronger definition of political alliance• Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society formed by Isaac Butt (Glenfinn) and Rev Charles Boyton (Gartan)

• Rev Boyton was Grand Chaplain of the Order• No coherent alliance with the Order but similar loyalty to the Crown

• Organised mass meetings of Protestants throughout Ulster during the 1830s

• But beyond the financial means of lower class Protestants

Increase in local tensions

• Protestant campaigns incensed many Catholics• Rev Theophilus Blakely, a Church of Ireland clergyman residing in Inishowen- ‘There was a Brunswick Club established in a village or rather a hamlet near me, which was quite unnecessary, and from that day to the present there has not been any peace in the country’.

• In July 1828 Orangemen assembled in Ballintra and marched to Mountcharles

• Attacked with stones by some country folk attending market

• ‘A few days ago, a blacksmith, residing near Ballyshannon, the only Protestant one in that neighbourhood, had attended a Brunswick meeting in that town, for which mighty offence he was on Thursday night last waylaid, and so inhumanly beat that his life is in danger, his skull having been fractured’ – Fermanagh Reporter 20 Dec 1828

• It must be remembered that this was an extremely violent society• Catholic Ribbon Society prevalent in east Donegal and Inishowen• 12 July 1843 800 Ribbonmen marched through Stranorlar between one and two am ‘to the great terror of the Protestant inhabitants, who conceived that a general rising had taken place, and that the bloody scenes of 1641 were to be re-enacted’.

• Importance of popular memory• John Wright, chief constable – ‘Ribandism prevailed to a great extent’ in Donegal

Religious movements• Alcohol heavily abused in society

• Temperance movements emerge from both sides of religious divide

• Pledge administered by Fr Matthew to 30,000 people in Convoy

• Protestant Second Reformation• Catholics considered to be superstitious dupes

• Countered by Catholic clergy

But..• No concerted campaign by Catholics, more so sporadic incidents

• Particularly at fair days• July 1830 Pettigo – 3,000 Orangemen in parade, joined by 200 Catholics

• Catholics also joined with 200 Orangemen from 2 lodges in procession in St Johnston in 1831

• Children usually schooled together• In general relations between the two communities were good