A Bit Of History From The DOC

As we once again look on with despair at the hideous events at Drumcree and the Protestant marching season reaches its climax, I thought it might be opportune to look at the historic events that spawned these demonstrations of Protestant Ascendancy. Many of you will be well versed in this sorry part of Ireland’s history but I hope some of you will find this article useful.

In the late 1660s King James II, second son of Charles I and brother of Charles II, converted to the religion of his second wife, Mary of Modena - Catholicism. The birth of a son and heir in 1688, who was to be brought up in the Catholic faith, was the excuse his opponents needed to force the King into exile. In June 1688 seven leading English statesmen invited William of Orange, effectively leader of Europe’s Protestants, to become ruler jointly with his wife Mary, James II’s eldest daughter.

James fled to France and then, with the backing of Louis XIV was escorted by a small French fleet to Ireland, landing at Kinsale. Ireland quickly divided into the Protestant Williamite and the Catholic Jacobite factions. The war commenced when the citizens of Derry learned that a new garrison was to be sent to the city – a Catholic regiment of Lord Antrim’s Redshanks. Rumours were rife that the Catholics were massacring Protestants, as in 1641. The elders of the City had decided to admit the troops but suddenly 13 Protestant apprentice boys took matters into their own hands, seized the keys to the gates and, on December 7th, 1688, shut them in the face of King James’ troops. 30,000 Protestants occupied the city. During the siege many of them starved to death. Eventually the siege was broken when British ships broke through into Lough Foyle. This action cemented the siege mentality within the Northern Protestant community, giving rise to the ‘no surrender’ slogan and quickly leading on to the defeat of the Jacobite forces.

William of Orange landed at Carrickfergus on June 14th,the next year 1690, with a 36,000 strong army made up mainly of European mercenaries. The armies met on July 1st (July 12th in the Gregorian calendar) at the Battle of the Boyne. Despite gallantry from officers such as Patrick Sarsfield, the Jacobites were well beaten. William returned in triumph to London and James to exile in France. Whilst the Jacobites fought on, being finally defeated exactly a year later on Aughrim’s slopes in Co. Galway, the Boyne was the final nail in Ireland’s Gaelic coffin. From then on the Protestant Parliament would vote in anti-Catholic Penal Laws that turned the Catholics into second class, down-trodden citizens, which, in the six counties, they remain to this day.