IS ULSTER RIGHT?
A STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION AT ISSUE BETWEEN ULSTER AND THE NATIONALIST PARTY, AND OF THE REASONS-HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND FINANCIAL-WHY ULSTER IS JUSTIFIED IN OPPOSING HOME RULE
BY AN IRISHMAN
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1913
CONTENTS.
Preface vii
Chapter
I. The Ulster Covenant. The Questions Stated. Ireland under the Celts and the Danes 1
II. Ireland from the time of Henry II to the time of Henry VIII 13
III. Ireland under the Tudors 24
IV. The Seventeenth Century, until the end of the reign of James II 37
V. The period of the Penal Laws 49
VI. The earlier part of the reign of George III. The acquisition of independence by the Irish Parliament 68
VII. The independent Parliament. The Regency Question. The commencement of the Rebellion 79
VIII. The Rebellion 100
IX. The Union 116
X. The period from the Union until the rejection of the first Home Rule Bill 132
XI. The Unionist Government of 1886 155
XII. The Gladstonian Government of 1892. The Political Societies 179
XIII. Ireland under the present Government 194
XIV. Criticism of the Bill now before the Country 218
XV. The danger to the Empire of any form of Home Rule. The Questions answered 232
Index 259
PREFACE.
In the following chapters I have endeavoured to lay before ordinary readers a simple statement of the present position of the Irish question. Following the maxim of Confucius that it is well "to study the Past if you would divine the Future," I have first shown that the tales which are told about the glories of the ancient Celtic Kingdom are foolish dreams, not supported by the accounts given by contemporary annalists or the investigations of modern writers, and that Ireland never was a nation in the political sense, with the possible exception of the few years between 1782 and 1800, during which the Irish Parliament was independent; that the charges made against the English government with reference to their action between the "Conquest" by Henry II and the assumption of the title of King by Henry VIII are baseless; and that though there is much which the historian must look back upon with regret in the period between the reign of Henry VIII and the passing of the Act of Union, it is mere waste of time now to dwell on the wrongs of a former age which have long since passed away and which in any other country would be forgotten. Then I have traced the brief history of the independent Parliament, and shown that whatever may have been its virtues or its failings, it would be impossible to revive it now; all the circumstances of the country have changed. I have [pg viii] striven also to make it clear that the Nationalists of to-day are not the representatives of the leaders of that Pa