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Faith and fatherland? The Ancient Order of Hibernians, northern nationalism and the partition of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2022

Martin O'Donoghue*
Affiliation:
The University of Sheffield
*
*Department of History, University of Sheffield, martin.odonoghue@sheffield.ac.uk

Abstract

In 1912, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (A.O.H.) had become the most significant nationalist organisation in Ulster, a powerful auxiliary to the Irish Parliamentary Party, and a key part of what unionists feared would be Rome rule in a self-governed Ireland. However, while the A.O.H. is crucial to understanding nationalist Ulster and the border question, its reputation for fraternal secrecy and the apparent suddenness of its decline after the Irish Party's 1918 collapse has often seen it elude sustained academic enquiry. This article provides the first examination of the order from the Ulster crisis to the early decades of partition, drawing on the records of its governing Board of Erin. Scrutinising the grassroots and the leadership, this article interrogates dissension among Hibernians, the suspension of divisions and defections to Sinn Féin as the order reconciled proposals for Ulster exclusion with its traditional appeal. While Hibernians often found themselves part of a three-cornered conflict in the violent 1920s, the order ultimately survived on both sides of the border with regional variation important in estimating decline. Its persistence, therefore, illustrates something of the lived experience of partition and highlights important threads of continuity in a period of political and social upheaval.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

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References

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2 Michael Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians: an Irish political-religious pressure group 1884–1975’ (M.A. thesis, Queen's University, Belfast, 1976).

3 While selection conventions were held ‘under the auspices’ of the U.I.L. after 1900, the A.O.H. were allowed six delegates from each branch within the constituency: Lyons, F. S. L., The Irish Parliamentary Party, 1890–1910 (London, 1950), pp 150–52Google Scholar. On the A.O.H.'s growth in ‘middle Ireland’, see Wheatley, Michael, Nationalism and the Irish Party: provincial Ireland (Oxford, 2005), p. 48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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7 On splits in the order in North America, including its reunification on that side of the Atlantic in 1898, see Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, pp 21–8; Jackson Tait, ‘Irish Catholic loyalty and identity in the British Empire: the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Canada, 1878–1925’ in Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, xliii (2020), pp 88–95.

8 Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, p. 23

9 For a more detailed account of this split than is possible here, see Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, pp 52–76; Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, ‘A short history of the Hibernian rifles, 1912–1916’ (https://www.theirishstory.com/2013/03/31/a-short-history-of-the-hibernian-rifles-1912-1916/#.YAWN6-j7SUk) (17 Jan. 2022)

10 Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, pp 60–61. On the existence of a B.O.E. branch in America, see the report on its biennial convention in Hibernian Journal, Sept. 1924, p. 73.

11 General rules of Ancient Order of Hibernians (Board of Erin), friendly society (Belfast, 1907).

12 Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, pp 148–50.

13 Hepburn, ‘Catholic Ulster’ and eadem, Catholic Belfast and nationalist Ireland in the era of Joe Devlin, 1871–1934 (Oxford, 2008), p. 179; McCluskey, Fergal, Fenians and Ribbonmen: the development of republican politics in East Tyrone, 1898–1918 (Manchester, 2011)Google Scholar; Phoenix, Eamon, Northern nationalism: nationalist politics, partition and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland (Belfast, 1994)Google Scholar.

14 Daniel McCurdy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ulster, 1905–18’, (Ph.D. thesis, Ulster University, 2019). Wheatley, Nationalism and the Irish Party, p. 51; Charles Townshend, The partition: Ireland, divided, 1885–1925 (London, 2021).

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16 Robert Lynch, The partition of Ireland, 1918–1925 (Cambridge, 2019); Peter Leary, Unapproved routes: histories of the Irish border, 1922–1972 (Oxford, 2016); Cormac Moore, Birth of the border: the impact of partition in Ireland (Dublin, 2019); James Cousins, Without a dog's chance: the nationalists of Northern Ireland and the Irish Boundary Commission, 1920–1925 (Dublin, 2020). On the distinctiveness of unionist and regional identity in the period, see James Loughlin, ‘Creating “a social and geographical fact”: regional identity and the Ulster question 1880s–1920s’ in Past & Present, no. 195 (May 2007), pp 159–96.

17 For a micro-study which draws on the B.O.E. minutes, see Seamus McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in County Monaghan with particular reference to the parish of Aghabog 1900–1933’ (M.A. thesis, Maynooth University, 1999).

18 In April 1913, the A.O.H. reported 469 divisions in Ulster; two months previously, the U.I.L. reported 224 paid-up branches across the province: compare Hibernian Journal, Apr. 1913 and U.I.L. national directory meeting, 7 Feb. 1913 (N.L.I., minute book of the national directory of the United Irish League, MS 708).

19 Wheatley, Nationalism and the Irish Party, p. 49; Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, p. 124. For more on the order's insurance operation, see McCurdy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ulster’.

20 The A.O.H. in Sligo and Leitrim existed long before the 1911 Act: Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, pp 18–19.

21 Membership figures for Ireland are for 31 Mar. 1913, though Queen's County (Laois) had not submitted up-to-date returns. Returns for Great Britain and others reflect returns on 31 Dec. 1912.

22 Daithí Ó Corráin, ‘“Resigned to take the bill with its defects’: the Catholic Church and the third home rule bill’ in Gabriel Doherty (ed.), The home rule crisis, 1912–14 (Cork, 2014), pp 185–209. Although the church hierarchy revoked a ban on the order in 1904, Logue remained hostile: Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, pp 20, 91.

23 Seán T. O'Kelly witness statement, p. 48 (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1765, part one); William O'Brien, An olive branch in Ireland, and its history (London, 1910), p. 227 et seq.

24 Alvin Jackson, Home rule: an Irish history, 1800–2000 (London, 2003), p. 100.

25 Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, pp 83–4; Fergal McCluskey, ‘“Make way for the Molly Maguires!”: the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the I.P.P., 1912–14’ in History Ireland, xx, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 2012), pp 32–6.

26 Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, p. 80.

27 John D. Nugent, The A.O.H. and its critics (Dublin, 1911), cited in Hibernian Journal, Jan. 1912, p. 10.

28 Jane G. V. McGaughey, Ulster's men: Protestant unionist masculinities and militarization in the north of Ireland (Montreal, 2012), pp 53–5.

29 Hibernian Journal, Sept. 1912, p. 36.

30 Friendly societies proliferated in nineteenth-century Britain. For an excellent discussion of them and concepts of respectability, see Simon Cordery, ‘Friendly societies and the discourse of respectability in Britain, 1825–1875’ in Journal of British Studies, xxxiv, no. 1 (1995), pp 35–58.

31 Hibernian Journal, Aug. 1915, p. 56; Mary Ann Clawson, Constructing brotherhood: class, gender and fraternalism (Princeton, NJ, 1989). On A.O.H. and Orange Order parades, ritual and symbolism, see Neil Jarman, ‘Parading culture: parades and visual displays in Northern Ireland’ (Ph.D. thesis, University College, London, 1995).

32 Fitzpatrick, ‘The Orange Order and the border’, p. 61.

33 Hibernian Journal, Sept. 1912, p. 31; ibid., Mar. 1914, p. 15; Wilson, Frontiers of violence, p. 127. Both the Marian Feast of the Assumption (on 15 August) and the Feast of the Annunciation (on 25 March) can be termed ‘Lady Day’ in Ireland.

34 Hibernian Journal, Dec. 1914, p. 48.

35 [Frederick Oliver Trench, 3rd baron Ashtown], The unknown power behind the Irish nationalist party – its present work and criminal history (London, 1908); Hibernian Journal, June 1914, pp 22–5, esp. ‘Calumnies on the Order – The Bogus Oath – Orange Origin Exposed’, p. 23: The book, attributed to Trench, may have been written by another member of the Imperial Protestant Federation: Patrick Maume, ‘Trench, Frederick Oliver’, D.I.B., ix, 462–3.

36 Hibernian Journal, Dec. 1914, p. 48.

37 For more on this, see Kerron Ó Luain, ‘“Syndacalistic madness”: the A.O.H. and the great Dublin Lockout of 1913’in Saothar, vl (May 2020), pp 67–78.

38 Hibernian Journal, June 1914, p. 17.

39 Ibid., pp 17–18.

40 Ibid., Sept. 1914, pp 1–2.

41 Hibernian Journal, Dec. 1914, p. 45; Terence Denman, ‘“The red livery of shame”: the campaign against army recruitment in Ireland, 1899–1914’ in I.H.S., xxix, no. 114 (Nov. 1994), pp 208–33.

42 On the I.P.P.'s ability to fight and win by-elections prior to the rising, see Paul Bew, Ideology and the Irish question (Oxford, 1994).

43 B.O.E. special convention of the A.O.H. 13 June 1916 (N.A.I., A.O.H. collection, LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

44 Hansard 5 (Commons) lxxxii, 940 (11 May 1916).

45 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, pp 23–7.

46 Quoted in Hepburn, Catholic Belfast, p. 178.

47 B.O.E. special convention of the A.O.H., 13 June 1916 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

48 Ibid.

49 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, pp 33–4. Despite accusations by the ‘anti-exclusionists’, in the official figures, the A.O.H. was recorded as having only thirty-five dedicated representatives out of a total of 785 (the U.I.L. had ninety-seven). However, it is likely that more Hibernians attended and voted in their roles as elected representatives. For a full breakdown of delegates and votes, see Hepburn, Catholic Belfast, p. 179. The Hibernian Journal reprinted a breakdown of voting and the delegates representing each group in May 1927, pp 21–5.

50 Conor Mulvagh, ‘Ulster exclusion and Irish nationalism: consenting to the principle of partition, 1912–1916’ in Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, xxiv, no. 2 (2019), p. 14.

51 Quarterly meeting of Board of Erin, 12 Sept. 1916 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3).

52 Ibid.

53 Hepburn, Catholic Belfast, pp 179–81.

54 Hibernian Journal, Aug. 1916, pp 276–7; ibid., Sept. 1916, p. 289.

55 Quarterly meeting of Board of Erin, 12 Sept. 1916 (N.A.I. – LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

56 Ibid., Mar. 1917.

57 Ibid., June 1917; ibid., 10 Sept. 1917.

58 Hibernian Journal, Sept. 1917, p. 34.

59 Senia Pašeta, Irish nationalist women, 1900–1918 (Cambridge, 2014), pp 65, 69.

60 Hibernian Journal, Aug. 1915, p. 46; ibid., June 1915, pp 19, 22; Diane Urquhart, Women in Ulster politics, 1890–1940: a history not yet told (Dublin, 2000), p. 104.

61 Urquhart, Women in Ulster politics, pp 159, 201.

62 Hibernian Journal, Mar. 1918, p. 91; Erica Doherty, ‘“The party hack, and tool of the British government”: T. P. O'Connor, America and Irish Party resilience at the February 1918 South Armagh by-election’ in Parliamentary History, xxxiv, no. 3 (2015), pp 339–64.

63 As has been pointed out, Devlin had significant support among Protestant voters too: Hepburn, Catholic Belfast, pp 199, 281.

64 Urquhart, Women in Ulster politics, p. 105.

65 Inspector General's report, Jan. 1919 (T.N.A., Dublin Castle records, CO904/108); Hibernian Journal, Feb. 1919, p. 215; Sept. 1919, p. 3; Oct. 1919, p. 43.

66 McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in county Monaghan’, pp 102–103.

67 Hibernian Journal, Apr. 1919, pp 229–32.

68 B.O.E. report of biennial convention, 19–20 Aug. 1919 (N.A.I. – LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

69 Ibid.

70 Fitzpatrick, ‘The Orange Order and the border’, p. 57.

71 On disputes between Hibernians and the I.R.A. over arms in Belfast, see Roger E. McCorley statement, pp 12, 15-16 (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 389).

72 Hibernian Journal, Jan. 1923, p. 3.

73 Ibid., Jan. 1920, p. 101.

74 Wilson, Frontiers of violence, pp 127, 129–130.

75 Hibernian Journal, May 1920, p. 242.

76 Ibid., p. 230.

77 Wilson, Frontiers of violence, pp 128, 131–5; Robert Lynch, The Northern IRA and the early years of partition (Dublin, 2006), pp 68, 85.

78 Secretary's report to quarterly meeting of Board of Erin, 7 Sept. 1920 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)); Hepburn, Catholic Belfast, p. 217.

79 Secretary's report to quarterly meeting of Board of Erin, 7 Sept. 1920 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

80 Ibid.

81 Hibernian Journal, Feb. 1920, pp 129, 161. For details on the election results, see Phoenix, Northern nationalism, p. 74.

82 Hibernian Journal, May 1920, p. 221.

83 Ibid., June 1920, p. 249.

84 B.O.E. quarterly meeting of national board, 14 June 1921 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

85 McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in county Monaghan’, pp 107–109; Terence Dooley, Monaghan: the Irish Revolution, 1912–23 (Dublin, 2017).

86 McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in county Monaghan’, p. 22.

87 John P. McCabe to Dillon, 7 May 1921 (N.A.I., A.O.H. pamphlet collection, BRS LOU 12/14/67/1066–70).

88 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, pp 114–19; Hepburn, Catholic Belfast, pp 224–5.

89 B.O.E. quarterly meeting of national board on 14 June 1921 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

90 McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in county Monaghan’, p. 109.

91 John Dillon Nugent to Éamon de Valera, 15 Oct. 1921, Board of Erin minutes of meetings (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

92 Roger E. McCorley statement, p. 25 (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 389); B.O.E. national secretary's report to the board, 6 Dec. 1921 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)); ibid., 7 Dec. 1922; Lynch, The Northern IRA, p. 97.

93 Quarterly meeting of national board meeting, 6 Dec. 1921 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

94 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, p. 155.

95 National board meeting, 8 June 1922 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

96 Total membership in Great Britain and Ireland was 29,715, with 11,222 members in Scotland.

97 B.O.E. national board meeting, 7 Dec. 1922 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

98 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, pp 142–3.

99 National secretary's report to the convention, 7 Dec. 1922 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)). Another company, Irish Life and General Assurance, was registered on 25 Aug. 1923 with capital of £25,000. Devlin was chairman with fellow Hibernians John D. Nugent, James A. Nugent, John D. Bergin and Henry J. Maloney on the board: Hibernian Journal, Nov. 1923, p. 114.

100 National secretary's report, A.O.H. biennial convention, 21 July 1925 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

101 National secretary's report, meeting of A.O.H. national board, 5 Aug. 1926 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

102 National secretary's report, A.O.H. biennial convention, 19 July 1927 (ibid.).

103 Hibernian Journal, Sept. 1924, pp 70–71. Hibernian gatherings were widely reported in the Anglo-Celt, Dundalk Democrat and Northern Standard.

104 McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order in Hibernians in county Monaghan’, p. 125.

105 District Inspector Gilfillan to secretary to the minister for home affairs, 12 May 1923 (P.R.O.N.I., A.O.H., police reports, CAB/9/B/182); J. Woolley for inspector general to secretary to minister for home affairs, 18 Aug. 1924 (P.R.O.N.I., reports on meetings of the A.O.H., HA/32/1/321).

106 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, p. 193.

107 Hibernian Journal, June 1923, p. 57; Phoenix, Northern nationalism, pp 263–4, 272–3.

108 Devlin quoted in Hepburn, Catholic Belfast, p. 255.

109 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, pp 310–14.

110 Ibid., p. 285.

111 Dundalk Democrat, 18 Aug. 1923.

112 Subscriptions paid for period 1927 (Louth County Archives (L.C.A.), Dundalk A.O.H. branch papers, A.O.H.1/001/011); Hibernian Journal, Mar. 1925, p. 2; McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in county Monaghan’, p. 143. For examples of dances, see Anglo-Celt, 18 Oct. 1924, 24 Oct. 1925.

113 Joseph P. O'Kane, The canker of partition (Belfast, 1924) (N.A.I., A.O.H. pamphlet collection, BRS LOU 12/1/4/58A).

114 Martin O'Donoghue ‘“The renewal of a pledge of faith”? ‘John Redmond days’ in the south-east in the 1920s’ in History Ireland, xxiii, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 2015), pp 38–41.

115 Derry People, 28 Mar. 1925.

116 Hibernian Journal, Mar. 1924, p. 23.

117 Ibid., Apr. 1924, p. 34.

118 Ibid., Sept. 1925, pp 83–84.

119 Margaret O'Callaghan, ‘“Old parchment and water”: the Boundary Commission of 1925 and the copper-fastening of the Irish border’ in Bullán: an Irish Studies Journal, v, no. 2 (2000), pp 27–55.

120 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, pp 339–341.

121 Irish News, 16 Aug. 1926, cited in Hepburn, Catholic Belfast, p. 260.

122 Resolution of Cavan county board of the A.O.H., signed Thomas Lynch, county secretary, 22 Mar. 1926 (T.C.D., John Dillon papers, 6758/1349).

123 Hibernian Journal, Aug. 1923; ibid., Sept. 1923, p. 89.

124 ‘Facts about the A.O.H’ (Dublin), p. 3 (N.A.I., A.O.H. pamphlet collection, BR/LOU 12/1/4/54 A & B); Foy, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’, p. 150.

125 Hibernian Journal, Oct. 1926, pp 150–51; for a full account of the A.O.H.'s relationship with the party, see Martin O'Donoghue, The legacy of the Irish Parliamentary Party in independent Ireland, 1922–1949 (Liverpool, 2019), pp 88–90.

126 Fitzpatrick, ‘The Orange Order and the border’.

127 Devlin to W. G. Fallon, 1 Aug. 1926 (N.L.I., W. G. Fallon papers, MS 22,583); Hibernian Journal, July 1927, p. 35.

128 Hibernian Journal, May 1927, p. 20.

129 Phoenix, Northern nationalism, p. 362.

130 Hibernian Journal, June 1929, p. 44. P.R. was dropped just after introduction of universal adult women's suffrage across the United Kingdom in 1928: Susannah Riordan, ‘Politics, economy, society: Northern Ireland, 1920–1939’ in T. Bartlett (ed.), Cambridge History of Ireland IV (Cambridge, 2018), p. 315.

131 Hibernian Journal, Dec. 1926, p. 162; ibid., Apr. 1927, p. 18. The order further reported a hall in Loughgall was ‘blown up’ on 13 October 1929: Hibernian Journal, Nov. 1929, p. 96.

132 Maurice Curtis, The splendid cause: the Catholic Action movement in Ireland in the twentieth century (Dublin, 2008).

133 Hibernian Journal, Aug. 1929, pp 65–6.

134 Ibid., Feb. 1934, p. 20; ibid., May 1934, p. 48; ibid., Jan. 1935, p. 7. John D. Nugent remained the chairman of the Irish Life and General Assurance Company, which itself merged with other assurance companies in 1936.

135 The property was purchased by the A.O.H. to house the health insurance section: national secretary's report, meeting of national board, 21 Jan. 1926 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

136 National secretary's supplemental report, A.O.H. biennial convention, 19 July 1932 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

137 Minutes of A.O.H. biennial convention, 18 July 1934 (ibid.); ibid., 21 July 1936.

138 Hibernian Journal, Jan. 1938, p. 7.

139 Hibernian Journal, Aug. 1931, pp 65–6; see also Irish Independent, 25 July 1932; Anglo-Celt, 30 July 1932; Hibernian Journal, Aug. 1932, p. 76.

140 For full details on M.P.s returned to the Northern Ireland House of Commons, see David Boothroyd, ‘Members of the House of Commons: Parliament of Northern Ireland’ (http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/members.html) (17 Nov. 2020).

141 ‘1933 Election’ (L.C.A., A.O.H.1/005/001). Among those providing cars were Nugent and T. F. McGahon.

142 Maurice Manning, James Dillon: a biography (Dublin, 1999), pp 48–50.

143 Hibernian Journal, Oct. 1933, p. 92.

144 Tom Garvin has suggested that the Blueshirts may have owed something to the longer Ribbon tradition of which the modern A.O.H. was a part: Garvin, The evolution of Irish nationalist politics (Dublin, 2005), p. 110.

145 Anglo-Celt, 10 Nov. 1934; Derry People, 5 May 1934.

146 Anglo-Celt, 14, 21 Jan., 15 Apr. 1933, 28 Apr., 1 Sept. 1934.

147 The first of these memorials in 1925 attracted 12,000 people, while another in 1931 drew 1,500 with James Coburn acting as chief speaker: McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in county Monaghan’, pp 11, 127; Northern Standard, 6 Oct. 1933.

148 McPhillips, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians in county Monaghan’, p. 128.

149 Peadar Livingstone, The Monaghan story: a documentary history of the county Monaghan from earliest times to 1976 (Enniskillen, 1980), pp 408–18; Fearghal McGarry, Eoin O'Duffy: a self-made hero (Oxford, 2007), p. 67.

150 Minutes of meeting of subcommittee of national board, 11 Dec. 1934 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)); annual meeting of national board, 20 July 1936 (ibid.); meeting of subcommittee, 11 Nov. 1937 (ibid.).

151 Livingstone, The Monaghan story, pp 416, 426–7.

152 B.O.E. meeting of subcommittee, 11 Nov. 1937 (N.A.I., LOU 13/1/3 (a)).

153 The others were Patrick McGovern (Cavan), Michael McFadden (Donegal West), Daniel McMenamin (Donegal East) James Coburn (Louth) and James Dillon (Monaghan).

154 Wilson, Frontiers of violence, p. 16.

155 County Monaghan Hibernian to Joe Devlin, 14 Mar. 1921, J. G. Kennedy papers, cited in Phoenix, Northern nationalism, p. 118.

156 Roger E. McCorley statement, p. 25 (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 389).