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The Caledon Lockout: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Rural Ulster, 1918–1922
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 November 2020
Abstract
This paper examines an unsuccessful strike by Irish Catholic and Protestant workers at a woolen mill in 1919. The location, Caledon in County Tyrone, is renowned as a stronghold of Ulster Unionism and Orangeism, yet in the context of the revolutionary period in Ireland from 1916–1926, traditional sectarian divisions briefly abated in the face of working-class solidarity. In this respect, the analysis offers something of a corrective to assumptions regarding the immutability of sectarian divisions in Ulster. The article also places Caledon within the context of a widespread and sustained movement of unskilled workers in the main provincial city, Belfast, and across much of rural Ulster between 1918–1920. Nevertheless, the manner in which the employer defeated the strike and the village's subsequent history of violent sectarianism offers valuable insights into the creation and consolidation of Northern Ireland, or what many local Catholics called “the Orange State,” which celebrates its centenary in 2020.
- Type
- Lines of Labor, Lines of Production
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2020
References
Notes
1. One of the six counties to be planted by King James in 1609; Tyrone was the scene of the first civil rights march in 1968, which emerged from a dispute in Caledon village regarding discrimination in housing by a unionist-controlled and gerrymandered local council. A subsequent police attack on a civil rights march in Derry is recognized as the starting point for the modern Troubles.
2. The village is made anonymous in the book but fits the description of Caledon, or Newmills in the same area: Kelleher, William F Jr., The Troubles in Ballybogoin, 47 (Michigan, 2004)Google Scholar.
3. Freeman's Journal, November 3, 1919; founded in 1795 in nearby Loughall, the Orange Order was an exclusively Protestant and loyalist fraternal organization pledged to maintain the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. It played a pivotal role in the mass mobilization of Irish Protestant over the next century and became the dominant organization within Ulster Unionism prior to creation of the majority Unionist six-county statelet.
4. Derry Journal, 28 February 1919; Peadar O'Donnell (1893–1986) who led the strikers at Caledon, was one of the foremost radicals of twentieth-century Ireland, achieving international prominence as an Irish republican, socialist activist, politician, and writer.
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10. See Fergal McCluskey, Tyrone, 1912-23, 83–84 (Dublin, 2014).
11. This sometimes took explicit form during wartime, for example, with “Red” Clydeside from 1915 onward. It was, however, the immediate postwar period, 1918–1920, when domestic grievances took explicit form across Britain and Ireland.
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73. Derry Journal, May 16, 1919.
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82. McVeigh, “Lock out?” 104.
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89. The Watchword of Labour, January 3, 1920.
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92. CI May 1919, CO904/109.
93. Watchword of Labour, December 13, 1919.
94. Freeman's Journal, January 5, 1920.
95. Evening Herald, May 12, 1920.
96. The alterations are dated 1928 in anticipation for local government elections, but the village's working-class streets clearly experienced significant change in the revolutionary period (PRONI, VALB/38/8).
97. Anglo-Celt, January 12, 1920; Freeman's Journal, January 5, 1920.
98. Rotten Prod was a pejorative term used by loyalists to described Protestants who were insecure in their commitment to the Union with Britain; by 1920, it was directed largely against active trade unionists.
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101. O'Duffy to Collins, January 30, 1922 (ibid.).
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111. Summary of outrages in NI, March–April 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/699); RUC, Belfast, March 31, 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/152).
112. Northern Border Commission, March 19, 1922 (PRONI, HA/32/1/16).
113. RUC report on the political situation at Caledon, March 19, 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/903).
114. Northern Border Commission, March 27, 1922 (PRONI, HA/32/1/16).
115. Northern Border Commission, Ma 29, 1922 (PRONI, HA/32/1/16).
116. James Doran, 1922–1924 (PRONI, HA/5/2232).
117. RUC, Belfast, April 18, 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/152).
118. RUC, Belfast, March 31, 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/152).
119. Report of the Northern Border Commission (PRONI, HA/32/1/16).
120. Fulton to Dawson Bates, March 22, 1922, “Steps to be taken for prevention of disturbances on border,” March 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/905).
121. J.K. McClintock, March 29, 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/905).
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123. RUC, Belfast, April 18, 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/152).
124. Telegram Fintona, April 18, 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/205); persons killed or wounded since 6 Dec. 1921 in NI (PRONI, HA/5/219); Tyrone Courier, April 27, 1922.
125. Lt. Col. Charles Wickham to S. J. Watt, March 30, 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/905).
126. Report of the Northern Border Commission, Lieut E F Bolton, Clogher April 9, 1922 (PRONI, HA/32/1/16).
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128. Patterson, 142.
129. Patterson, 147.
130. The Lambeg is a large drum beaten during Orange marches.
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135. The concepts here rely heavily on Domenico Losurdo, Liberalism: A Counter-History, 309–10 (Verso, 2011).
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140. Report by Ricardo, June 1922 (TNA, CO 906/27).
141. Ricardo, June 1922 (TNA, CO 906/27).
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145. Bew et al., NI, 16.
146. O'Connor, 101.
147. Watchword of Labour, December 13, 1919.