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The presbyterian church in Ireland and the government of Ireland act (1920)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
The government of Ireland act (1920) did not fall, like Athene, fully fledged from the head of Zeus, so its historical development has to be considered if the presbyterian attitude to it is to be understood.
Presbyterians in Ireland had been second-class citizens up to 1780, and from then until the act of disestablishment in 1870 a tolerated church. This was a vital factor when they were called upon to face the issue of home rule in 1886. A second was that they were a minority, the majority of whose members lived in Ulster, whose community interests with Britain had been accentuated by industrialisation. They owed little or nothing to an irish parliament or Dublin so far as relief from legal disabilities and their standard of living were concerned. A third factor was the ‘vote tory manifesto’ of ‘catholic nationalism’ in 1885 which ended liberalism as a party in Ulster politics leaving presbyterianism without a political party of its own liberal ethos. Politically, presbyterians had now no option but to choose between the toryism of the former ascendancy and an aggressive catholic nationalism which at times resorted to force and violence against the union with Britain on which their standard of living and economic welfare depended.
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References
1 10 & 11 Geo V cap 67.
2 Hesiod, Theogony 886; Pindar, Olympia vii 35.
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15 High Street presbyterian church, Antrim, marriage register 16 May 1908.
16 MGA (1911) p 84.
17 Ibid p 84.
18 11 Geo II cap 10; 21 & 22 Geo III cap 25; 5 & 6 Vict cap 113; 6 & 7 Vict cap 39; 7 & 8 Vict cap 81; Tullylish presbyterian church marriage register 10 January 1828; The Queen versus Miilis (Writ of Error), Opinion of Lord Campbell 10 August 1843; Banner of Ulster July 1842-April 1844.
19 Witness 2 February 1912.
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21 MGA (1920) p 1136.
22 Sec I.
23 Secs 13-4; schs 2, 3, 5.
24 Sec 2.
25 Sec 3.
26 Sec 19. Twelve from the north and thirty-four from the south.
27 Hansard 23 June 1921 Commons cols 17-8; Senate col 15.
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30 Art 12.
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37 Sch 2 pt 3.
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44 This information was supplied by the late Dr William McDowell, who was a member of the state of the country committee.
45 MGA (1922) p 40.
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47 11 February 1923.
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49 RGA (1925) p 92.
50 The ‘two evils’ between which the church had to choose were ‘civil war’ and ‘partition’. To avoid the former, if possible, it accepted ‘for the sake of peace’ the government of Ireland act (1920).
51 Ireland (Confirmation of Agreement) Act 1925, 15 & 16 Geo V cap 27; Statutes of Oireachtas, Saorstat Eiarcnn no 40.
52 Sec 1.
53 Sec 2.
54 Sec 5.
55 League of Nations Treaties Series 44.
56 Witness 11 December 1925.
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58 Ireland (Confirmation of Agreement) Act 1925, preamble.
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