Talks on the Ulster Covenant

Forget the Titanic, this year also sees the 100th anniversary of the signing of a document in Ireland that demonstrated the vehement opposition to the cause of Home Rule by the island's Protestant population. In 1912 they feared the notion of Home Rule actually meaning 'Rome Rule', as the propaganda of the day alleged, thanks to the minority position of the Protestant people on an island wide basis which was largely Roman Catholic.

Some half a million people signed the Covenant on September 28th 1912 - strictly speaking the Ulster Covenant was signed by men and the equivalent Declaration of Loyalty by women. The records have been digitised and made freely accessible on the PRONI website at  http://applications.proni.gov.uk/UlsterCovenant/Search.aspx . The document was not only signed in Ireland, however, but in Britain and across the world. My two times great grandfather was a signatory in Glasgow (giving his home parish in Ireland in the process), whilst in China nine gentlemen also signed it - as I mentioned in my talk at Who Do You Think You Are Live last week, I was disappointed to learn they weren't actually Chinese, but instead service personnel on HMS Monmouth (I once viewed American Indians wearing sashes on an Orange walk in Belfast, so have always believed anything is possible when it comes to Ireland!).

Eddie Connolly has tweeted that a series of talks on the Covenant is to be held at Belfast's Westborne Presbyterian Community Church on the following dates:

1912 - 2012: EXPLAINING THE ULSTER COVENANT
(all events are free; tea & coffee provided)

• Introduction to the Ulster Covenant
‘100 years on’ drama: talk by Gordon Lucy
Thurs 22 March @ 7.30pm

• Presbyterianism and the Ulster Covenant
John Erskine & Nelson McCausland MLA
Mon 30 April @ 7.30pm

• Nationalism and the Ulster Covenant
Dr. Eamon Phoenix
Wed 23 May @ 7.30pm

• Women and the Ulster Covenant
Dr. Diane Urquhart & Philip Orr
Thurs 21 June @ 7.30pm

For more information visit www.titanic-people.co.uk

(With thanks to @teddiec)

Chris