Category Archives: History

The Orange Lily’O

And did you go to see the show, each rose and pink a dilly, O!
To feast your eyes, and view the prize, won by the Orange Lily,O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O Beneath the sky
What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

The Viceroy there, so debonaire, just like a daffadilly, O. With Lady Clarke, blithe as a lark, approached the Orange Lily, O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky
What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

Then Starting back, he cried good luck, some say he looked quite silly, O!         Oh! deed of woe, must I bestow the prize upon the lily, O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky

What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

Sir Charley, too, looked very blue, while laughed the Horse Master Billy, O!         To think his EX – a flower should vex, and that an Orange Lily, O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky
What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

A fairer Flower, throughout the Bower he sought, but willy nilly, O!
With moistened eyes, he gave the prize to Erin’s Orange Lily, O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky
What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

The lowland field may roses yield, gay heaths the Highland hilly, O!
But high or low, no flower can show, like Erins Orange Lily, O.

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky
What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

Let dandies fine in Bond Street shine, gay nymphs in Piccadilly, O!
But fine or gay must yield the day to Erin’s Orange Lily, O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky
What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

The elated muse, to hear the news, jumped like a Connaught Filly, O!
As gossip fame did loud proclaim the triumph of the Lily, O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky
What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

Then come, brave boys, and share her joys, and toast the health of Willy, O!         Who bravely won, on Boynes red shore, the Royal Orange Lily, O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky
What flower can vie         With Erins Orange Lily’O!

Heigh ho, the lily’O! The royal, loyal lily’O! Beneath the sky
What flower can vie With Erins Orange Lily’O!

Battle at Oldbridge

On the slopes of Tullyallen at a bend in the River Boyne
Thirty thousand true and loyal men with William did enjoin
To face and fight rebellious might, no thoughts that they might die
They stood as one with pike and gun on the Eleventh of July.

Assembled on the other bank the Jacobites prepared In Oldbridge town their plans laid down and offered up their prayers
As night wore on toward a sunny dawn in God they placed their trust
When the warm mist cleared and judgment neared James waited on the thrust.

On the stroke of ten from a wooded glen six pounders paved the way
In Greenhills’ field, forced to yield, the Papish army fled
In disarray and with much dismay James tried vainly to recoup
Brave Schombergs’ troops—a valiant group—were intent to win the day.

As James ran scared bold William dared to consolidate his rank
He sent his best to Slane due west to confuse and to outflank
The Blue Guards forded the shallow stream, advanced as one, complete
They stood their ground while Papish hounds retreated towards Duleek.

The flintlocks roared, the twelve bore scored and bullets found their mark
The Orange camp did not relent and dashed the Papist horde
A dark brown horse traversed the course—William led the day
And James he fled—white paper splayed–with dead along the way.

In mid July, the battle cry was for Country and for King
And proud to fight for Williams’ cause, and wear that sprig of green
The battle raged, they did engage, they held their standards high
They fought the fight and gained the Right—on the Twelfth day of July.

Beano

DEATH OF SCHOMBERG

‘Twas on the day when kings did fight Beside the Boyne’s dark water And thunder Roared from every height And earth was read with slaughter; That morn an aged chieftain stood Apart from mustering bands And, from a height that crowned the flood Surveyed broad Erin’s land
His hand upon his sword hilt leant His war-horse stood beside And anxiously his eyes were bent Across the rolling tide; He thought of what a changeful fate Had born him from the land Where frowned his father’s castle gate High o’er the Renish strand
And placed before his opening view A realm where strangers bled Where he, a leader, s carcely knew The tongue of those he led; He looked upon his chequered life From boyhood’s earliest time Through scenes of tumult and of strife Endured in every clime
To where the snows of eighty years Usurped the raven’s strand And still the din was in his ears The broad-sword in his hand; He turned him to futurity Beyond the battle plain But then a shadow from on high Hung o’er the heaps of slain
And through the darkness of the cloud The chief’s prophetic glance Beheld, with winding-sheet and shroud His fatal hour advance; He quailed not as he felt him near The inevitable stroke But dashing off one rising tear ‘Twas thus the old man spoke:
“God of my fathers! Death is nigh My soul is not deceived My hour is come, and I would die The conqueror I have lived! Four Thee, for Freedom, have I stood For both I fall to -day: Give me but victory for my blood The price I gladly pay!
“Forbid the future to restore A Stuart’s despot gloom Or that, by freemen dreaded more
The tyranny of Rome! From either curse let Erin freed As prosperous ages run Acknowledge what a glorious deed Upon that day was done!”
He said–fate granted half his prayer His steed he straight bestrode And fell as on the routed rear Of Jame’s host he rode; He sleeps in a cathedral’s gloom Amongst the mighty dead; And frequent o’er his hallowed tomb Redeedful pilgrims tread:
The other half, though fate deny We’ll arrive for one and all And William’s Schomberg’s spirits nigh We’ll gain or fighting fall!

Hi Jason,

      Thank you for your ‘Somme Burnout’.  A very well constructed article but I am somewhat unclear as to the main thrust of your argument.  But first a few points. I assume one element of your argument is that there is too much emphasis now on this battle. You outline the significance, context and relevance to us very well but describe it as abnormal. What about a comparative aspect to this? What of other celebrations? And I take you point about banality on board. Having stood in many graveyards in the Somme area I despair at the efforts to make money from trinkets when one considers what those ordinary men endured and suffered.

In terms of recalling or celebrating battles we need go no further than that oldest of feuding neighbours England and Scotland.  But first an internal English contest in 1461. Towton does not jog the memory like other battles but it had a huge impact on England and its history. It was the final slaughtering match in the War of the Roses. Recently a newspaper lamented the wilful forgetting of the battle but you can goggle the Towton Battlefield Society who are now actively bringing this battle back into public consciousness.

The list of English-Scottish battles is well documented. I have stood on Culloden(1746), walked Bannockburn(1314) and crossed Stirling Bridge where the Scottish defeated the English in 1297. While in Scotland I was not surprised to hear both talk and song recalling these battles. Granted, no big street demos and parades but remembered after hundreds of years. If something is burned into the memory and it means something then it will be remembered. It cannot be undone in the years to come. It is a fact.

On the international stage we have the Americans recalling Gettysburg (1863) the turning point of their civil war. They love to have their actual re-enactments. Is that trivialising the slaughter? The Russians have celebrated the 300^th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava in 2009 with T.V. shows, reports, conferences, etc.  September the 8^th is a national holiday in Malta relating to the victory over the Ottoman Turks in 1565. Perhaps the 1^st July as a public holiday here?

The Mexicans celebrate with style, colour and noise the Battle of Puebla over 150 years ago. On May 5th 1862 the Mexicans defeated a much superior French force.  The French proved much stronger as the war went on but this victory was seen as a morale booster in the Mexicans fight for survival. Simply Google ‘Cinco de Mayo’, and then look at images and get ready for a riot of colour. It makes the Orange day look positively drab.

The remembrance of an important battle is not some quaint ‘Proddie’ thing and I would argue that it is most definitely not an Irish phenomenon.

I do agree one hundred per cent that education is vital around the whole idea of history and celebration. I use the 36^th Ulster Division to tell anyone who will listen about the 10^th and 16^th Irish Divisions. And I hold with respect all those Irishmen who went and fought against a common foe. I respect and visit the monuments and graveyards in France and Belgium that holds those soldiers. Maybe both sides of the community could do more to recall them with pride?

You say about how the Great War has slipped from living memory. Surely your article contradicts that with a picture of a uniformed band marching down from the Albertbridge Road nearly 100 years on? And as a young boy I was fascinated meeting my great uncles when they came to talk to my granny. Their brother, my great uncle, lies buried in France at the Somme having died there in 1916. That event, their brother, their loss, was a real thing in the family. It is with pride and dignity that they recalled him and their precious memories. I have stood at his grave a number of times and hope to do so in the future.

Yes, there will be a high level of interest in 2016. Yes, human nature is that it will wane over the following years. However human nature also is that, with the will, memories of past failures and victories will carry on for as long as people want.  Who knows the social, cultural, and political changes over 2 centuries? Maybe someday the Somme battle remembrance will supplant the Boyne celebration?

Are We On The Verge Of A ‘SommeBurnout’?

Posted by Jason Burke on Jul 2, 2013 in The Great War | 0 comments

Monday 1 July 2013 marks the 97^th anniversary of the opening day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916.   The opening day of the Somme battle is regarded as the most catastrophic episode in the prestigious history of the British army with 57,470 casualties on the first day alone and over 350,000 British casualties during the remainder of the battle which lasted until November of that year.  However it is clear that the Somme and the legacy which surrounds it can mean different things to different people, this could be said of all historical events but in the Irish context the Somme resonates more than most due to the cultural and political importance attached to it.  For this reason it seems that in Northern Ireland we are more exposed to memory and commemoration of the Somme, but how long can this continue?

On 1 July 2013 in East Belfast, Number 6 District of the Orange Order paraded the streets in what is known as the largest and longest running commemorative parade to mark the Somme in the world.  Simultaneously the nationalist residents of the Short Strand protested against this commemoration due to the fact that the parade passes near to their homes.  This powerful imagery encapsulates the variance in attitudes towards the Somme, even in one district of Belfast.  On one hand the unionists of East Belfast actively remember, while the nationalists of East Belfast actively remember to forget.  For those who actively remember it would not be unusual to commemorate the Somme several times per year, every year, not to mention the occasional active commemoration of other battles.  It is the Somme however which generates by far the most interest, and an abnormal focus, but there is a very good reason for it.

Ulster Volunteer Flute Band, East Belfast take part in the annual Battle of the Somme commemoration parade in First World War British Army Uniforms.

The Great War, and in particular the Somme battle, possesses a unique significance to Ulster Protestants, its context of the Home Rule crisis in Ulster and the existence of the U.V.F. gives it a definite political overtone.  Just as the Irish Volunteers had provided a ‘blood sacrifice’ in the name of the Irish Republic the Ulster Volunteers have created a similar legacy in the name of King, country and resistance to Home Rule.  This ‘blood sacrifice’ formed part of the psyche and the DNA of the newly created Northern Ireland state, and from this point onward the Somme would always have a special place in the hearts of the Ulster people.  It placed them firmly amongst a UK/European wide commemorative community which has provided a form of legitimacy to an insecure Protestant/unionist heritage.  By comparison the Battle of the Boyne celebration, now into their 323^rd year, is an almost exclusively Irish phenomenon.  The Boyne is an example of an event which makes Protestantism/unionism feel unique and triumphant but inevitably comes with an isolation and a vulnerability which allows it to be bullied for being different by those who have been alienated by it.

Is it realistic to assume that the Somme will be commemorated with the same vivacity in 200 years as the Boyne?

As memory of the Boyne continued to age and became evermore distant it was timely that the Somme should provide an alternative and fresh focus, particularly for a fledgling nation.  The Somme fitted a deliberate unionist narrative, of that there can be no doubt, it continues to fit that narrative in 2013 by means of conflict resolution.  Where once there were masked gunmen on the gable ends of loyalist areas they have been increasingly replaced by effigies of Ulster Division soldiers charging across gable walls presumably towards the German enemy.  Where once we had combatants emerging from a conflict which ripped Northern Ireland to pieces we now have the 36^th Ulster Division Memorial Association or ‘Somme societies’ which are seen as quasi ex-servicemen’s association for a section of those ex-combatants.  A Somme Association was created in 1990 ‘to ensure that the efforts of Irishmen to preserve world peace between 1914 and 1919 are remembered and understood.’  They did this by restoring the Ulster Tower at Thiepval and built the Somme Heritage Centre in County Down.  In the souvenir shop of the Somme Centre you can buy, Somme mugs, Somme pens/pencils, Somme keyrings, Somme ties, before leaving the shop with your goods in a Somme carrier-bag (presumably for an extra 5p)  Professor Keith Jeffrey has written of a visit to loyalist souvenir shop in East Belfast where he was able to purchase a Somme greetings card with James Beadle’s painting on the front, ‘On the outside was 1 July 1916-when the British Army suffered its greatest ever losses on a single day-and inside it read ‘Many Happy Returns of the Day‘.  These strands of our society (murals, societies, merchandise etc), however welcome they may be, have generated an infatuation with the Somme which puts us all in severe danger of a ‘Somme burnout’.  There are dozens of Somme based murals which remind us every day of the battle, dozens of Somme societies who host and take part in dozens of parades, services and commemorations which consistently keeps the Somme at the forefront of our thoughts, but crucially this is at the expense of other battles and even other wars.

While growing up in the Cregagh area of East Belfast I regularly played on the streets which were named ‘Somme Drive’, ‘Thiepval Avenue’, ‘Picardy Avenue’, ‘Albert Drive’, ‘Hamel Drive’, ‘Bapaume Avenue’ all names from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and it was those street names which caused me to ask questions and gave me an initial interest in all things Great War related.  In Cregagh there is what’s known as a ‘colony’ of houses-homes fit for heroes-built for ex-servicemen by the Irish Sailors and Soldiers’ Land Trust in the 1920s.  Professor Keith Jeffery has commented on these same homes, ‘What is remarkable about these battlefield placenames is the way in which terrible sites of death and destruction are commemorated in what have become prosaic home addresses.  The French have a word for it: banalisation… But, all the same, one wonders how it was for those veterans returning from the horrors of war to be reminded of the trenches and the slaughter every day, with places where comrades had died becoming a mere address where people live.’

I somewhat suspect that those who organised the first Somme commemoration parade all those years ago in Ballymacarrett district would not have envisaged its format in 2013 where the alcohol consumed by the spectators and the joyful scenes along the route would lead one to assume that 1 July 1916 had been a resounding success.  If I were to conduct a very simple survey with the parade spectators how many would be able to tell me the basic facts about the Battle of the Somme? How many would tell me that the UVF fought at the Somme?  There would be those who would try to tell me that the UDA fought at the Somme.  How many would be of the belief that the Somme was a success?  Education is the key if we are to move in a direction which resembles forward.

My guess is that this frenzy of Somme related activity will intensify as we approach the centenary in July 2016.  I suspect that the momentum of this will carry through for a few more years before the focus begins to wane.  Elements of our recent troubled past will soon be commemorated as ‘history’ by our younger generation which will further divide their attention from the Somme and from the Boyne.  It is inevitable that these new generations will leave the Somme legacy behind as part of a natural and generational phase out over time, we are at pains to stop this because the Great War has quietly slipped from living memory.  What we can do however is educate our young people to commemorate in an appropriate and inclusive way, one which is forward thinking rather than backward facing, and one which has a wider scope than just the Ulster Division on 1 July 1916.

COME GATHER ROUND MY COMRADES ON THIS FIRST OF JULY MORN.

I was on the Progressive Unionist Party website this morning and discovered that they have posted the incorrect version of the above song, now widely known as England’s Treachery.

The reason I bring this to light, is because, this incorrect version contains inaccuracies which Republicans have used in recent years, in their attempts to belittle the sincerity of the sacrifice, described within the song.

The actual wording of the song, which was in fact written by a Loyalist Prisoner in 1973, is as follows.

Come gather round my comrades, on this first of July Morn.

When Ulstermen are rightly proud, of the Land where they were born.

I’ll tell you of our Volunteers, of how it came to pass.

Of how they rushed to England’s aid, so far from old Belfast.

It was in the dark uncertain days, of early World War 1,

When England’s shores where threatened, by the jackboot of the hun.

When England’s cry for help was heard, we bade them have no fears.

We sent across to Flanders fields, The Ulster Volunteers.

It was at the Somme that summer morn, the first day of July.

That twenty thousand Ulster Men, prepared to fight and die.

They proudly charged over no man’s land, the Red Hand flying high.

Their cries were No Surrender Boys, Old Ulster’s Battle Cry.

The Germans in their trench’s deep, could scarce believe their eyes.

When they saw those Ulster Men emerge, When they heard their Battle cries.

What kind of men are these they said, who would leave their Native Land.

To die upon a foreign soil, and what is that strange Red Hand.

So on and on they charged alone, where no one else could tread.

On the wire and in the mud, they left behind their dead.

The only Flag to fly that day, behind the German lines.

Was the old Red Hand of Ulster, with its shamrocks, IT HAD NINE.

Now those who lived, came home again, but what a change to find.

SOON the counties that made Ulster up, no longer numbered nine.

Three Counties they were sold away, by those they had fought to save.

Yes, this was England’s gratitude, for the sacrifice they made.

So gather round my comrades, on this first of July Morn.

When Ulster Men are rightly proud, of the Land where they were born.

Never more be led away, to fight in foreign lands.

Nor to die, for someone else’s  cause, at an English mans command.

NOR TO DIE, FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S CAUSE, AT AN ENGLISH MANS COMMAND.

How do I know the correct wording? I was that Prisoner. Charlie Freel.

Remembering Our Cause

On Monday the 1st July, the vast majority of Working Class Loyalists, will assemble at various locations throughout Northern Ireland to remember and give thanks for the sacrifice made by thousands of Ulstermen at the Battle of the Somme 97 years ago.

The stories of the 36th Ulster Divisions collective and individual acts of bravery will be told and retold again many times during the next few months.

Children just too young to understand last year, will this year begin a lifelong journey of learning and remembrance, as a fitting tribute and memorial to their Forefathers, who’s story will never be forgotten.

All over Northern Ireland, there are thousands of memorials to their sacrifice and bravery, on Banners, on Murals, in Church’s, on Cenotaphs, on the Standards of hundreds of the bands taking part in the Remembrance Parades, and especially in the hearts of us, their descendants.

Their memory has never and will never be sullied, belittled, or tarnished by being remembered in association or collusion with, the enemies of their day, the cowardly IRA who collaborated with the Germans, in the foolish belief that they could take advantage of the United Kingdom’s difficulties to achieve a republican United Ireland by treachery.

Today there is an equally treacherous plot being planned, this time by the IRA in collusion with the DUP and a few other notoriety seeking so-called Loyalists, as they attempt to create a sham peace and false reconciliation centre, alongside the already existing republican shrine to sectarian terrorism at Long Kesh.

There have been attempts to coerce the old Volunteers of the seventies into participating in this farcical act of treachery, against the Genuinely Innocent Victims of the conflict and our own Fallen Comrades.

The ridiculous argument being used is that, if we fail to participate then our story will be told by civil servants, BULLSHIT. By refusing to participate in this treacherously heartless collusion, we will be exposing it, as the blatantly fraudulent attempt to sanitise republican terrorism, that it is.

We the Old Volunteers of the conflict, are the keepers of our story and our memorabilia, we can insure that our story is truthfully told in our own areas, by our own Volunteers, without the lure of treacherous fool’s gold from Stormont, Westminster, Dublin, or Europe.

If our story and the sacrifice of our Fallen Comrades is truly worthy of retelling and Remembrance, then just like the Original Volunteers of 1912-1918, we will be remembered with reverence by our own Loyalist Working Class descendants in years to come, totally untainted by association with the belligerently bigoted republicans, who unsuccessfully tried to subvert democracy here in Northern Ireland, with 35 years of sectarian bloody slaughter.

Today would probably be a good time to reflect on the words from two verses of, “The Red Hand Soldier”.

This land our Fathers cherished, for its cause they perished.

                         At the Boyne, the Somme, Gallippoli, Dunkirk and Normandy.

                         While others failed and faltered, their faith they never altered.

                         Their cause, “For God and Ulster,” we must never deny.

                         Some say the war is over, no more need for the Red Hand Soldier.

                         But we have seen their peace before, we will see it through again.

                         Let others fail or falter, our faith we will not alter.

                         Our cause, “For God and Ulster,” we will never deny.

Charlie Freel.

Early Morning, Picardy Plain, July 1^st. 1916

Silence

Almost deafening in its power
somewhat overwhelming in the scheme of things
and considering just before a shower of molten metal
rained down upon the cowering men entrenched in dugouts…
Curled up foetal-like to escape the thunderous blasts.

The stench of cordite lingers long
and hangs about, unwanted just above
the trench—a trough not fit for swine but occupied
by lions brave and proud-supine-waiting for the whistle…
Trembling at the thought of facing the murderous barrage.

Shouts assault the stillness-Orders
barked-A common movement practiced oft before
an unwanted shift—knowing full well what waits above
but moving forward just the same and heading for…
The nightmare on a gently rolling Picardy plain.

Dawn…. Breaks….but  spirits fail to soar
a roar…a bellow as the horde beset the parapets
scrambling and crawling and scuttling, and shutting
out the fear, getting ever near to the broadside, the fusillade
that will greet them on this early July morn.

Robert Niblock

Harryville Heroes

                 Monday is the 1^st July and marks the 97^th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. A huge number of Ballymena men answered the call to war and joined many different regiments. The main army unit was the 12^th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles , the Mid Antrim Volunteers. Men from Harryville joined the 12^th Battalion, trained, drilled and then left these shores to go to a country they knew nothing about. This piece is about two young Harryville brothers who went to war and never returned. 

In 1911 the Mc Gowans lived at King Street in Harryville. The street is long gone and now is Kens car park. They, like the rest of Harryville, were poor, plain, ordinary people. The two brothers would have had little education and by 1911 John was aged 15 and James 13. At this age John was a ‘doffer’ in the mill and James was a general labourer.  Despite working at this young age the two brothers would have played in the Braid river,  fished and swam and maybe went for walks out the Larne Road as far as the fields of Pennybridge. The countryside would have started at the end of Larne Street. On a Sunday they would have been packed off to the Presbyterian Church and no doubt Sunday School. Life would have been hard and poor. There now was an opportunity for excitement, pay, travel and the chance to do their duty for King and Country.  How did their parents William and Jane feel? Pride or a deep fear?  There were no pensions or state benefits. The whole family contributed to live. Children worked and earned money for buying food.
By 1914 the political scene conspired to create the armies of Carson and in the south Redmond. The outbreak of World War 1 prevented a bloody civil war and soon the Ulster men, instead of facing the British army, would become a division of the British army, the 36^th Ulster Division.  The two brothers would have gone through training together and soon the time came for them to leave. The picture below is from 1914 and shows the Antrim volunteers marching in Queen Street, Harryville. They are probably walking  to the train to depart for Belfast and further afield.  The flat curved roof can still be seen today at Arbuckle and Calderwoods.
Did the Mc Gowan family go out to cheer their loved ones? It would be a moments’ walk from their King Street home to Queen Street to see the lads march by in uniform.  John would be 18 and James 16.  What did the eldest son, Hugh (19) think as they walked away?  There were younger brothers and sisters. Hannah was 14 when they left and Sarah was 11. Young William was 8 and maybe Samuel, aged 6, was too young to really know what was happening. They would never see their brothers again. Undoubtedly the two lads had never travelled far. Belfast would have been a strange and alien place never mind the towns of rural France. They would have got off the ship from England at Boulogne in October 1915. By train or foot they would have made their way to Pierrgot, Fonqvillers,  Mensil, Hamel and Martinsart. The two lads could read and write. Did they spend some time writing home to Harryville to say they were well,  little knowing what was ahead of them?

There were many Ballymena men together and so they would not have been lonely.  There would have been much talk about Railway Street and Larne Street and Galgorm and the gossip from the Braidwater Spinning mill who gave up so many of its workers.  But the war rumbled on and got bloodier by the month. Soon in June 1916 the brothers would be preparing to go over the top. They prepared, as thousands did, for the big push that would start on July 1^st 1916. They were based down in the Ancre valley that had, ironically, a mill. They had suffered months of shelling, filth, hunger, cold and fear. Soon they, with all the young Ballymena men, would charge their respective German lines to gain some ground.

At 7am the whistles blew and the mid Antrim volunteers rose from their trenches and walked into a wall of machine gun fire. They suffered huge losses. One of the brothers was shot and wounded. The other brother went to his rescue. He was shot. Both died on the marshy battlefield of the Somme. It was hell on earth. Men crying, bleeding, shrapnel in the air decapitating people. Limbs blew off. Did they die clean and quickly, or did they, like so many, spend the day mortally wounded and succumb sometime in the night? Worse was to come. The Ulster men had done well but suffered grievous losses. Men where left on the muddy ‘no man’s land’. The two brothers were never found. There is no known grave. They are remembered on the Thiepval Memorial. A massive  monument to those thousands of young men whose lives, then bodies, were lost for ever.
And what of William and Jane Mc Gowan when they received a letter or telegram informing them of their loss? They, like the Cooke’s of Larne Street, the Wallace’s of Gilmore Street, the Mc Nieces of Queen Street and many more, would soon learn about the true horror of World War 1.  And when did the realisation set in that they would never see their sons again? They had no grave to grieve over. They would not have earned enough to travel to France. Plus the war would last another 3 years. How did the family adjust to the two empty chairs at a Sunday dinner table?
The 1^st of July 1916 was when Ulster was proud of the bravery of its sons, but at what a price.  So this 1^st July remember the Harryville men who went away and never returned. Remember all the Ballymena men who fought and died. Remember the families who lost so much.

Gaudeamus Igitur

Some thoughts on Loyalism and the Protestant working class (and popular culture!)

The recent series of articles written by ex-prisoners about the music and books that they consumed while in Long Kesh and beyond made for intriguing reading. If some of these thoughtful recollections got the wider audience they richly deserve some of the well-worn stereotypes and preconceptions surrounding Loyalist prisoners might receive the challenge they so desperately merit. One of the delightful (but economically dangerous) aspects of these pieces was that I felt compelled to make a list of yet more interesting books to buy. I have books that I bought in 1998 that I still haven’t looked at. It’s music however that has always had a special place in my life. Indeed in 2002 or thereabouts I was told by my girlfriend at the time that I was like the character ‘Rob Fleming/Gordon’ in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. I’m still not entirely sure whether that was a compliment or an insult – I’ll err on the latter…with a degree of slightly bruised pride.

I think music is crucial to experiences and memories, and the ‘Who Put That On?’ articles show that particular songs and LPs are central to the oral/written life histories of the ex-prisoners who wrote those articles. One of the problems with the otherwise excellent histories of Northern Ireland’s conflict that have been written by academics is that we don’t get the whole picture of the people who were involved; either as combatants, security forces or civilians. Of course it’s totally unreasonable to expect a survey of everyone’s musical and literature preferences and the stories behind them, but I’ve found the excellent book The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes by Jonathan Rose to be an encouraging reference point for some of the work I’m trying to do.

We know that working class people on both sides of the sectarian interface in Northern Ireland became involved in the conflict, so why has the Loyalist experience of popular culture and the ‘intellectual life’ been reduced to the two sad reference points of pornography and the gym? When looking through the photographs on LKIO last summer I was struck, but not surprised, by the picture of a Loyalist prisoner’s cell with a copy of Neil Young’s Harvest in the shot. Generally I’d imagine when Joe Bloggs thinks of Loyalists in prison they don’t automatically imagine a young man queuing up for the record player to hear introspective songs such as ‘Old Man’ or ‘Heart of Gold’; pumping iron in the prison gym while listening to the Bay City Rollers (or rave music later) is probably the knee-jerk image. That is what has been fed to people – that is what has put Loyalism in the dock of popular culture. The recent articles by G.I. and Billy Joe put forward the case for the defence, and do so convincingly.

Interestingly the embarrassing stereotype and the more reasoned reality dovetail in the examples of two Shankill Road bands. I noted how Billy Joe mentioned that punk wasn’t a big thing in Long Kesh due to the falling number of new prisoners in the late 1970s. In the recent hagiography of Terri Hooley, Good Vibrations, the Protestant working class are lambasted and stereotyped as being right-wing and unthinking. Two ‘Shankill Skins’ apprehend the ‘loveable’ Hooley (played by Richard Dormer) in his record shop and after thrusting a demo tape into his hands demanding that he sign them the two youths whale into Hooley and beat him to within an inch of his life. To the initiated we are left in no doubt that the two skins are meant to be Johnny Adair and Sam McCrory and the demo tape is that of the lamentable Offensive Weapon. Offensive Weapon was Adair and Skelly’s homage to renowned fascist Ian Stuart’s band Skrewdriver. Hugh Jordan may not be the most popular journalist around these parts but I can guarantee his opinion of Offensive Weapon is 100 per cent accurate – they were awful (I have heard the tapes)!

At the same time there was another band from the Greater Shankill called Ruefrex. They were borne from the same overall punk roster that rubbish like Offensive Weapon emerged from but were an articulate and musically superior band who were also fiercely proud of their working class Protestant heritage while being non-sectarian. Paul Burgess, the band’s drummer and songwriter, grew up in Jersey Street – beside a certain William Hutchinson! In 2005 he wrote about the band’s experiences in the late 1970s and early 1980s:

We evoked the wrath of both communities, although it was probably more politically incorrect and damaging to be portrayed as the ‘Prod’ band as opposed, say, to That Petrol Emotion as the “oppressed” RC one. You’ll still find – in regard to arts and cultural undertakings – that the Ulster Protestant community must overcome these initial prejudicial comparisons with the perceived cultural oppression of South Africa, Israel and the like. You can only sing with credibility about your own experience and culture. Or, of course, reject it and adopt some bogus stance.

Paul interestingly blew away the myth of the Harp Bar as being some kind of cross-community mecca for the youth of the day. He remembers the band being subject to sectarian abuse and even threatened by a shadowy figure wielding a gun (all for the crime of once playing a cover of ‘Ulster Boy’ by Sham 69!). Of course the fact that they were staunchly non-sectarian mattered little to some of these bigots. Again it also seemed to boil down to the fact that they didn’t fit into the punk scene – they didn’t dress like punks (so much for the individualism of punk!) and were accused of being ‘spider-men’. Elvis Costello was so disgusted by their outlook and background that he unashamedly branded them “Orange bastards!”

Unlike some other bands of the era Ruefrex didn’t shy away from singing about the contemporary situation and reassessed various strands of their Ulster Protestant culture. Anyone who is interested in the contemporary history of Belfast’s Protestant working class and Loyalist community should recognise the importance of Ruefrex in describing and shaping that history.

Of course Offensive Weapon are going to loom larger over accounts of the Troubles owing to the fact that the majority of the personalities associated with the band went on to become notorious paramilitaries, but it is worth remembering the stories that were going on in the background. Ruefrex’s struggle to be heard is perhaps microcosmic of the overall struggle of the Protestant working class to be understood in terms of popular culture. Loyalist ex-prisoners are an integral part of this story. People would rather concentrate on the jutting, strutting hulk in the gym than the more nuanced characters that made up many of the young men in Long Kesh during the 1970s and 1980s.

Ultimately I think there is more to our recent past than what has been written. There is a need to add layers to the stories of individuals and get past the assumptions.

Ruefrex:

Here are links to two Ruefrex songs that might appeal to the broad issues being explored on this website: the first link is a song called ‘The Fightin’ 36^th’ – I don’t have to explain what that is about! I made a very basic video for it. The second is ‘Days of Heaven’ which describes ordinary working class life in the vein of Graham Reid’s Billy trilogy.

The Fightin’ 36^th: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7aLkMZhW5M

(quote from Geoffrey Bell, included in album sleeve notes:

They are not bitter at the slaughter of their own people,

in a battle judged necessary by those not of their class,

not of their country. They are not angry, not bitter, do not protest, they are proud.

Such is the tragedy of the ordinary Ulster Protestant.)

A silence fallswith front line dawn,

and Private Samuel Dodds

needs God to lean upon.

The sun shines down,

the gas clouds clear,

the Woodvale cricket club

are keeping quiet their fear.

The shells pour down,

the whistles blow,

the Cloughmills L.O.L.

have nowhere left to go.

Through hell fire’s rage,

with bayonets fixed,

the cry was “no surrender”

from the fightin’ 36th.

Days of Heaven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiw2ypD8TLQ

A burned out pub, a playground for the bored,

a Cyclops skylight offers sanctuary.

A boy peeps through the corrugated iron,

from his safety of his world within a world.

Far away from sirens in his shell,

days of heaven, nights of hell.

Little fortresses of common love,

footballs burst on glass-topped backyard walls.

‘Johnny 7′, ‘Hunts’ and ‘Hide ‘n Go’

“Best prices paid for copper and for lead.”

But with darkness the stones and rubble fell,

days of heaven, nights of hell.

A generation built from red-bricked streets

all proud, and hard, and honourable men.

One same purpose, that of right and wrong,

family and jobs their main concern.

Another side the newsmen seldom tell,

days of heaven, nights of hell.