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Issue
No.5 Summer 2001
What
'Battle' of the Diamond?
by
John Nixon
Nothing more than a rustic encounter at the heart
of which lay social and economic grievances and rivalry and bad blood
over cock fighting.
Visitors plying their way through the labyrinth
of narrow rural roads around Loughgall in the mid-Ulster heartland are
directed by ubiquitous signs pointing to an historic site known as ŒThe
Battle of The Diamond¹. They won't find any remnants of mass graves nor
evidence of military conquest. The so-called 'Battle' of The Diamond is
simply a fallacy and a myth propagated by Orangeism and more a manifestation
of an acute siege mentality endemic among Protestants in what they perceived
as an ever narrowing ground. Its real importance rests in the fact that
it led to the establishment of the Orange Order at Dan Winter's cottage
near the Diamond at Loughgall. It occurred at a time when Masonic lodges
were most intensely organised within the Lough Neagh basin: ŒThe Orange
Order was established in North Armagh, backed discreetly by local gentry
and generals, to stiffen the loyalist backbone and to drive an Anglican
wedge between Presbyterian/United Irish in Antrim and Down and Catholic
Defender south Ulster¹.
The skirmish took place in September 1795 between
two rival organisations, the Catholic Defenders and the Protestant Peep
(or Break) of Day Boys. Loughgall was the seat of bitter sectarian divisions
at the latter end of 18th century äten minutes from Drumcree Hill.
No doubt such a backdrop conjures up a ring of
familiarity; indeed there are many astounding contemporary parallels.
The event has been researched and commented upon by historians down the
centuries.
Sectarian tensions were heightened by acute economic
rivalry between catholic and protestant weavers whose proto-industry and
way of life was threatened by the onset of the industrial revolution in
Britain. Linen mills were becoming a common feature on the Irish landscape
by the latter end of the 18th century. Coupled with this was a succession
of bad harvests that sowed more seeds of discontent. Sectarian hatred
manifested itself in various forms; faction fighting, sectarian riots,
attacks and raids on homes for arms and the use of a tactic by the Peep
o' Day Boys known as 'papering and wrecking'. This act of barbarity was
described by Colonel Blacker, an Orange partisan:- 'a written notice was
thrown into or posted upon the door of a house warning the inmates ä to
betake themselves 'to hell or to Connaught' ä should the papered individuals
show signs of dilatoriness strong measures were resorted to. A gang of
ruffians dashed into the habitation in the night armed with axes and sledges,
and every article of furniture, including looms, wheels and other implements
used in the linen manufacture were in a few minutes cut and dashed to
atoms: this was called wrecking. It was curious to observe how little
fire was resorted to during these outrages.'
As a result of these actions the Defenders mustered
at Annaghmore and the Diamond to challenge the Peep o' Day Boys. Skirmishes
were the order of the day but real 'battles' were as rare as hens' teeth
or, more appropriately, cocks' combs.
Catholics in north-east Armagh were equally as
rare and more vulnerable given the impact of the Penal Laws. Many Defenders
were arrested by the Protestant militia and press-ganged into the Navy.
Over 5,000 Catholics were forced out of the area
many of whom went to Mayo, Galway, Drogheda, Dublin and to Belfast where
they were sheltered by the United Irishmen. But the Defenders also engaged
in organising attacks and fostering sectarian enmity. As their number
increased so did their aggression toward Protestants who were concerned
that their Catholic Œinferiors¹ were achieving 'parity of esteem' as the
Penal Laws were relaxed. Protestant concern deepened when:- ' they saw
numerous committees of Roman Catholics frequently assembling, they found
the carriage of their Roman Catholic neighbours to them entirely altered,
they were insulted going to their places of worship and to Fairs and Markets
and told that Catholics would soon be uppermost and 'have their own again'.
But the evidence shows that the it was the Defenders
who were persecuted by the Protestant magistrates who imprisoned, fined
and forced them on to Navy ships which in essence was a legalised form
of press ganging. This zeal and persecution of the magistrates caused
concern and consternation among the Ascendancy who were busy building
Martello Towers along the coast while looking across their shoulders to
France amid rumours of an impending invasion.
Before the actual 'battle' took place on September 19th, there had been
a number of serious skirmishes and events which led to the build-up of
bitterness between the rival camps: riots at Loughgall Fair,faction fights
and the killing of two Defenders in Winter's cottage when fighting broke
out in the wake of cock fight.
The rantings of Mr George Maunsell, a Reverend
Divine of the Established Church and Rector of Drumcree provides an interesting
historical parallel: -
'The Ascendancy
party was worked into an enthusiastic ebullition of renovated fury by
the sermon of (the above) ä Upon returning from service on the different
roads leading to their homes they (the congregation) gave full scope to
their anti-Papistical zeal äfalling upon every Catholic they met, beating
peasants who were digging turf in the bog.'
There had been the all too familiar rumour and counter rumour. Both camps
had directed arms fire at each other throughout the week from opposing
hills. By Friday 18th the leader of the Defenders, one 'Switcher' Donnelly,
sought a truce which was signed by both parties. The 'armies' would demobilise
and go home. By Sunday 19th they were engaged again in a full-scale skirmish
in which 17 Defenders were killed by a well-armed and trained force of
Peep o' Day Boys. There are of course many and varied accounts. The exact
number that was killed varies as does accounts of the skirmish and the
whole truth and nothing but the truth is now lost in the mists of time.
The Northern Star blamed the magistrates: - 'we again repeat it that the
magistrates and other principle inhabitants of that neighbourhood are
extremely criminal in not stepping forward and reconciling these misled
wretches.'
The corollary of the battle was the emergence
of the Orange Order as a political force thus embedding for future generations
the bitter sectarianism so evident today on the hills around Drumcree.
The Defenders wilted away under severe persecution.
Indeed a pact between the Defenders and the United Irishmen was drawn
up in 1796 and the former were absorbed into the ranks of the latter.
After the 1798 rising they re-emerged under the name of Ribbonmen. The
Orange Order, remained until the 19th century primarily an agrarian organisation,
found protection and patronage under the aegis of the Protestant Ascendancy.
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