Issue No.1 Summer 2000

THE SOMME 

By Michael Atcheson

On the 1st July 1916 along with other British soldiers the men of the 36th Ulster Division went "over the top" at the Battle of the Somme, The pride they had in themselves and their native land inspired "the Volunteers" with their shouts of "No Surrender" to reach not the first or the second German line but the fourth German line where, with little support, they repeatedly defended their position against advancing German reinforcements. The price paid by the 36th Ulster Division was heavy; 5,500 Officers and men lay dead or wounded. The heroic, deeds of the Volunteers on that bloody yet memorable day brought the 36th Ulster Division four Victoria Crosses and many other military decorations.

Back home, Ulster was in mourning. In every street blinds were pulled down. On the Shankill Road -760 men of the West Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force joined the 9th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, seventy six men returned home. One Lurgan man wrote to a friend, "there is hardly a house in Hill Street in which at least one member of the family has not been killed or wounded. It is terrible, terrible hard news to bear with equanimity, for however just and right a cause may be, the death of so many young men leaves our land that much the poorer".

In 1917 when the Rev John Lyle Donaghy addressed an assembly at Magheramourne in Lame. The Rev Donaghy explained that on &the 1st of July 1916 the Ulster Volunteers made for themselves a name that would never die ... it was acknowledged on all sides that the Ulstermen were given the most difficult task on that eventful day, and right nobly did they perform it".

This sentiment was reiterated by Colonel John Bucham who wrote, "that nothing finer was done in the War. The splendid troops drawn from those Volunteers who had banded themselves together for another cause now shed their blood like water for the liberty of the world". So who were these Volunteers?.

In January 1913 the Ulster Unionist Council declared that it would use "all means which may be found necessary" to stop the push of Home Rule for Ireland. To add weight to this declaration the council was organising a new citizens Army called the Ulster Volunteer Force. The Ulster Volunteer Force organised training and gun running to defend if necessary an Independent Ulster if the 3rd Home Rule Bill was successfully passed by the London Parliament. The emphasis here has to be placed on the view that Ulstermen seen the British Government as the real enemy. Sir Edward Carson in April 1913 reminded members of the Ulster Volunteer Force that "you have no quarrel with individuals. We welcome, aye, and love, every individual Irishman, even those opposed to us. Our quarrel is with the government".

The fate of the British Government lay in the 3rd Home Rule Bill, failure to push it through would result in the loss of the support of Redmond's Irish Nationalist Party and ultimately the balance of power in the House of Commons

Carson believed that if Parliament persisted in its intention of forcing through the Bill then Ulster's only defence was to convince those in power in Britain that Ulster would fight to maintain the liberties and traditions which it held dear. If British sympathy could be won for the Ulster cause then violence could be avoided. It could also be argued that Carson believed that if he could prevent Home Rule in Ulster then it would not be applied to the rest of Ireland, Under the military leadership of Sir George Richardson the U.V.F. was organised on a territorial basis with over 80,000 men well equipped with the arms Major Fred Crawford had brought into Lame and County Down on the night of 19-20 April 1914.

On the 4th August 1914 Britain was at war with Germany. The position left to Carson and the Ulster Volunteer Force was not an easy one as loyal subjects they were eager to help and many members immediately joined English regiments but if the volunteers were to go to war, and while in France the Home Rule Bill was pushed through, then they would he to blame. Regardless Carson announced that "all officers, non commissioned officers and men who are in the Ulster Volunteer Force are requested to answer immediately his Majesty's call as our first duty as loyal subjects is to the King". This call for volunteers was also answered by Eoin McNeill's Irish Volunteers who were organised to combat the threat of the Ulster Volunteer Force and they answered the call by joining the 1Oth and 16th Irish Divisions of the British Army.

Lord Kitchener hoped for a Brigade from the U.V.F. they gave him a Division and Carson got his wish to see Ulster name before the number of the division. TO this day the sacrifice of the 36th Ulster Division is remembered on the 1st of July.. The 3rd Home Rule Bill was lost in the bloody trenches of France. The Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith told the Commons, "that the U.V.F's patriotic spirit made the coercion of Ulster unthinkable". The paradox of this is that out of defeat the U.V.F. brought victory, their right to remain British and also something which they fought against "home rule" for the six countries. On the 22nd June 1921 George V opened the Northern Ireland Parliament. Ireland was divided, North and South. Many supporters of "home rule" for Ireland put on new clothes, the cloak of a "United Ireland".

The spirit of the 36th Ulster Division has carried on since 1914 and exists today as steadfast as ever in the grandchildren of those who were prepared to, and indeed paid, the ultimate price for their country. Their sacrifice can never, and will never, be forgotten by Ulster's Unionist community. Today after thirty years of sectarian violence the destination of Ulster lies not in the success of a military campaign but in the success of political dialogue and agreement.