Trinity: A Novel of Ireland

by Leon Uris

  Following the lead of the Belfast magistrate's precedent, twenty more licenses were immediately granted to Unionist Clubs throughout Ulster on the premise that. . . "such authority is sought and will be used by them only to make them more efficient citizens for the purpose of maintaining the constitution of the United Kingdom as now established and protecting their rights and liberties thereunder."

  Although the licenses were granted to establish a legal basis for operation, it has been an open secret that paramilitary units have been drilling for months throughout the province.

  Heading up the over-all program is Colonel R. H. Wallace, prominent in Orange circles and former commander of a battalion of Royal Irish Rifles during the Boer War. Ranks of the clubs are filled with ex-officers and enlisted men of the British armed forces.

  *

  SECRET UNIONIST ARMS FUND OF ONE MILLION POUNDS UNCOVERED

  EXCLUSIVE by Seamus O'Neill

  February 3, 1912, Belfast (Irish Overseas Press Service)

  This reporter has learned that wealthy backers of the Ulster Unionist Clubs now engaged in paramilitary activities have established a banking credit of one million pounds sterling for the purpose of purchasing arms.

  Operating under the general guise of the Provisional Emergency Fund, it is headed up by Sir Frederick Weed, prominent Belfast industrialist and member of the governing bodies of the Unionist Party and Orange Order.

  It is somewhat ironic that Weed should be placed in charge of these particular monies in that he was the scapegoat in a gun running scheme by the Irish Republican Brotherhood several years ago in the renowned Sixmilecross incident. When questioned as to whether he was seeking vengeance for that humiliation, Weed snapped: "Revenge is not in my nature."

  It is known that Weed and his son-in-law, the Earl of Foyle, each personally contributed 25,000 pounds to the fund, an amount matched by Sir Edward Carson. Other contributors read like the directory of Burke's Peerage with much of the money coming from English Conservatives.

  It is rumored that Rudyard Kipling is listed among the £10,000 class of donors.

  When pressed for details of the fund, Weed flatly denied the monies were being used to buy guns.

  "Poppycock," Weed declared. "The Provisional Emergency Fund is being established in the event of a civil war to take care of evacuations, hospitalizations and hardship cases."

  Despite Weed's denials, some pertinent collaborating facts have been unearthed. The importing of weapons is close to impossible under existing laws. As in the case of "legalizing" the paramilitary clubs, Unionist lawyers have found a loophole in the statutes.

  Licensed "Hunting and Shooting Clubs" are permitted to import limited numbers of weapons for "sporting purposes." An investigation of the records of the customs bureaus and city halls around the province reveal a set of startling statistics.

  New licenses have been granted to alleged "Hunting and Shooting Clubs," increasing their numbers by three hundredfold since the onset of the Home Rule crisis. In every instance the membership of these clubs is identical to the membership of the Unionists' paramilitary units.

  Moreover, a dozen new import/export licenses have been granted by customs to individuals and firms in Derry, Belfast and other ports about the province with "authority to receive shipments of weapons."

  Although drilling and practice have continued with wooden replicas, it is estimated that two to three hundred rifles a week (mostly of Italian vintage) have been getting through.

  When queried about this, Sir Frederick Weed shrugged it off.

  "It just so happens that the province is going through a period of unusual interest in hunting," he claimed.

  When asked just what could be hunted so massively in Ulster's sparse woodlands, Weed commented, "Fairies, woodkerns, God knows what."

  It is known that banks throughout the province have been notified to cover overdrafts of cheques drawn by any paramilitary club without question. Such money has been replaced by cheques drawn from the Provisional Emergency Fund.

  To this, Weed answered, "The clubs are engaged in medical and other activities of a humanitarian nature that might occur in the event of civil war. It certainly does not indicate the overdrafts went into arms purchases."

  However, cheques from the Fund have matched, quid for quid, cheques written to the newly licensed arms importers.

  *

  THE ULSTER UNIONIST PROVISIONAL EMERGENCY FUND. GUNS OR HUMANITARIANISM? DUCHESS OF SOMERSET CONFIRMS SIR FREDERICK WEED'S ASSERTION

  EXCLUSIVE by Seamus O'Neill

  February 4, 1912, London (Irish Overseas Press Service)

  The Duchess of Somerset announced today that an organization has been established to come to the assistance of Ulster's Protestants in the event of civil war. The Humanity for Ulster Committee is seeking to find refuge in England for tens of thousands of "our loyal subjects in Ireland."

  Existence of this committee was revealed rather suddenly in light of yesterday's uncovering of a million-quid fund allegedly for-arms purchase and corroborates Sir Frederick Weed's claim that the Provisional Emergency Fund was for other purposes.

  *

  WINSTON CHURCHILL SCHEDULED TO COME TO ULSTER FOR PRO-HOME RULE RALLY

  EXCLUSIVE by Seamus O'Neill

  February 5, 1912 (IOPS)

  It was learned by this reporter today that Liberal Party MP. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admirality, has accepted an invitation from the Ulster Liberal Party to speak in Belfast. The province's Liberals constitute a small minority and have been all but swamped since the Unionist Party offensive against Home Rule.

  Lord Pirrie, the Belfast shipbuilder and leader of the Ulster Liberals, confirmed the arrangement. "It is hoped," he said, "that Churchill's appearance will do something to bring light and reason to a situation gone totally out of control by a frenzied overreaction to a very mild piece of legislation."

  Pirrie further went on to say, "I think the people of England have mistakenly come to believe that all Protestants here are speaking with a single Unionist voice. In addition to the Liberals there are tens of thousands of plain, unorganized people without a voice who consider Home Rule by a Dublin Parliament as a viable and desirable idea."

  Ulster Hall, property of the Belfast City Corporation, has been booked for the event. Churchill's appearance will complete a family circle of unique involvement in Irish affairs.

  It will be almost thirty-four years to the day that Churchill's father, Lord Randolph, spoke from the very same platform but presented a diametrically opposite point of view. In playing the historic "Orange Card," Lord Randolph delivered his famous "thief in the night" speech to the embattled Unionists of the previous century.

  *

  ULSTER UNIONISTS MOVE TO BLOCK CHURCHILL APPEARANCE

  by Seamus O'Neill

  February 7,1912, Belfast (OPS)

  Reaction to the announcement of Winston Churchill's proposed pro-Home Rule speech in Belfast's Ulster Hall was swift and angry in Unionist circles.

  A hastily assembled quorum of the Unionist Executive gathered at Rathweed Hall, home of Sir Frederick Weed, and passed a unanimous resolution to deny him use of Ulster Hall.

  Colonel R. H. Wallace, titular head of the paramilitary Unionist Clubs, warned bluntly that riot and bloodshed could not be prevented. He threatened to have his forces seize the hall.

  "It is lamentable," Sir Frederick said after the meeting, "that this man deliberately comes to this loyal city under sponsorship of the John Redmonds to speak treason and defile the very same platform his father spoke from so gloriously in behalf of our liberty.

  "Free speech," Weed continued, "is not extended to turncoats. Churchill gave up his birthright and bolted the Conservative Party to consort with those who would destroy the Empire. He is the most provocative orator in Britain and this is nothing more than an arrogant exercise and an insult at a time and in a place where the magnificent words of his revered father still ring in our ears."

 
When asked if his estimation of Winston Churchill wasn't excessive and brought on by the climate of the moment, Weed replied angrily, "In my frank opinion, sir, Winston Churchill is no Englishman."

  *

  CHURCHILL BACKS DOWN. ULSTER MEETING FIZZLES.

  by Seamus O'Neill

  February 12, 1912, Belfast (IOPS)

  Landing today at Larne, some thirty-four years after his father, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty and foremost spokesman of the Liberal Party, met with a far different reception than had been accorded the elder Churchill.

  Large crowds on hand gathered in a mood that could only be described as ugly. Booing and shouting anti Home Rule slogans, they lined the route from the Midland Railway Station to the Grand Central Hotel. Every few feet Churchill was greeted with an insulting placard or a dummy of himself being hanged in effigy.

  Moved time and again to the brink of violence, the way was continually impeded by men storming his car, shaking fists, spitting, rock-throwing and otherwise menacing him. At one point they overwhelmed his Constabulary escort and lifted two wheels of his vehicle off the ground, shaking it violently.

  After a hasty consultation with Lord Pirrie and other local Liberals, it was decided that in the interest of avoiding bloodshed the meeting site had best be switched. At the last moment Parnell Field, a rugby ground in the Catholic Falls section of the city, was chosen for the rally.

  *

  JOHN REDMOND PLEADS FOR HOME RULE BILL, WARNS BRITISH AGAINST TRICKERY.

  by Seamus O'Neill

  March 31, 1912, Dublin (IOPS)

  Under growing pressure from Ulster and discontent within his own party and about the country, John Redmond addressed a mass meeting in St. Stephen's Green as the moment pressed closer for the introduction of the third Home Rule Bill.

  Speaking in Gaelic in an impassioned voice, Redmond laid bare his position and placed his tarnishing political future on the line with a mixture of pleas and veiled threats.

  "There are many men here who would destroy the British Empire if they were united . . . we have no wish to destroy the British, we only want our freedom."

  Redmond went on to say that he, personally, would never pay homage to the King of England but at the same time stated that the pending bill was good for Ireland despite the fact it retained allegiance to the Crown.

  ". . . if we are tricked this time, there are parties in Ireland, and I am one of them, who will advise the Gael to have no further counsel with the foreigner ever again, but to answer them henceforth with the; strong hand and the sword's edge. Let the foreigner understand that if we are cheated once more there will be red war in Ireland."

  In light of Redmond's conciliatory behavior in Westminster his "fighting words" were viewed as strictly for home consumption but with a tinge of desperation for his Liberal allies not to pull out on him.

  *

  BULLETIN!

  April 14,1912, London (Reuters)

  After acceptance of the third Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons by 110 votes, it was immediately rejected in Lords by a vote of 326 to 69.

  A second reading of the bill is scheduled by the next session of Commons either late this year or early next year. Three passages are required to override Lords, according to the recent Parliament Act.

  *

  ANTI-HOME RULE CATHOLIC RIOTS SWEEP OVER ULSTER.

  July 4,1912, Belfast (Reuters)

  "Belfast Confetti," an iron disc about the size of a two-shilling piece punched out of ship plating, has been introduced as a semi-lethal street fighting weapon as hundreds of shipyard workers swept into the Catholic Ballymurphy District, hurling their missiles at people and

  windows. By noon over seventy people required hospitalization.

  *

  ANDREW BONAR LAW AND SIR EDWARD CARSON DECRY HOME RULE BILL IN MOST POWERFUL AND OMINOUS STATEMENT TO DATE AT BLENHEIM PALACE RALLY

  by Seamus O'Neill

  July 11, 1912, Blenheim Palace (IOPS)

  In the largest demonstration to date on English soil and in support of Ulster's Protestants, a Conservative Party rally on the grounds of the birthplace of both Winston Churchill and Randolph Churchill drew upwards of a hundred thousand people.

  The ancestral home of the Duke of Marlborough was in full bloom, a floral and wooded wonderland greeting the multitudes whose vibrations were of combative intensity.

  Bonar Law made the most powerful statement yet against Asquith's Liberal Government Referring to Liberal rule as "a revolutionary committee which has seized upon despotic power by fraud," he declared that his Conservatives would not be bound by the restraints of British law that would influence them in an ordinary struggle. Bonar Law threatened that if Home Rule for Ireland were eventually passed "there are things stronger than a parliamentary majority."

  "As for Ulster's Protestants," said Law, "if an attempt were made to deprive these men of their birthright as part of a corrupt parliamentary bargain, they would be justified in resisting such an attempt by all means in their power, including force. I can imagine no length of resistance to which Ulster can go in which I should not be prepared to support them, and in which, in my belief, they would be supported by the overwhelming majority of the British people."

  In answering questions as to the treasonous nature of Law's statement, Sir Edward Carson replied, "If this is treason, so be it. At least we'll take the best in England along with us."

  *

  ALAN BIRMINGHAM QUITS AS LIBERAL WHIP IN PROTEST AGAINST CONTINUED APPEASEMENT OF CARSON AND LAW.

  EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW by Seamus O'Neill

  July 20, London (Irish Overseas Press Service)

  Alan Birmingham, Liberal Whip for the past decade, tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith tonight in protest against his government's inaction concerning the "obvious seditious behavior of Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law and Unionist head Sir Edward Carson," citing Bonar Law's "despotic power by fraud" speech at Blenheim as the final straw.

  "Carson and his bully hordes have unsheathed a sword of naked political terrorism," Birmingham said angrily. "He and Bonar Law continue to flaunt British law and hold the Liberal Party up to public ridicule over our failure to enforce it. It's all being done by design, bit by bit, to see what the traffic will bear, and as we stand by idly, they continue to become bolder and bolder.

  "There is indeed a conspiracy," he continued, "not of our making but by those who seek to destroy the Liberal Party and return England to class rule.

  "If they wish to make martyrs of themselves, we should accommodate them. If they wish civil war, we should accommodate them on that, too. What we cannot permit is the continuation of bald-faced treason to go unchallenged. If they are allowed to get away with this, I predict we shall still be paying the bill for it in Ulster fifty years from now."

  CHAPTER NINE

  Although no one liked the idea of Conor Larkin returning to Belfast, the scheme required organization and a deft hand only he could bring to it. Conor was known on sight in Belfast by thousands of rugby fans and dozens of old friends. The Council only reluctantly let him return to Belfast.

  When Conor had first presented his plan to the Supreme Council, the reaction was one of shock. Yet the plan was so simple and logical they became quietly convinced of its feasibility.

  In early summer of 1912 office space was rented on the second floor of a building on Royal Avenue, the main central thoroughfare near the General Post Office. A sign lettered on the door carried the inconspicuous inscription: B.R.I. IMPORTS-EXPORTS, F. Clarke-MacCoy Customs Broker.

  B.R.I. stood for the Baptist Revival in Ireland and seemed, on the surface, a thinly veiled purchasing agent for a dozen paramilitary Unionist Clubs in the Inishowen region of County Donegal. B.R.I, was among the dozen or more operators who had received certification as customs brokers. Everyone knew but rarely spoke about them, for their principal reason for going into business was to obtain guns for the Unionists.

  B
.R.I. gave every appearance of being another supplier for the clubs, from their stationery down to an office filled with religious supplies needed in a revival movement F. Clarke-MacCoy was treated with a nod and wink by the customs officials when he picked up his weekly consignment of two to four cases of rifles. Documents were passed rapidly and his goods passed through automatically and without inspection.

  What the customs service was unaware of was that by reversing the initials of the Baptist Revival in Ireland one would read, the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The ploy continued to work week in and week out without a hitch. Main concern was for Conor's safety. He was still very much of a fugitive, as well known in Belfast, and had to rotate between a half dozen "safe houses" in an unscheduled pattern.

  One flat was kept in the mixed neighborhood out in Finaghy which was used only occasionally when Atty was able to slip into Belfast. Her visits were necessarily too infrequent and too short in duration. Conor's days were personless and lonely for the most part and he waited for her visits like a cooling shower on a scorching day.

  By autumn the latest cycle of riots had died down but Sir Edward Carson continued to raise the ante in light of meek opposition from the government. The Unionists meticulously planned to cap off the year in a crescendo and named September 26 as the day to unleash the greatest political demonstration in the history of the British Isles.

  Atty was due in the day of the demonstration and so was a shipment of rifles. The B.R.I. office had a view down to Royal Avenue, heart of the parade route, and after finishing his paperwork deep in the night, Conor stretched out on a cot in the office. He wanted a first-hand look at the Unionists in action to draw his own determinations.

  It was a still autumn day of soft beiges, a quiet day like the Lord's day although it was only Saturday. Ulster was stilled from the hubbub of the mills and factories along Lough Belfast, a hush that rolled over the land clear to County Londonderry. No hay was mown in the fields and the traditional Saturday market stalls stood near empty as a subdued holiness flowed ahead of the righteous thunderstorm.