Ulster Quotes
1st Earl of Balfour. Balfour was arguing against a united Ireland having autonomy whereby the wealthier, more Protestant, Northern Ireland would be dominated by Southern Ireland. See his political opponent, William E. Gladstone, for a similar view of the “superiority” of Northern Ireland.
English owners of Irish Estates did not get along with the Irish natives very well. They were perceived by most Englishmen as uncivilized, primitive barbarians who were not hard workers or industrious people. Further, England had turned Protestant and made Ireland such, and the Roman Catholic Irishment did not want to have much to do with the English who were occupying their land and robbing them of their religion. So the English estate managers sought to induce English to settle in Ireland.
The belief in the “superiority” of Northern Ireland was also held by the Conservatives. See Arthur James Balfour.
He was one of the claimants to be King of Ulster—he thought with the best claim. The English who ruled Ireland supported another. A shrewd politician and fierce fighter, he became “The O’Neil”—the traditional title of the Ulster King—for 1559–1567 when he was killed in battle to the delight of the English.
This was a rebellion of the Irish natives of Ulster against the English Protestants land owners and the English settlers. In addition to the desire for liberty as this proclamation formally states, the rebels were mostly Roman Catholics whose religion had been almost destroyed the thought by the English component of the Protestant Reformation. 12 years after this proclamation, he was executed.
This early Irish emigration—mostly to America—were mostly Ulster Presbyterians known in America as “Scotch-Irish”. The editors were very concerned as the emigrants were the backbone of the Ulster workforce. The huge Catholic emigration would come later.
The Irish Earls of Ulster, after a failed rebellion against English rule, fled to the European continent. As Chichester realized, this created an opportunity for the King to name new Earls and grant them the lands and possessions of the Earls who had fled. And since the Irish people were loyal to their traditional Earls. He suggested that English and Scots colonists be recruited to settle the lands. The King agreed and referred to the project as the “Ulster Plantation”. This was the reason that Northern Ireland had a much larger Protestant population percentage than the rest of Ireland and wanted to remain part of England when Ireland obtained its independence.
