I was greatly honoured that Professor Fréchet should take an interest in my work. Commenting on my Identity of Ulster, published under my own imprint, Pretani Press in 1982. he was to write:

“What an interesting, curious piece of work this is. Generally, if we are told it is not a question of a war of religion in Ulster, we are told about opposition between Catholics, whom people think of as mostly wishing for the unification of the island, and Protestants who want to remain British.

Adamson however, does not militate in favour of the bringing together of two quite distinct communities. He says that their division is artificial, that they are all more or less descendants of pre-Celtic peoples, and in particular of the Cruthin, who were constantly moving backwards and forwards between Ulster and Scotland, where they were called Picts, a fact that did not prevent their homeland becoming the most Gaelic part of Ireland. “British”, as far as he is concerned, takes on a meaning that Ulster people tend to forget.

Here are some interesting phrases for comparison. “Old British” was displaced in Ireland by Gaelic just as English displaced Gaelic”; “the people of the Shankill Road speak an English which is almost a literal translation of Gaelic”; “the majority of Scottish Gaelic speakers are Protestants”. In fact the author is especially interested in Protestants, but those Protestants who have worked or are working towards reconciliation (could these even be the United Irishmen of the 1790’s), for a co-operative movement, for a kind of popular autonomy or self-management. He shows the paradoxical confusion of antagonistic, partly mythical traditions, and is trying to convince people of the fundamental unity of Ulster”.

In the chapter The Language of Ulster in this book, I set out my vision for the future of our several languages and their variants, as part of an attempt to foster a common identity in Ulster to take our people beyond the religious divide. Little did I realise the extent of hostility this would engender, not among the ordinary people, but by a section of the academic establishment in Northern Ireland .

To be continued

Whiteabbey Masonic Centre

    Remembrance Group 

“Remembering our fallen Masonic Brothers and Heroes since 1914”

Remembrance Day Service 

11^th November 2015 

Conducted by Revd Campbell B Dixon MA MBE

Order of Service

All stand

Sentences of Scripture:

Psalm 46.1

God is our refuge and strength;

a very present help in trouble. 

Micah 6.8

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to

walk humbly with your God? 

Hymn

O God, our help in ages past,

our hope for years to come,

our shelter from the stormy blast,

and our eternal home;

 

Beneath the shadow of thy throne

thy saints have dwelt secure;

sufficient is thine arm alone,

and our defence is sure.

 

Before the hills in order stood,

or earth received her frame,

from everlasting thou art God,

to endless years the same.

 

A thousand ages in thy sight

are like an evening gone;

short as the watch that ends the night

before the rising sun.

 

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,

bears all our years away;

they fly forgotten, as a dream

dies at the opening day.

 

O God, our help in ages past,

our hope for years to come,

be thou our guard while troubles last,

and our eternal home. 

 

We meet in the presence of God. We commit ourselves to work in penitence and

faith for reconciliation between the nations, that all people may, together, live in

freedom, justice and peace.

We pray for all who in bereavement, disability and pain continue to suffer the

consequences of fighting and terror.

We remember with thanksgiving and sorrow those whose lives, in world wars and

conflicts past and present, have been given and taken away. We remember in particular all those from Masonic Orders who have paid the supreme sacrifice and those who carry or have carried the scars of war for our liberty and freedom.

The Act of Remembrance

They shall grow not old,

as we that are left grow old;

age shall not weary them,

nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun

and in the morning,

we will remember them.

Response (all) :“We will remember them.” 

The Last post 

Silence to be kept for a short period 

Reveille

The Kohima Epitaph Is said by;Lt Col Harry Walker

When you go home tell them of us and say,

For your tomorrow we gave our today.

The call:         “In Flanders Fields”Is said by; Lt Col Harry Walker 

In Flanders` fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place: and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders` fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high,

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders` fields. 

Ever-living God, we remember those whom you have gathered from the storm of war

into the peace of your presence; may that same peace calm our fears, bring justice to

all peoples and establish harmony among the nations, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. 

All sit 

A reading from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8;     Read by ; Helen Brooker

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

All stand

Hymn:

Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us

o’er the world’s tempestuous sea;

guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us,

for we have no help but thee;

yet possessing every blessing,

if our God our Father be.

Savior, breathe forgiveness o’er us;

all our weakness thou dost know;

thou didst tread this earth before us;

thou didst feel its keenest woe;

self-denying, death defying,

thou to Calvary didst go.

Spirit of our God, descending,

fill our hearts with heavenly joy;

love with every passion blending

pleasure that can never cloy;

thus provided, pardoned, guided,

nothing can our peace destroy. 

All sit 

Scripture reading from Matthew chapter 5 verses 1-12; Read by; Ewell Crookes MBE 

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down his

disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the

kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of

evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they

persecuted the prophets who were before you 

Address: Rev`d Campbell Dixon 

Let us pray

Let us pray for all who suffer as a result of conflict, and ask that God may give

us peace: for the Service men and women who have died in the violence of war, each

one remembered by and known to God;

May God give peace.

Response: God give peace.

For those who love them in death as in life, offering the distress of our grief and

the sadness of our loss;

May God give peace

Response: God give peace.

For all members of the Armed Forces who are in danger this day, remembering

family, friends and all who pray for their safe return;

May God give peace.

Response: “God give peace.” 

For civilian women, children and men whose lives are disfigured by war or terror,

calling to mind in penitence the anger and hatreds of humanity;

May God give peace.

Response: God give peace.

For peace-makers and peace-keepers, who seek to keep this world secure and free;

May God give peace.

Response: God give peace. 

For all who bear the burden and privilege of leadership, political, military

and religious; asking for gifts of wisdom and resolve in the search for reconciliation

and peace;

May God give peace.

Response: God give peace.

O God of truth and justice, we hold before you those whose memory we cherish,

and those whose names we will never know. Help us to lift our eyes above the

torment of this broken world, and grant us the grace to pray for those who wish us

harm. As we honour the past, may we put our faith in your future; for you are the

source of life and hope, now and for ever. Amen.

Almighty God,

stretch forth your mighty arm

to strengthen and protect the armed forces:

grant that meeting danger with courage

and all occasions with discipline and loyalty,

they may truly serve the cause of justice and peace;

to the honour of your holy name,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come;

thy will be done on earth

as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, the power,

and the glory for ever and ever.

Amen 

All stand

Hymn

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;

the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:

when other helpers fail and comforts flee,

help of the helpless, O abide with me.

 

I need thy presence every passing hour;

what but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

 

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;

ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.

Where is death’s dark sting? where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

 

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;

shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies;

heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;

in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

 

The act of commitment is made:

Let us commit ourselves to responsible living and faithful service.

Will you strive for all that makes for peace?

Response: “We will.” 

Will you seek to heal the wounds of war?

Response: “We will.” 

Will you work for a just future for all humanity?

Response: “We will.”

Merciful God, we offer to you the fears in us that have not yet been cast out by love:

May we accept the hope you have placed in the hearts of all people, and live lives of

justice, courage and mercy; through Jesus Christ our risen Redeemer.

Amen 

The National anthem,

God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us,

God save the Queen.

 

The Blessing

God grant to the living grace,

to the departed rest,

to the Church, the Queen, the Commonwealth

[or to the Church, the State] and all people,

unity, peace and concord,

and to us and all God’s servants,

life everlasting.

And the blessing of God Almighty,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you all

and remain with you always.

Amen 

Bugler: Corp Philip Whiteside     Organist:   Dr Norman Close 

Master Of Ceremonies  

Lt Col Harry Walker 

Our after dinner speakers tonight will be; 

The Worshipful The Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey

Alderman Thomas Hogg. 

Dr Ian Adamson OBE 

The Masonic Holocaust

Could I first of all thank Geoffrey Houston for inviting me here tonight.

When the Nazis came to power, policy towards the Freemasons was equivocal. Efforts to eliminate the Freemason did not receive top priority. Those lodges that espoused tolerance and equality and had international connections or connections through their leaders to the Social Democrats or liberal democrats were subject to persecution and often pressured into “voluntary” dissolution. A few conservative German lodges that were willing to accommodate themselves to the regime were able to continue some form of existence for only a little longer. Nevertheless, the regime intended to exclude those who refused to give up their Masonic connections.

In early 1934, the chief of the Nazi Party Court System ruled that Masons who did not leave their lodges prior to January 30, 1933, could not join the Nazi party. That same month, Prussian Minister of the Interior Hermann Goering issued a decree calling upon the lodges to “voluntarily” dissolve, but requiring such voluntary actions to be submitted to him for approval. In addition, lodges and their branches in various cities throughout Germany were exposed to arbitrary violence from local SS and SA units, though this terror does not appear to have been centrally directed.

Increasing pressure in the public and professional sectors forced individuals to choose between remaining in their lodges or limiting their career opportunities. Many former lodge members holding positions in the civil service were forced or harassed into retirement. In May 1934, the Ministry of Defense banned membership in lodges to all personnel—soldiers and civilian employees. During the summer of 1934, after Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich completed their takeover and centralization of the Gestapo, the German police forcibly closed down many Masonic lodges and branch headquarters of the Masons and confiscated their assets, including their libraries and archives.

On October 28, 1934, Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick issued a decree defining the lodges as “hostile to the state” and hence subject to having their assets confiscated. Finally, on August 17, 1935, citing the authority of the Reichstag Fire Decree, Frick ordered all remaining lodges and branches dissolved and their assets confiscated.

Nazi propaganda continued to link Jews and Freemasons; Julius Streicher’s virulent publication Der Stuermer (The Assault Trooper) repeatedly printed cartoons and articles that attempted to portray a “Jewish-Masonic” conspiracy. Freemasonry also became a particular obsession of the chief of Security Police and SD, Reinhard Heydrich, who counted the Masons, along with the Jews and the political clergy, as the “most implacable enemies of the German race.” In 1935 Heydrich argued for the need to eliminate not only the visible manifestations of these “enemies,” but to root out from every German the “indirect influence of the Jewish spirit”—“a Jewish, liberal, and Masonic infectious residue that remains in the unconscious of many, above all in the academic and intellectual world.”

Heydrich created a special section of the SS Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst;SD), Section II/111, to deal specifically with Freemasonry. The SD was particularly interested, as its personnel believed that Freemasonry exercised actual political power, shaped public opinion through control of the press, and was thus in a position to provoke war, subversion, and revolution. Later, Section VII B 1 of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt; RSHA), an amalgamation of the SD and the Security Police formed in 1939, took over the section devoted to investigating Freemasonry.

As Nazi Germany prepared for war in 1937–1938, the regime relaxed pressure on the rank and file of the dissolved lodges. Hitler amnestied members of the rank and file who renounced their former loyalties in April 1938 and efforts were made in the public sector to decide on continued employment of former lodge members on a case to case basis. Many civil servants who had been forced to retire due to their Masonic connections were recalled into service after the war began and the ban on former Masons serving in the Wehrmacht (German armed forces), even at the officer rank, was relaxed. The Nazi party continued to ban former Masons from membership, though exceptions were made after 1938 in both the Nazi party and even the SS.

As they conquered Europe, the Germans forcibly dissolved Masonic organizations and confiscated their assets and documents wherever they established an occupation regime. After a lodge was closed, it was ransacked for membership lists, important library and archival items, furnishings, and other cultural artifacts. Items seized would be sent on to the appropriate German agency, primarily the SD and later, the RSHA.

As part of their propaganda campaign against Freemasonry, the Nazis and other local right-wing organizations mounted anti-Masonic exhibitions throughout occupied Europe. German-occupied Paris hosted an anti-Masonic exhibition in October 1940, as did German-occupied Brussels in February 1941. Displaying Masonic ritual and cultural artifacts stolen from lodges, such exhibitions aimed to ridicule and direct hatred towards Freemasons and to heighten fears of a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy. German wartime propaganda, particularly in the army, charged that the Jews and Masons had provoked World War II and were responsible for the policies of US President Franklin Roosevelt, who was identified as a Freemason.

Some of Germany’s Axis partners decreed police and discriminatory measures against Masons. In August 1940, the Vichy France regime issued a decree declaring Masons to be enemies of the state and authorizing police surveillance of them. The French wartime authorities even created a card file that identified all members of the Grand Orient of France, a leading French Masonic organization; the card file survived the war and was later microfilmed for the holdings of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, Washington, DC, which I have visited with my friend David Campbell on behalf of the Somme Association.

In 1942, Alfred Rosenberg was authorized by a Hitler decree to wage an “intellectual war” against the Jews and Freemasons. To that end, Hitler permitted Rosenberg’s “Deployment Staff of Reich Leader Rosenberg (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg; ERR) to seize and evaluate Masonic archives and libraries to best equip them to carry on the “methodical intellectual fight” that was “necessary to win the war.” The members of ERR were guaranteed the support of the High Command of the German Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht; OKW) in fulfilling their mission.

After the end of World War II, vast collections of Masonic archives and library collections that had been seized by German authorities were captured, in turn, by Allied and Soviet forces. For example, a significant Masonic archive was found in Silesia, in eastern Germany, by Soviet troops in the last days of World War II. The Soviet authorities shipped the records to Moscow, where they were held in secret archives. Other Masonic-related materials were recovered in Poland; some of this material has been microfilmed and stored in the archive of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Since the end of the Cold War, many Masonic-related collections have been returned to their countries of origin, while others continue to be held in foreign repositories.

Because many of the Freemasons who were arrested were also Jews and/or members of the political opposition, it is not known how many individuals were placed in Nazi concentration camps and/or were targeted only because they were Freemasons. Some former lodge members, as individuals, participated in or were associated with German resistance circles; and some were arrested and murdered during World War II.

The preserved records of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (the Reich Security Main Office) show the persecution of Freemasons during the Holocaust. RSHA Amt VII (Written Records) was overseen by Professor Franz Six and was responsible for “ideological” tasks, by which was meant the creation of antisemitic and anti-Masonic propaganda. While the number is not accurately known, it is estimated that between 80,000 and 200,000 Freemasons were killed under the Nazi regime.  Masonic concentration camp inmates were graded as political prisoners and wore an inverted red triangle.

The small blue forget-me-not flower was first used by the Grand Lodge Zur Sonne, in 1926, as a Masonic emblem at the annual convention in Bremen, Germany. In 1938 a forget-me-not badge—made by the same factory as the Masonic badge—was chosen for the annual Nazi Party Winterhilfswerk, the annual charity drive of the National Socialist People’s Welfare, the welfare branch of the Nazi party. This coincidence enabled Freemasons to wear the forget-me-not badge as a secret sign of membership.

After World War II, the forget-me-not flower was again used as a Masonic emblem at the first Annual Convention of the United Grand Lodges of Germany in 1948. The badge is now worn in the coat lapel by Freemasons around the world to remember all who suffered in the name of Freemasonry, especially those during the Nazi era.

Many Thanks to;

Whiteabbey Lodge of Past Masters 993.

Without L993 acting as our sponsor this event would simply not have got off the ground.

 

 

Remembrance Service, Ulster Reform Club

A service of remembrance was held by the War Memorials in the Reading Room at 11am, on Wednesday, 11th November, led by Club Members, The Right Reverend Christopher Wilson, The Reverend Stewart Heaney and The Very Reverend Dr Hugh Kennedy.

Medals were worn. I attended with my fiends and colleagues Helen and David Brooker of Pretani Associates and Robert Williamson, chairman of Dalaradia. I wore my Burma Star Association badge, presented to me by the Association when I reviewed them at Belfast City Hall during my term as Lord Mayor.

• Guest Speaker Luncheon with Member and Historian Mr Terry Barbour MBE TD.

  Members and guests sat down to hear our Guest Speaker, Mr Barbour, at noon, followed, at approximately 1pm, by lunch.

  A ballot was held in favour of the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

  History of the Gurkha Regiments and the Ulster Connection

  The 24th April, 2015 marked the 200th Anniversary of the Raising of Gurkha Regiments for service, initially with the East Indian Company and following the Siege of Delhi in 1857, the British Army. An Ulster man, Captain Frederick Young was instrumental in recruiting the first Gurkha Regiments.

  To mark this occasion our member Terry Barbour  gave a talk about this Ulster connection and the subsequent history of the Gurkha Regiments. He is the Northern Ireland representative for the Gurkha Welfare Trust and has travelled extensively in Northern India, Nepal, Pakistan and Tibet.

  Terry is a member of the Indian Military Historical Society and the National Army Museum in London. He has spoken to various organisations and historical societies. He served in the Territorial Army for 28 years reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was awarded the MBE (Mil) for his services. A further 10 years were spent with the Reserve Forces Association.

  In civilian life he worked in the Ulster Bank Limited, latterly as Head of Human Resources, Northern Ireland.

The Manapians or Menapii were a tribe of Belgae (Fir Bolg in Gaelic) originating in northern Gaul in pre-Roman and Roman times. According to descriptions in such authors as Strabo, Caesar, Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy  their territory had stretched northwards to the mouth of the Rhine in the north, but more lastingly it stretched along the west of the Schelde. In later geographical terms this territory corresponds roughly to the modern coast of Flanders, the Belgian provinces of Oost and West Flanderen. It also extended into neighbouring France and the river deltas of the southern Netherlands. They may well have been a Germanic-speaking people with Celtic-speaking over-lords and eventually many were to become Franks or “French” or Flemish (Dutch). It was the Manapians along with the Morini and other Northern tribes who maintained an independent Gaulish area following Caesar’s campaign of 57 BC, when he massacred 50,000 Belgic warriors at the earliest recorded Battle on the Somme.The Old Roman Road on which the Caesars travelled was to become the Western Front at Thiepval. I always explained this when commentating on our Somme Commemoration Pilgrimages over the years.

In the 19th century the great Belgic leader Ambiorix became a Belgian national hero because of his resistance  against Julius Caesar, as written in Caesar’s Commentaries of the Gallic War (Commentarii de Bello Gallico). In 54 BC  Ambiorix brought together an alliance of Belgic tribes, the Eburones, Menapii, Nervii and Atuatuci allied to local German tribes. He launched an attack on 9000 Roman troops under Sabinus and Cotta, Caesars favourite generals, at Tongres and wiped them out. Caesar retaliated quickly, determined to exterminate the Belgic confederacy which was ruthlessly ravaged in all-out genocide. Ambiorix, however, was never captured and disappeared from the pages of Continental History, but the Eburones re-emerged in Britain as the Brigantes (Ui Bairrche) and thus they and the Manapians (Managh) came to Ireland, the latter occupying a fortress at Drumanagh in Leinster, which, although it is the largest in Ireland, has remarkably never been fully excavated. Are they afraid of what they might find?

In 52 BC the brilliant Belgic leader Commius of the Atrebates turned against his former ally Caesar. He led a large force to join the armies of his kinsman Vercingetorix against him in a great insurrection which was to change the course of European history. Following Vercingetorix’s defeat, Commius became over-leader of the Belgic Atrebates, Morini, Carnutes, Bituriges, Bellovaci and Eburones and many Belgae followed him to his British Kingdom in the last Celtic-speaking folk movement to Britain, rather than endure the savagery of Roman civilisation. In the twenty years following Julius Caesar’s assassination on the Ides of March, 44 BC, Commius’ British Kingdom grew in size and wealth. In the nine years from 34 BC there were three occasions under Caesar’s successor Octavian (Augustus Caesar), 34, 27, and 26 BC, when a full scale invasion of Britain was contemplated. Commius then appears to have set up a Belgic enclave around the mouth of the Shannon in Western Ireland which became known as and was recorded by Ptolemy as Gangani, the descendants of Gann, the form of his full Celtic name. Ptolemy also designates the Lleyn peninsula in northwest Wales as the “headland of the Gangani”.

Meanwhile his sons took over from one another in surprisingly swift succession as kings of South East Britain. Each re-emerged as Kings of the expanding British Belgic settlements in Western Ireland; these were Tincommius (Gaelic Sen Gann), Epillus (Eochill) and Verica (Ferach). However a war between the tribes of Britain brought Verica (Bericus) to the Court of the Emperor Claudius to ask for support. And so in the year 43 AD a Roman army under the able command of Aulus Plautius landed in Britain. Among the distinguished soldiers of this army were Vespasian and his son Titus, both of whom were destined to become Emperors of Rome. It was therefore among the Britons that those soldiers were trained who destroyed that Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified.

By this time the Brigantes controlled the largest section which is now northern England and a significant part of the midlands, centring on what is now known as Yorkshire. The modern town of York was originally known by the name of Eboracum, founded by the Romans in 71 AD and deriving from the Eburones, whose High Goddess of Sovereignty was Brigantia. Ptolemy also places the Brigantes in South Wexford and the attributes of Brigantia have been taken over by “St Brigit”. They survived into the period of documentary history as the Ui Bairrche giving their name to the Barony of Bargy. It could be that the Brigantes invaded Ireland under pressure from later Belgic and Gaulish tribes and that prior to this they had lived in parts of Britain which were more proximal to Wexford. But they could also have migrated under pressure from the Romans in the 70’s AD, perhaps landing at Lambay Island.

The legendary Ninth Legion, Legio IX Hispana, the Spanish Legion, was one of the oldest and most feared units in the Roman Army. Put together in Spain by Pompey in 65 BC, it came under the command of Julius Caesar who was Governor of Further Spain in 61 BC, and served in Gaul throughout the Gallic Wars from 58 – 51 BC, the Legion was decisive in ensuring Caesar’s control of the Republic. After Caesar’s assassination it remained loyal to his successor Octavian. It fought with distinction against the Cantabrians in Spain from 25 – 13 BC but suffered terribly in the British revolt led by Boadicea ( Boudicca) in 60 AD, losing as many as 50 – 80 per cent of its men . However, several high ranking Officers who could only have served after 117 AD are well known to us, so we can safely assume that the core of the Legion was still extant in the reign of Hadrian, 117 – 138 AD.

The first great leader of the Fenians (later “Gaels”, which means “Wild Men” or “Raiders” in the native British tongue) in Ireland, Tuathal (Teuto–valos) Techtmar, was probably a Roman soldier, commanding Q-Celtic speaking auxiliaries from Spain. The earliest known source for the story of Tuathal Techtmar’s conquest of Ireland from the Aithech thuatha (Vassal Tribes) is a poem by Mael Mura of Othain AD 885. Mael Mura intimates that about 750 years had elapsed since Tuathal Techtmar had marched on the ancient British or Cruthin ritual centre of Tara to create his kingdom of Meath, which would date the invasion to the early 2nd Century AD. This is probably approximately correct. The standard pseudo-historical convention is employed, however, to make him an exiled Irishman returning with a foreign army.

The account in the Lebor Gabála Érenn, which does contain a shadow of history, is probably older and in this we see that Tuathal was born outside Ireland and had not seen the country before he invaded it. We can synchronise his invasion to early in the reign of Hadrian (122 – 138) and his death fighting the Cruthin near Antrim in the reign of Antoninus Pius (138 – 161).This fits with Juvenal (c 60 to 127 AD) who wrote “We have taken our arms beyond the shores of Ireland…” Tuathal may indeed represent the fictitious Mil Espáne (the Soldier from Spain), or even the Ninth Legion, the Legio IX Hispana, but that we will probably never know.

What we do know, however, is that the Manapians were driven north under pressure from the Southern Gaels to merge with the older British Cruthin in Ulster. We meet them again in their last strongholds of Taughmonagh (Tuath Monaigh or the Manapian Nation) in South Belfast, Fermanagh (Fear Manach or Men of the Manapians), Monaghan (Muinachan) and the Mournes (Monaig). The Brigantes we meet again in Knockbreda, the Hill of the Brigantes and, of course, Newtownbreda. Remnants of other British clans settled close to one another in southern Ireland, such as the Velaborians and Coriondians have been lost to history.

One of the high points of the speech given by Erskine Holmes O.B.E., Chair of the Co-operative Forum, at their Conference held in Trinity College, Dublin on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st July, 2010, From Plunkett to the Credit Crunch, was his allusion to Harold Barbour, Plunkett’s man in the North. Erskine is a trustee of Ulster Garden Villages, of which I hold one share, as I do of the Co-operative Society.

Born in 1874, Harold Adrian Milne Barbour was the grandson of the founder of the great linen manufacturing firm of William Barbour of Lisburn. Barbour studied at Harrow School and the University of Oxford before becoming a company director. In 1897 he developed a most outstanding admiration for Horace Plunkett and his co-operative business approach. Over the next forty years he provided a great service to the movement in every aspect of its organisational and business activity.

In 1881, Harold’s father, John D. Barbour, in the face of much opposition from the merchants of Lisburn, provided a meeting place for a group of workers who were attempting to develop a consumer co-operative model based on that of the Rochdale pioneers. This Lisburn Society grew to be one of the largest and best co-operatives in Ireland with a substantial agricultural trade as well as its urban consumer business.

The Society’s minutes of 2nd May,1882 read:-

Resolved that the warmest and best thanks be given to J.D. Barbour Esquire D.L. for his kindness, encouragement and generosity in granting the use of a room in Castle Street, free of charge, for the meetings of the Society when in a state of infant helplessness, which act has assisted in a great measure of the success and prosperity it at present enjoys.

Harold Barbour himself became the President of the Lisburn Co-op in 1900. Within twelve years it had 1450 members and had the biggest average share capital for a member of any Co-op in Ireland. Keeping in close touch with the Co-operative Union in Manchester and the Co-operative Wholesale Societies in Britain at large, Harold Barbour was the important link man between the consumer and agricultural sides of the movement and was elected to the Boards of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS) in 1906 and the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society (IAWS) in 1907. His appointment as Chairman of IAWS in 1910 led to a great upswing in the style and pace of the wholesale arm of the movement. A Banking Service was established with current and deposit accounts, the cheque-books of which were in both Irish Gaelic and English. This laid the foundation for a National Co-operative Bank which lasted until 1912.

Only Barbour could have persuaded the IAWS to take up the grocery trade in opposition to the shop-keepers. Even Plunkett himself had serious doubts about this. In fact, a full scale grocery department was operational by 1912. Barbour believed there was no substitute for hard work; he was a man of the people who met the Committees on the ground. He was the only man to be a full-time Co-operative organiser as well as a full-time Managing Director of a major industrial concern.

Barbour and his wife were noted for their generosity. When all of the Dublin banks were closed during Easter Week 1916, Harold, without being asked, came to the rescue of IAWS by placing £3000 to the credit of this society in the Ulster Bank, Belfast. In January, 1917 both presented their personal cheques of £5500 to complete the refurbishment of the IAWS premises in Thomas Street, Dublin. This gift was made on condition that the building should be dedicated to the perpetuation of the life work of three great pioneers, Horace Plunkett, Rev Tom Finlay and Robert A. Anderson. He was elected as an Irish Unionist Party county councillor, then served in the Senate of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1929.

On resigning his chairmanship of IAWS in 1922 and taking over as President of the Ulster Agricultural Organisation Society (UAOS), he remained on its Board for a further 2 years. During the “Hungry Twenties” he was responsible for holding the Northern Ireland Co-ops together and helped them to a good measure of business success. He died unexpectedly of pneumonia in Zurich on a business trip to the Far East on 23rd December,1938. His gravestone inscription in Lambeg reads:-

“He was the friend of the farmer”. His photographs of rural north and west Ireland in the early years of the 20th-century have been widely exhibited.

His friend and colleague R. A. Anderson once said of him,

“Harold Barbour is the youngest of our leaders and the most enthusiastic and energetic”.

Anderson’s own private life was unfortunately marked by tragedy and grief. He was estranged from his wife, the beautiful Mary Teresa Leahy. A few weeks before Christmas 1914, his son Alan, 23, an Oxford graduate and sports star was killed in the Great War, at Le Pelly near Lille; shortly afterwards his second son Philip was badly wounded and died 22nd February, 1915 on the Western Front. Anderson, old and lonely, died in a nursing home in Clontarf on Christmas Day 1942, with no record of any family member at his funeral. His grave in Mount Jerome Cemetery lay unattended until recently restored by the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society. But Erskine Holmes did not forget him or his sons, or indeed Harold Barbour. Through a life-time’s work with the Co-operative movement Harold Barbour has become for us the Plunkett of the North.

Ed: I can’t find an online photo of Harold Barbour, although there is a brief Wikipedia entry. Yet Barbour was clearly an enthusiastic photographer and his photographic colledction is held in the archives of University College, Dublin – see here.

The text of Ian Adamson’s address to the conference appears in –

The Middle Way: Part 1, by  Dr Ian Adamson (Friday, July 30. 2010); and

The Middle Way: Part 2, by  Dr Ian Adamson (Saturday, July 31. 2010).

Concluded

In 1894 Horace Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IOAS), with himself as president and the young land-agent, Robert Andrew Anderson as secretary. Two prominent allies were Lord Monteagle in Limerick and Rev. Thomas Finlay, Professor of Moral Philosophy at the Catholic University, who had studied agricultural Co-operation in Europe. The following year he published The Irish Homestead as his means of public communication. Then in 1897 Plunkett appointed the Lurgan-born poet George William Russell (AE) as one of his organisers. Protestant in religion but nationalist in sentiment, Russell’s ideal was to “create the conditions in which the spirit of the community grows strong”. The IOAS quickly became the driving force of Co-operation in Ireland, with 33 affiliated Dairy co-operatives and co-operative banks. By the end of 1910 the Co-operative movement had become an essential part of the whole Irish Agricultural scene.

As early as 1892 Plunkett had abandoned his original non-political attitude and in the general election in July he was elected as Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament for South County Dublin. His growing influence and his membership of the Irish Privy Council in 1897 led to the passing of an Act in 1899 which established the Department of Agriculture in Technical Instruction (DATI). His book Ireland in the New Century in 1904 however, criticising the politicians, the educational system, the Gaelic Revival and the power of the Catholic priesthood resulted in a fall-out with John Redmond, the Irish Nationalist leader, who felt that nothing but Home Rule could be the answer to Ireland’s problems . A failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1908 however, persuaded Plunkett that Self-Government for Ireland was of crucial importance and by 1912 he had become a convinced Home Ruler himself. During the years 1914-1921 he worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal the Irish Statesman to advance that cause. In the end, however, he was denounced by Unionists and Republicans alike, Edward Carson even calling him a traitor.

After the Anglo-Irish Treaty, he accepted membership in 1922 of the new Irish Free State Senate, Seanad Éireann. His work in Co-operation continued to take him abroad frequently. He had had a profound influence on Theodore Roosevelt and others, including Colonel House and Charles McCarthy in the United States. But when he was in that country during the Irish Civil War in 1923, his house Kilteragh, County Dublin was burned down by the reactionary I.R.A. This was a cruel blow as it had been the meeting place for what was considered the intelligentsia of Ireland and he had hoped to make it into a hospital for children suffering from tuberculosis. Such was the treatment of a man who had been the prime mover in the development of a new economy for Ireland, firmly rooted in prosperous peasant ownership and a modernised agricultural industry. This was also the man whose fundamental belief was in character and in moral courage, which was to find expression in efficient work combined with proper technology and equipment in farms, houses, schools, hospitals, roads, harbours, communication and transport. This was the real maker of Modern Ireland.

Disillusioned, Plunkett moved to Weybridge, Surrey, England and died there on 26th March, 1932. Life had always been difficult for Plunkett, an Irish boy adapting to Eton and Oxford; then a conservative aristocrat adapting first to the Wild West in America and then to the recidivism of Irish Nationalism. Friendship with Protestant Nationalists such as Mrs Hugh R. Green had finally convinced him to throw in his lot with the new Celtic cultur-kampf. In 1893 the Anglican Douglas Hyde had founded the Gaelic League, which had its aim “the de-anglicisation of Ireland”. From this, sprang Gaelic Nationalism, “Ireland not free only but Gaelic as well; not Gaelic only but free as well”.

Strangely enough through the Anglo-Irish poets Yeats and Lady Gregory, a pseudo-Celtic twilight culture was created, which not only bowdlerised but anglicised the old Gaelic literature out of all recognition. The political manifestation of this Gaelic revival was the foundation of Sinn Fein (We Ourselves) in 1905.Yet Plunkett viewed it all with a critical eye and politics was only a means to an end. W.B. Yeats he described as ”a young poet, a rebel, a mystic and an ass but really a genius in a queer way”. Horace was to especially criticise the military executions following the 1916 rebellion, hoping they might have solely been of men against whom a charge of murder could have been made. Instead it was the young poets and dreamers like his cousin’s son, Joseph Mary Plunkett or Labour leaders of high motives and real sincerity like James Connolly who were executed, producing the inevitable reaction. Yet of Casement he thought,” The fool was guilty of High Treason without a doubt…He is, I think, mad”

So what, in the final analysis, do we make of Horace Plunkett, indeed of all the Plunketts, that old British-Norman family who have provided us with such talent. There is a mystery perchance in heredity. Horace’s final adaptation was to an England which had lost its ruling class, of which he was still essentially one, following the Great War.

The Romans conquered the known world not by the military merits of their soldiers, even though they were considerable, but by the tactics and strategy of their aristocrats and the use of modern technology. So, like them, Horace Plunkett had that most curious of all inherent gifts, the supreme gift that can make a man a Chess Master. José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera, one of the greatest Chess players of all time, came to stay with him twice and a certain native quality of Horace’s play impressed him so much that he felt ”The man could have been of championship rank if he had devoted his life to the game”. And remember too, as James O’Fee has pointed out, that his nephew Lord Edward played Capablanca to a draw in a simultaneous exhibition. In the end they were aristocrats. The virtue, as Horace himself said, lay with the struggle, not the prize. The character of the man will be remembered long after the immense work he inspired.

Ed: Horace Plunkett remains an inspiration for many. Not only for his attempts to find a “middle way” between capitalism and socialism, a “middle way” which perceptibly improved the lot of many in rural Ireland; but also for his attempts to find a “middle way” between Nationalism and Unionism. If all the actors had been men of his temper, the search might have proved successful.

To be continued

On 30th July 2010 I addressed the conference of the Co-operative Forum at Trinity College, Dublin, which had the theme “From Plunkett to the Credit Crunch”. Horace Plunkett was the founding father of the Co-operative Movement in Ireland. The republican-left Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn has recently addressed the Co-operative Party, which thankfully remains independent of the Neoliberal Labour Party, which claims to represent the Socialist vanguard, but actually remains trapped in nationalist, particularly Irish nationalist, ideologies.

My dissertation concerned “The impact of Horace Plunkett on Irish Society and Co-operation in Ireland” but  I  have titled it “The Middle Way”.

In Northern Ireland during the early 1980’s there remained a lower standard of living, a higher proportion of unfit houses, larger families and more unemployment than anywhere in the United Kingdom. Several groups based on community Self-Help were finding that co-operative democracy still offered the best chance of making full use of Ulster’s resources and creating a classless society.

Co-operative democracy is centred on “Co-operation” between bodies of persons for the mutual assistance of both producers and consumers. It thus provides a middle way between capitalism and socialism. The system of Common Ownership is applied, whereby people who own and control that enterprise collectively. Among the first and most successful experiments in co-operation were those of devout Protestants sects who settled in early America e.g. the Dutch Labadists, the German Amish, Mennonites and Dunkers (Church of the Brethren), the Swedish Janssonists and the British Shakers.

The people called Shakers formed a monastic community not unlike those of early Christian times, with complete equality of race and sex. They knew one another as Believers and used mystic dances and songs as recreations to refresh the spirit following physical labour. Edward Deming Andrews in his classical study writes that “Comparison of the religious behaviour of the Believers with that of other spiritual or primitive sects shows little essential difference in the physical phenomena of worship. The mystical experiences of all spiritual fellowships – the cases of clairvoyance and clairaudience, the speaking in unknown tongues, telepathies, prophecies, automatisms, all the charismatic gifts associated with the primitive church – were but the signs, as Rufus Jones has suggested, of more important traits ‘a unique degree of moral earnestness and passion… a rare acuteness of conscience… a unique purity of life’.” Furthermore, “The Methodists under Wesley and Whitefield and the subjects of the famous Ulster Revival in Ireland exhibited in comparable forms the peculiar psychology attendant on excessive rapture.”

For the Shakers manual labour was a sacred commitment, being good for both the individual soul and the collective welfare. As Edward Andrews has written, “The shaker idea was that in consecration, not compulsion; lay the secret of a successful economy. Age, sex and ability were all considered in assignment to work. But one assigned, the individual became part of a co-operative in which TEMPERATE labor – what one writer called ‘the middle way” – was a marked characteristic.” Community of goods was most specifically discussed by the prominent Believer of Ulster descent, John Dunlavy, chief minister at Pleasant Hill in Kentucky, who, in the Manifesto (1818), treated it under the term “united inheritance”. For Dunlavy religious socialism with unity of spirit and possessions was the only logical manifestation of equality and universal love. Only by sharing prosperity with others would such love be genuinely expressed. The fact that individuals widely different in race, age, disposition, education and wealth could form a successful community proved, Dunlavy insisted, that the union was “according to the mind and purpose of Christ himself.

As well as playing an unobtrusive but important part in America’s development, the people called Shakers have been justly described as “really the pioneers of modern socialism, whose experiments deserve a great deal more study than all the speculations of the French Schools.” Certainly they had a deep influence on socialist theorists such as Robert Owen in England. Historically, with the development of capitalism, control of an enterprise was vested totally in the hands of the “owner”. Until just over a century ago the provider of capital was responsible for the success or failure of the venture, taking all the profits or incurring all the losses as the case might be. It was not unreasonable, therefore, that the capitalist would require a measure of control proportionate to the degree of risk involved. The introduction of limited liability in 1855 meant that thenceforth the liability of the investor was limited to the amount of capital that he or she agreed to subscribe to the company. The investor’s return, however, remained unlimited, as did the extent of the investor’s control.

The fundamental injustice of this system led to the formation of the Co-operative movement, the basic principles of which were laid down in 1844 by the Rochdale Pioneers under the influence of Robert Owen (a). The early co-operators identified a limited return on capital and one person one vote (rather than one share one vote). The Labour movement also embraced the ideal of “common ownership of the means of production”. However, socialist theoreticians in the Labour movement (particularly Sidney and Beatrice Webb) were opposed to worker’s co-operatives in principle, maintaining that “common” ownership would be better achieved by national ownership of the means of production. Hence nationalisation became the Labour Party platform.

Farmers have naturally been in the forefront of the producer Co-operative movement because of feelings that they were at a disadvantage in trading. As early as the 1850’s in America Mormon farmers were pooling their labour to irrigate their fields. Founded by Joseph Smith (1805-44) the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” was constituted at Fayette, Seneca County, New York on the 6th of April, 1830. Persecution soon followed and the Mormons established eventually the fine city of Nauvoo in Illinois. Joseph Smith’s maxim for his followers was that, “We teach them the correct principles and they learn to govern themselves”. Co-operation and self-help led to a flourishing community. With the murder of Joseph on the 27th June, 1844, Brigham Young was elected his successor. Fierce persecution continued and the Mormons were asked to leave Nauvoo and its sacred Temple, which was considered to be the most beautiful Church in North America.

Following “the track of Israel towards the west” the first column of immigrants, including people of Ulster descent, arrived on the banks of the Missouri at the end of June 1846. They passed the winter in the prairies – some in huts, others in tents, and in caves which they dug in the earth. They underwent dreadful sufferings from cold, want, and disease, many of them perished. Between 1847 and 1868 about 80,000 Mormons emigrated from Missouri to Utah (Deseret as they had wished it to be known), 6000 died on route. Some travelled with ox teams and some rode on horseback, but hundreds walked – for 4 months – pushing and pulling handcarts and carrying babies in their arms. My Grannies’ Uncle Ned, the Rhyming Weaver known as the Bard of Conlig, joined them in Salt Lake City in 1863. And when Brigham Young died on 29th August 1877 he knew that his people had reached their “Promised Land”.

Towards the end of the 19th century a movement in Ireland towards reconciliation, based on social and economic reform was initiated by the progressive Unionist the Hon. Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett. Born on 25th October 1854, Horace was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett 16th Baron of Dunsany of Dunsany Castle, County Meath and the “Low Church” Hon. Anne Constance Dutton (d.1858), daughter of 2nd Baron Sherbourne (b). His older brother was John, 17th Baron of Dunsany, whose son Edward was the brilliant Fantasy writer and friend of Francis Ledwidge. His cousin was the Papal Count George Noble Plunkett, an ardent nationalist and Home Ruler and future Sinn Fein MP, who was the father of Joseph Mary Plunkett, a signatory of the 1916 proclamation. Dunsany House is possibly the oldest home in continuous occupation in the whole of Ireland and is situated near the ancient British pre-Celtic site known as the Hill of Tara.

Two years after coming down from Oxford, Plunkett was threatened with the old family affliction of tuberculosis, a disease caused by a Mycobacterium which seems to have a hereditary bias, as is shown also by the Brontës. Perhaps brain involvement leads to creativity. It is, of course, a contagious disease, first recognised as such by the Persian and Moslem physician and polymath Ibn-Sīnā (Avicenna), c980-1037, the greatest medical thinker of all time. We visited his birthplace near Bukhara, Uzbekistan some years ago when we travelled on President Yeltsin’s Presidential train. He is buried in Hamedan, Iran. Tuberculosis had carried off Horace’s mother, younger brother and sister, and was soon to take his eldest brother. He therefore left for Wyoming, U.S.A. for health reasons from 1879-89. Returning to Ireland in 1889, he retained a love of America all of his life and his sojourn there imbued him with that detached view of Unionism and Nationalism, Protestantism and Catholicism which at times made him one of the least-loved men in Ireland.

Editor’s notes

(a) The local landlord, Sharman Crawford, was MP for Rochdale in this period –

Sharman Crawford (1781-1861), was an improving landord and Radical MP (Dundalk, 1835-1837, Rochdale, 1841-1852). In 1847 Crawford founded the Ulster Tenant Right Association which sought to have the Tenant Right customary in Ulster given the force of law. So he was a leader of the Tenant Farmers’ movement throughout Ulster and, indeed, further afield. In 1852 Sharman Crawford gave up his seat in Rochdale to contest County Down, but was not elected.

See LAST LONG PRE-MARATHON RUN (Wednesday, April 26. 2006)

(b) The 18th Baron Lord Dunsany (1878-1959) is remembered best for his witty short stories, which influenced many. Yet Dunsany was a skilled chess player as well and in 1929 achieved a draw with former World Champion José Raúl Capablanca in a simultaneous exhibition. The story is recorded in Lord Dunsany 1 (Friday, December 28. 2007) and Lord Dunsany 2: his most famous game of chess (Friday, January 18. 2008).

To be continued

My favourite predecessor as High Sheriff of Belfast was the great Loyalist hero, Tommy Henderson. Thomas Gibson Henderson (13 October 1887 – 14 August 1970) was an Ulster Independent Unionist. He served in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland from 1925 to 1953 in vigorous opposition to the Unionist governments on all issues other than the partition of Ireland, and is famous for having at one stage spoken for nearly ten hours to outline his disagreements. Henderson was born in Belfast and brought up in the Shankill Road area. He was educated at Jersey Street National School and Hampden Street National School, and worked as a housepainter and decorator. He was a strong trade unionist and Orangeman. 

Henderson was a member of the Irish Unionist Party and when the Unionists decided to establish the Ulster Unionist Labour Association to bolster their support with Protestant workers in 1918, he became a founder member and one of the leading personalities and very popular among the Shankill workers.

In 1920, he offered himself as a potential Unionist candidate for the House of Commons of Northern Ireland at the first election but was met by a patronising response from the Chairman of the selection meeting who looked down at him (Henderson was significantly below average height) in his ill-fitting and paint-spattered clothes and asked “What kind of a man are you?”. Henderson left the meeting before the ballot, knowing he could not win and determined to show the Unionists exactly what kind of a man he was. 

In 1923, Henderson was elected as an independent unionist to Belfast City Council. He was to retain the seat until his death. At the 1925 election., he fought the Belfast North constituency and topped the poll with 10,306 first preference votes, the only candidate to have the electoral quota on the first count. From the 1929 election he was elected as member for Belfast Shankill.

Henderson distinguished himself at Stormont by becoming almost a one-man opposition to the Unionist government. He loudly spoke up on behalf of the working-class and criticised the government for defending the interests of the rich landowners. He was insistent that he was four-square behind them on the issue of the border and just as opposed to any land concessions to the Irish Free State. This did not prevent the Unionists using the fact that Henderson often voted with the Irish Nationalist members to imply that he agreed with them, which, of course, he did not.. 

The high point of Henderson’s Parliamentary career came on May 26, 1936 when he decided to speak on the annual Appropriation Bill, a government measure which applied spending to each department and service. Henderson began speaking in the early afternoon, and after a short interruption for an opposition debate, resumed speaking in the evening. He went through each department listing the policies he disagreed with and attacking government policy, being sustained by glasses of water handed to him by the Northern Ireland Labour Party member in the next seat. By the time he sat down at 3:55 AM on 27 May, he had spoken for almost ten hours. The other members of the House had to stay to the end because the Bill was against its deadline to be passed. This was at that point the longest speech in any British Empire legislature.

In the days when most nationalist MPs had an absentee stance on attending Stormont, the “opposition” to the Unionist Government was mostly provided by two Shankill Road Independent Unionist MPs, Tommy Henderson and  John W Nixon, the Labour MP Jack Beattie and two “dissident” nationalist MPs who disagreed with abstention – T.J. Campbell K.C, and Alderman Dick Byrne.  A special edition of Hansard had to be brought out to deal with the speech, which is available on-line

Henderson was a vocal critic of the Northern Ireland government’s failure to put in place effective air raid precautions during the Second World War, which led to severe loss of life when Belfast was bombed on the night of 15 April 1941 (although he excluded the Minister of Public Security, John MacDermott from the criticism despite his technical responsibility). In an unconnected incident, he told of an occasion when the Marquess of Londonderry had invited him to a private room in the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast to discuss Germany. The Marquess, who was a leading Unionist who had held office in the United Kingdom government, was suspected of having pro-German sympathies.

With Henderson’s local support so high, the Unionists did not oppose him in the 1945 election. Likewise, he was left alone in 1949 when the issue of partition was made a total priority. However Henderson, despite his long years of experience, had now become less effective. At the 1953 election both the Northern Ireland Labour Party and the Unionists challenged him and he was defeated.

Henderson retained his seat on Belfast City Council (of which he had been High Sheriff in 1943). Reward for his dedication came with the award of Freeman of the City of Belfast from 1964.