The number of Protestants in Ireland had been on the decline since 1911. They started the decade with 327,179 people and went down to 220,723 people by 1926, amounting to an approximately 33% drop. During the same time span, the Catholic population only fell by 2%. Some historians, such as Peter Hart, argue that at least 50% of the Protestants who left, were forced to or risk violent retaliation, while other historians such as Andy Bielenberg, argue that many Protestants left because of lack of economic opportunities and the uncertainty of their own futures without British protection.

Other explanations include wealthier Protestants wanted to keep their property but maybe wanted to live in other parts of the British Empire or the United States for various reasons such as health, employment, education, and marriage prospects for children, etc. More Protestants volunteered for World War I then Catholics and so they died during the war and their families relocated to be with family elsewhere, or members of a family died during the Spanish Flu and had to resettle with other relatives. The violence of both the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War also, most certainly, contributed to people emigrating.

The Provisional Government paid a lot of lip service to being a nation for all religious denominations, but, given everything else it was contending with, it didn’t make any special effort to assist the Protestant minority. James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, admitted he didn’t even think about the Protestants in the south, far more concerned with protecting the north. While the Provisional Government wasn’t openly hostile to the Protestant community, their actions, such as pushing for land reform, did little to assure the Protestants they would be welcomed or safe.

It is most likely safe to say that the Protestant migration was influenced by real acts of violence, the perceived threat or risk of violence, and the expected or actual loss of economic opportunities.

Economic Factors for Mass Protestant Emigration

Not surprisingly, when the British colonized Ireland, they changed the economy of the island, building an economic system that was dependent on and maintained England, the landlords, who were usually Protestant, and the British soldiers stationed in the area. This could look like three different situations:

1. Generating wealth by owning land, particularly the big houses that remind me of plantations in the United States.
2. Serving in one of these big houses, on the land, or owning businesses that catered to the needs of the big houses.
3. Owning businesses in garrison towns that catered to the needs of the British soldiers and barracks.

Land Reform

One of the biggest economic factors that contributed to Protestants leaving Ireland was land reform. Traditionally, the Protestants held more land than the Catholics in Ireland, but once the Wyndham Land Act of 1903 passed, that began to change.

The Wyndham Land Act made it easier for tenants to purchase land, letting the government pay the difference between what the tenant offered and what the landlord asked for. It also gave more rights to tenants, breaking the hold landowners had over them. The Wyndham Land Act would be extended by the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act of 1909, beginning the end of Protestant dominance over Irish land. In total, 316,000 tenants purchased roughly 11.5 million acres out of a total of 20 million acres under these acts. The Irish Free Government would pass the Land law (Commission) Act 1923, which allowed the government to break large land holdings into smaller and smaller units of untenant land, even if the division made the land “uneconomic.”

As we’ve mentioned before, Protestants were already migrating out of Ireland starting in 1911, most likely prompted by the land acts. Seeing where the wind was blowing, many Protestants must have figured out that it wouldn’t be long before the Irish Free State would divvy out the remaining untenanted land. Many Protestants also no longer lived in Ireland or only lived on the island part time, but still owned land. It didn’t make sense to return to Ireland to take care of land they had trusted servants to manage while they were away, so they packed up and relocated, leaving their servants and tenants to fend for themselves.

 That being said, Protestant farmers and other agriculture workers had a better chance of staying and recovering from the economic shock then urban workers. According to Andy Bielenberg, the number of Protestant farmers and cattle dealers increased in 1926, with women farmers increasing by 32%. Many farmers who initially left returned or they simply moved to another location in Ireland.

Economic Life in Garrison Towns

Before the Anglo-Irish treaty was signed, the life of a garrison town revolved around the presence of the British soldiers. These were also the same towns that were heavily impacted by IRA activity during the Irish War of Independence. The IRA often used risk of ambush to trap British soldiers within the confines of their towns, making the towns even more dependent on the British for their safety and economy. Either people served within the ranks of the army, of the civil service, or as members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) or they worked in shops that served and supplied the barracks. When the British soldiers withdrew, the garrison towns saw the largest drop in total population as their economies collapsed. Many people followed the British soldiers during the initial withdrawal. Others left later either because they couldn’t find work elsewhere because of their association with the British Empire or their businesses folded because of a lack of customers and/or purposeful boycotts.

Boycotting, a weapon the Irish used during the 1880 Land Wars, was also a weapon used against “loyalists”, pro-treaty people, and “enemies of the republic”. Many Protestant stores in rural, Catholic dominated areas in particular were very vulnerable to enforced boycotts and often left to either live in a city, like Dublin, went north, or went elsewhere like England, the US, Australia, etc.

Additionally, there were many industrial industries who saw a drop in profits after World War I and had to cut costs by shutting factories or limiting the products they produced. This led to economic changes all over the British Empire, including Ireland. For example, Kynochs stopped making explosives at their plant in Arklow in 1918 when wartime demand fell. This forced many workers, including many Protestants, to find work elsewhere, contributing to relocation. Another work, Herbert Hunter, a cereal breeder at Ballinacurra cereal station in Co. Cork, said that he left because:

“The end of the war brought changes in people and affairs, and I felt that for various reasons, some personal and others more difficult to define, that I should endeavour to extend my horizon”

Andy Bielenberg, Exodus: The Emigration of Southern Irish Protestants During the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War

During the British occupation, many Protestants enjoyed economic privileges. When the British left, they faced petty discrimination and purposeful exclusion. Bielenberg found that in Co. Donegal, 8 out of 37 rate collectors were Protestants before the treaty was signed. In 1924, there were no Protestant rate collectors. The post officer saw a similar loss of all of its Protestant workers.

Violent Factors for Mass Protestant Emigration

While economic factors contributed to emigration, violence also played a factor. With the withdrawal of British forces, security fell onto the shoulders of the struggling Provisional Government. As we’ve mentioned before, the Provisional Government only controlled parts of Dublin. Large parts of rural Ireland were left in the hands of the anti-treaty IRA. This left minorities, particularly the Protestants, vulnerable to violence, intimidation, and expulsion orders.

From 1921 to May 1922, the number of attacks against Protestants increased, the most famous being the Bandon Valley Massacre in April 1922 when thirteen Protestants were shot in west Cork in the space of a few nights. Peter Hart argues that this was motivated primarily by sectarian antagonism, but that is a very contested opinion. In the Bandon Valley Massacre in particular a number of targets had been actively opposed to the IRA or fraternized with crown forces. Other victims seemed to have been shot because they were an acceptable proxy for the real target. This isn’t to downplay the role of sectarianism in these violent attacks, but to highlight the many conflicting motives that contribute to these kinds of incidents. It also seems that many Protestants who initially fled the area following the massacre, later returned to their homes.

Why were Protestants targeted? There is definitely merit to the idea of sectarian violence, basically Protestants are dangerous because they’re not Catholic and not “really Irish”. There is also an argument to be made that, particularly the anti-treaty IRA, were still fighting the last war. They wanted to fight the British and so the Protestants weren’t just citizens, they were potential spies and collaborators. There is definitely some scapegoating. Somehow the Protestants were poisoning the land and culture, keeping Ireland trapped within England’s control. The betrayal by former IRA heroes like Michael Collins was hard to accept and he was even accused of being a puppet for England. If someone with Collins’ revolutionary credentials could be attacked for being owned by the British, then many Protestants didn’t stand a chance. Finally, people wanted to take revenge for old hurts or simply saw an opportunity to clear the land of its current occupants and open it up for redistribution. I will also add that while this episode focuses specifically on the fate of Irish Protestants, Catholics who “betrayed” the cause were similarly targeted, which undercuts the sectarian argument a bit. Also, while the assumption is that the violence was driven by the anti-treaty IRA, there are also accounts of Free State soldiers harassing citizens as well as opportunists who used the British withdrawal and approaching civil war as a cover for their own actions.

House Burning

Ireland has a long history of agrarian violence, so it makes sense that a lot of violence against the Protestants was centered around destroying the big houses, attacking grazers who needed large tracts of undeveloped land for their cattle, and maiming and killing livestock.

Gemma Clark studied everyday violence perpetrated in the Tipperary, Limerick, and Waterford counties during the Irish Civil War. She found that the most common type of everyday violence was arson, intimidation, kidnapping, executions, and sexual violence and assault. For arson, she found 2,018 compensation claims relating specifically to arson. Out of those 2,018 compensation claims, it seems that there were 108 incidents of arson in Limerick, 164 cases in Tipperary, and 20 cases in Waterford. Out of those numbers, we have the following statistics:

Of the 108 arson cases in Limerick:

1. 41% of cases involved crops and/or outhouses.
2. 21% of cases involved small-to-medium sized private houses.
3. 16% of cases involved burning down other property such as vehicles, goods in transit, personal items, etc.
4. 9% cases involved Big Houses
5. 7% cases involved Barracks (former RIC or Free State)
6. 6% cases involved Public Building or Businesses

Of the 164 arson cases in Tipperary:

1. 28% of cases involved crops and/or outhouses.
2. 18% of cases involved burning down other property such as vehicles, goods in transit, personal items, etc.
3. 16% of cases involved small-to-medium sized private houses.
4. 15% cases involved Big Houses
5. 13% cases involved Barracks (former RIC or Free State)
6. 10% cases involved Public Building or Businesses

Of the 20 arson cases in Waterford:

1. 45% of cases involved crops and/or outhouses.
2. 25% of cases involved burning down other property such as vehicles, goods in transit, personal items, etc.
3. 20% of cases involved small-to-medium sized private houses.
4. 10% cases involved Big Houses

One of the reasons arsons was popular was because it destroyed infrastructure, making the Pro-treaty and Protestant lives harder and undermining people’s faith in the Free State government. If the Free State couldn’t protect them from arsonists and anti-treaty IRA, then what were they good for?

However, it also served as a continuation of the land wars. Given the fact that the British were leaving, it was safe to assume that meant land would be redistributed, especially since that was a big issue for Sinn Fein. So, the logic went that if the big houses were burnt, it would force the “loyalist”, “protestants”, and “anti-republican” Irish people to flee and open the land up for claiming, even if the house itself was destroyed.

While it is tempting to assume that a lot of arson was perpetrated by opportunists using the chaos of the civil war to settle old scores and take what they thought they deserved, it was also a deliberate strategy implemented with military precision. They caused terror, took away big buildings that could be used by Free State troops and “loyalists” and undermined the Free State’s hold on security and order. It also destroyed infrastructure needed to supply troops, ship troops and goods around the country, and hurt businesses.

O’Higgins himself would claim that arson was just one of many tools used by the anti-treaty side to hurt the Free Irish State.

“A conspiracy has existed against this State for ten months. Its methods are open and apparent – arson, assassination, general sabotage, war on the economic life of the country, the burning of commercial vans, the mining of picture-houses, and attempting to blow up business establishments.”

Gemma Clark, Everyday Violence in the Irish Civil War, pg. 69

When arson didn’t work, then anti-treaty IRA intimidated, harassed, assaulted, and eventually killed supporters of the Free State, “loyalists”, and anyone who threatened an Irish Republic whether they be Catholics or Protestants. This could involve threatening notes, expulsion orders, raids, kidnappings, assaults – sexual and otherwise -, and eventual executions. It also involved the destruction of property (sometimes through arson) as well as animal abuse, maiming, and death, especially cattle and livestock that farmers relied on for their living. In urban areas, this also included the destruction of goods and store fronts. One of the reasons cattle were targeted connected back to the idea of land redistribution. There was the concept of grazers, people who owned large tracks of land to graze their cattle, and many people thought this land could be redistributed, so they attacked the cattle to hurt the farmer’s business and force him out and then they could take the land.

Whose Culture Is It?

While it would be misleading to claim that the Provisional Government and later the Free State government purposely tried to eradicate what the Protestant community saw as “their” culture, it’s true that the government did all it could to reassert a Gaelic, Catholic culture, one many believed the British had destroyed with their invasion.

One of the biggest bones of contention between the Irish government and the Protestants was the revival of Gaeilge. Compulsory Gaeilge in primary schools was one of the first things introduced by the Irish government and became a key factor in many jobs. By 1925, proficiency was required to enter the civil service, defense, the police force, and the legal world. This created an economic barrier for many Protestants who had no love for the language and no interest in learning it. They even argued that it wasted time in the classroom, preventing students from learning more relevant subjects. While the Free State government never meant to be against other religions, the dominance of Catholicism also put the Protestant minority on edge. That combined with the shrinking Protestant spaces because of mass emigration, and it’s no surprise that many Protestants felt they were being asked to assimilate to a culture that wasn’t theirs. As violence wound down and economic opportunities stabilized, the feeling of living in an “alien” culture, seems to have been a driving factor for emigration after the civil war.

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References

Exodus: The Emigration of Southern Irish Protestants During the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War by Andy Bielenberg

Notes from Everyday Violence in the Irish Civil War by Gemma Clark

The Republic by Charles Townshend

Between Two Hells by Diarmaid Ferriter