History of Protest Marches in Ireland

Dara Robinson

I was talking to a friend earlier today and our discussion reached a stumbling block, we skirted around it and moved on but the question that arose never got answered, which got me thinking...

Does anyone know if there is a current history of Irish Protest Marches? How many there have been? When they took place? The topics and so on.

The argument that arose was about the Irish and do they protest at all and what kind of turn out is there compared to other countries and then is it possible to measure the effectiveness of marches when you look at the % of the population that turns out to a national march and so on.
Now I know that this last paragraph cant be answered for sure, but it can be argued about given the data for the paragraph above it is there and thats what we were on about

So, is there? We looked on line but found nothing. Does any one know if this sort of thing has been tracked? (ie the dates, topics and attendance numbers of Irish marches that is not the other stuff)

Black Swan

MOD COMMENT:
It would appear that the information sought regarding "History of Protest Marches in Ireland" may be better obtained in the History & Heritage forum. Will be moved locked so that the destination mods may review it for appropriateness.

jonniebgood1

I see no problem with this so it is reopened. It may be fair to also consider protest meetings and other forms of social agrarianism.

moderator.

Peregrinus

Well, didn't O'Connell hold enormous "monster meetings" as part of his campaigns for Catholic Emancipation, and later for Repeal? I don't recall exact numbers, but attendances were very large indeed.

I think to get big protest meetings/marches you need two things:

First, a certain standard of communications and transport, so that people can get word of the meeting in large numbers, and travel in numbers to attend. That requires newspapers, a certain level of literacy in the population, and either large concentrations of people in cities, or good rail transport.

Secondly, a political culture in which governments don't assume that "large gathering for political purpose" = "riot/revolution". You're less likely to attend a protest meeting if you think the hussars are going to ride you down with sabres.

All of this really comes together in the nineteenth century. So I don't think you'll find many examples in Ireland before O'Connell.

MarchDub

Peregrinus wrote: »

Well, didn't O'Connell hold enormous "monster meetings" as part of his campaigns for Catholic Emancipation, and later for Repeal? I don't recall exact numbers, but attendances were very large indeed.

The so called "Monster Meetings" were organised by O'Connell to protest the Union and break the connection with Britain - this was after Catholic Emancipation. The numbers attending were large, hence the name. They were held at sites significant to Irish history. The one that he organised at Tara in August 1843 was said to have numbered over a quarter of a million people in attendance.

The meetings were so successful - especially after the number who turned out at Tara - that O'Connell called for a monster meeting at Clontarf for October of the same year. By then the British authorities had become alarmed at these huge protest meetings and issued a ban for the Clontarf meeting and O'Connell, fearing violence, cancelled the meeting the day before. However, he was arrested and charged with sedition and sentenced to one year in prison. O'Connell served a few months, his health broke and an appeal got him released.

Large protest meetings were also organised by Michael Davitt and the Land League later in the century to gain attention for plight of tenants and demand tenant rights. In 1879 tenants gathered in Irishtown, near Castlebar for a first meeting. The number reported there is over 10,000 in attendance - more than four times the number originally hoped for by Davitt.

Manach

The Ulster Covenant around the 1912 timeframe might also be an example of mass movements per se. In that offhand I think there was about a half million that signed that document but offhand I'm unsure if there were any protest marches involved - beyond the usual marching season ones of course.

Peregrinus

MarchDub wrote: »

The so called "Monster Meetings" were organised by O'Connell to protest the Union and break the connection with Britain - this was after Catholic Emancipation . . .

Interesting - so O’Connell’s tactics changed between the Emancipation campaign and the Repeal campaign? That might be part of our answer, so.

Recall that a political mass demonstration (in favour of parliamentary reform) in Peterloo, Manchester in 1819 was charged by cavalry, resulting in about 15 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The event was an enormous scandal, but no action was taken against the officials responsible, and in fact political opinion was divided. Liberals and radicals were horrified and outraged, but the response of the (Tory) government of the day was a crackdown on political reform movements, and on the liberal press. And that was probably a pointer for the next decade (during which the Emancipation campaign was fought) for how large political rallies would probably be dealt with.

But by 1829 the (still Tory) government has moderated sufficiently to grant Catholic Emancipation, and in 1832 we have parliamentary reform in the Reform Act, and I think after these events the climate has changed, and the increased politically legitimacy and relevance of popular opinion was conceded. An appeal for mass support, and for demonstrations of mass support, is no longer seen as automatically seditions or revolutionary, and O’Connell adopts the tactic. For a time the government tolerates them, but eventually they ban the Clontarf meeting and O’Connell - who has a horror of bloodshed, and who remembers Peterloo - calls it off.