Presbyterians against Home Rule for Ireland, February 1912 - "We ask no favour; we have no ascendancy – we never had – and we seek none"

This famous event of February 1912 perplexes many. What on earth had happened between the apparent widespread Ulster Presbyterian support for rebellion against the government of Ireland in 1798*, but their General Assembly's almost total opposition to Home Rule for Ireland in 1886, in 1893 and in 1912?

I came across an address from the February 1912 Presbyterian 'Anti Home Rule Convention' in an obscure book entitled Intolerance in Ireland, Facts Not Fiction – By An Irishman which was written anonymously in 1913. I acquired it just recently and had never heard of it before. It has over 200 pages detailing all sorts of persecutions of people from the various reformed denominations across Ireland, between around 1893 and 1913. Most have been collated from newspapers of the time, and first-hand interviews.

It is pretty mind-boggling as these stories are not told or known any more. Appalling anti-Catholic prejudice has been well documented, and rightly so. Equally appalling anti-Presbyterian, anti-Baptist, anti-Methodist, anti-Church of Ireland prejudice is, as far as I know, hardly documented at all. This 200 page book focuses on the province of Munster where the anonymous author lived; he says in the introduction that the "persecution in Ireland" is "continually going on all over the country, in Ulster, Leinster and Connaught as well as Munster. If a complete book were written it would fill many volumes".

Anyway, this specific Presbyterian address was entitled 'An Appeal to the Free Churches of England and Wales', and was issued by the Moderator and the Chairman of the Committee on the State of the Country.  It ends as follows -

With old newspapers from 'these islands' now available digitally on websites such as the British Newspaper Archive, it is now easier than ever to research and see what actually took place. So, not only could the accounts in this book be verified, but others could be found too, if they were indeed given any coverage during those highly charged and partisan times.

This is also a good example of why free speech is so important, because throughout history pretty much every 'ruling elite' has sought to suppress information and free expression. We often speak of the 'free press' in terms of the freedom of the press to report and comment. However, no press is free in a financial sense. They are all owned by someone, and financed by someone – and advertisers add another layer of influence. The owner's objectives, and the flow of money, are two of the things that control what gets reported and how it gets reported.

Wherever in the world it happens, the toxic combination of institutionalised religion and politics, the pursuit of social control and political influence, and the power and wealth which comes with that, is the complete opposite of what Jesus Christ himself said when he told the Roman puppet colonial governor Pontius Pilate 'my kingdom is not of this world'.

Institutional power is not the same as personal faith.

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* As ever, it's not that simple. A read of Rev William Steele Dickson's Narrative of the Confinement and Exile (1812) is a good place to start to see the complexities. He was minister at Ballyhalbert and Portaferry and my father has spoken of him to me a few times - even though their lives were almost exactly 200 years apart - such was Steele's enduring legacy in our area.

• Another story which has relevance - which I am thankful to a friend for introducing me to quite recently - was the Dungannon Convention of 15 February 1782. That's another essential context for understanding the pre-1798 era.