Another rare publication from the 'Home Rule' era has come my way, and it's just as fascinating as the others I've speed-read recently (see previous recent post here). It's the 24 page report of the Irish Presbyterian Anti-Home Rule Convention of 1912. The index lists all of the key speakers - a 'great and the good' collection of business leaders, academics and ministers.
Among those - within the address by Limerick-born Daniel Martin Wilson KC and therefore it's easy to miss - is the experience of a farming couple from Galway. Here is the account of Edwy Farrington, further contextualised thanks to the marvel of digitised, searchable newspapers on the British Newspaper Archive and other online sources.
The Farringtons were recorded in the 1901 Census of Ireland as living in one of the only six houses in Ballinloughan, Aughrim. Edwy Farrington (sometimes reported as Edwyn or Edwin) was born in England, and his sister Enid Clare was born in Scotland – at that time he was Church of Ireland and she was Congregational. A quick Google search shows that other Galway Farringtons had migrated to Lancashire in the late 1800s. Later on, six Farringtons – some born in England, some born in Ireland – would be killed while serving with Irish regiments during the Great War from 1914-18. So, perhaps Edwy and Enid's parents had also gone over to England or Scotland, and then they came back. Edwy was involved with the Salvation Army in Galway.
In 1891 farmland known as Barrett's Hill, at Cashla / Coshla, three miles from Athenry, was 'bought out of the Bankruptcy Court' by a Presbyterian called Joseph Kidd who was originally from Donaghmore near Newry, but most recently from Culkeeran, Moy, County Armagh. It was said to be 'mountain land of the worst kind'. Edwy tilled the land and built a house. Joseph Kidd died there on 30 December 1895, aged 83, and Edwy married his daughter, Margaret.
All was well until May 1906. The couple became unwelcome in the community, and they said that the influence of the United Irish League was in some way responsible. In March 1907, the South Galway Branch of the United Irish League was mentioned in Parliament for intimidating a farm worker. Back in 1901, the League had been involved in the murder of a Hugh Thompson at Belcoo in County Fermanagh. In 1909, the League was implicated in a murder at Craughwell just 10 miles away from Cashla, and in 1920 the activities of the League would be linked to two murders in Cashla itself.
• 1908 attacks
A report in the Galway Express on 24 October 1908 shows that Edwy Farrington had applied to the county court for compensation for two incidents – one was that 'some person or persons' on 19 August did 'maliciously and wantonly injure and maim a milch cow by breaking one of its legs'; the other was that on 4 September 'some person or persons' did 'maliciously and wilfully fire into a dwelling house'. A few other newspapers reported the incidents too - the Evening Irish Times of 24 August said that 'certain persons in the locality want to get the land'. There are also newspaper references to one of the Farringtons bullocks being poisoned.
• 1911 Census of Ireland
The Farringtons stuck it out, for a while at least. In the 1911 Census of Ireland Edwy and Margaret Farrington were still living there. They had become Presbyterians. They had no children but had three labourers living with them, all Church of Ireland men from County Cavan. This summary of their 1911 Census returns shows that three RIC policemen were also living in one of the Farringtons' farm outhouses for a time – one from Galway, one from Antrim and one from Sligo. Maybe for protection?
• February 1912 in Belfast
The next year Edwy was in Belfast, on 1 February 1912, to take part in the anti-Home Rule meetings at Church House which were attended by 40,000 Presbyterian men from all over Ireland. 20 special trains were put on to carry the spectators into the city. Edwy Farrington was present but his statement was read to the audience by Rev J W Gibson of Broadway Presbyterian Church. Here are scans of the account –
It doesn't say which church Edwy belonged to, but it was plausibly Ballinasloe Presbyterian, which was one of only three Presbyterian congregations in the entire county around that time. The minister of Ballinasloe, Rev James Whigham, published this famous illustrated map of all of Ireland's various Presbyterian congregations in 1886.
Edwy Farrington's statement was widely published in the newspapers across Ireland who covered the Anti-Home Rule Convention. Some papers poured scorn, alleging the 1912 equivalent of 'fake news' - the Sligo Champion of 10 February 1912 was one of them.
• March 1912 - selling the farm
Having farmed the ground for around 21 years, but less than six weeks after his big public statement in Belfast, Edwy decided to get out of Galway. On 12 March 1912, the farm - totalling 116 acres and 3 roods - was put up for auction. The Galway Express of 23 March 1912 includes a large notice for the further sale of the 'cattle, sheep, pigs, farm implements, crops, etc.' at 'Cashla Lodge' by an E. Farrington Esq.
There is no indication if Edwy ever received any practical help or support from those who had fêted him in Belfast, who platformed his experiences to help further their ends.
Edwy must have died (but I've not been able to find exact details) because the Galway Observer of 28 April 1917 includes another notice regarding the sale of the farm - a public notice between Mary L Kidd spinster, Sarah Kidd spinster, and Margaret E Farrington, and the Congested Districts Board for Ireland. Some readers will understand the significance of that better than I.
Margaret E Farrington died in hospital in Enniskillen on 13 February 1935.
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• The 24 page report pamphlet is packed with detail and is an insight into both the actual 'lived experiences' as well as the anticipated fears of Presbyterians in Ireland at the time – voices which are seldom articulated in our era.
• Much of it is pretty strident stuff, as one might expect, but in other places it is also generous and more inclusive than I expected. Take for example this extract from the Resolution which was passed:
"... In our opposition to Home Rule we are actuated by no spirit of sectarian exclusiveness, and we seek for no ascendancy, religious. or otherwise. Many of us were active sharers in the struggle which, over forty years ago, secured religious equality and initiated land reform in Ireland; and, if permitted, we are all of us ready to co-operate with Irishmen of every creed in the advancement of the social, moral, and material prosperity of our common country ..."
And this, from Thomas Sinclair who was about to author the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant:
"... Neither do we meet in any spirit of hostility to our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. There is not a man of all the many thousands who throng our halls and churches to-day who does not number many personal friends and well-wishers amongst his Roman Catholic neighbours. We are all ready, as opportunity offers, to co-operate with them in the social, economic, and moral advancement of our land. Not a few of us still survive who worked with them in the great political struggles by which religious equality was established in Ireland, and Irish land reform initiated. We seek no ascendancy over them. We ask for no privilege which is not equally theirs also. Our difference with them on religious grounds lies in the political claim which the supreme authority of their Church sets up in matters affecting civil right and religious freedom. This claim, as free-born children of Reformed principles, we can never admit, and in resisting that policy which we are certain would make the Church supreme in an Irish Legislature ..."
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