Edward Carson

 * Click to Enlarge

Edward Carson's signed copy of the Ulster Covenant

 

We’ll fight to the last in the honest old cause and guard our religion, our freedom and laws. We’ll fight for our country, our  king and his crown, and make all the traitors and croppies lie down.

Lord Edward Carson is simultaneously both one of the most revered and the most maligned in modern Irish history. To nationalists he is remembered as the principal architect of partition, although that was not his intention. Unionists, on the other hand see him as one of the founding fathers of Northern Ireland. Similarly, that was not intention either. Carson’s ambition was to save the union; not only for Ulster but for the whole island.

Carson was a complex and fascinating individual, rich in paradoxes. A Dubliner and southerner who never lost his Irish brogue, he found himself leading an overwhelmingly Ulster-based movement. Although he became Ulster’s leader, never ceased at heart to be a Southern Irish Unionist.

In an age of great advocates and on several occasions a law officer of the Crown, Carson found himself the leader of an armed rebellion, at least in the eyes of his political opponents. It is not altogether surprising that a nationalist MP found it scarcely credible and jibed that Carson would never discard his wig and gown for a spiked helmet and a khaki suit. Carson was a man who exuded public certainty yet was assailed and tormented by private doubts. He needed and received constant reassurances from James Craig, the MP for East Down, his loyal lieutenant and a formidable organiser, Carson suffered ill health for most of his life, (but lived to be over 80 years old) However, this did not prevent him from embarking on a gruelling parliamentary and extra parliamentary campaign to preserve the union at the age of 56.

Carson’s politics too are often misunderstood. Carson was no fanatic. His politics were liberal Unionist. As a young man he had been approached by some nationalists to stand for Parliament for their party. While Carson’s Unionism was flexible, his politics were otherwise very liberal. But anyone who underestimated the strength of his Unionist convictions made a grievous error. Carson was a Unionist because he believed  Ireland’s interests were best served by the Union.

In 1986 when Carson refused the Conservative whip, he said “I am resolved to take whatever course is best for Ireland”. In 1900 he told Arthur Balfour, “It is only Ireland that I am in politics for” The maintenance of the Union was his guiding star of his career. For the Union he was prepared sacrifice everything: party alliances, personal friendships and even his own prospects.

Carson did not ultimately like politics. On one occasion he quite truthfully told Lloyd George “I have remain a lawyer first and a politician afterwards”.

Politics for Carson represented financial sacrifice. When he accepted the leadership of the Irish Unionist Party in February 1910 he was at the height of his career and foregoing great riches. It was his conviction and passionate belief in the Union that prompted him to accept the leadership, even at the risk of his personal liberty.

Of Carson’s  political career, the ultimate paradox is the impressive statue in front of Parliament Building at Stormont:  a statue of a man opposed to Home Rule parliament. Frequently misinterpreted as an expression of triumphalism, in truth it is rather a symbol of failure. Carson never sought to establish a parliament in Belfast. Stormont was a by-product of the failure to defeat Home Rule.

Carson was born at 4 Harcourt Street, Dublin, on February 9th 1854. His families back ground on his father’s side was professional and middle class rather than landed gentry. His mother, being one of the lamberts, of Athenry, Co. Galway, descended from a Cromwellian settler. Carson was educated at Portarington and Trinity College, Dublin. He was to represent his alma mater in Parliament between 1892 and 1918. His legal career began on the Leinster Circuit in 1878. After 1893 he built up a formidable legal practice in England. His background, upbringing, education and early professional career, was firmly located in Southern Irish Unionist society. Before 1910 or 1911 he had little or no experience or contact with Ulster society.

Carson’s association with Ulster, especially his leadership of Ulster Unionism between February 1910 and February 1921, accounts for only a modest proportion of a long and distinguished political and legal career. Carson was a MP for Trinity College, Dublin, for 26 years and MP for the Belfast constituency of Duncairn from December 1918 to May 1921. The greater part of his life was spent in the London Parliament fighting for the Union.

In the General Election of 1910 Walter Long, chairman of the Irish Unionist Parliamentary Party, who had previously represented South County Dublin, was returned for a London constituency. Long resigned as chairman of the Parliamentary Party, thereby creating a vacancy at what was clearly a critical juncture for the future of the Union. The Parliamentary Party conveyed its unanimous to Carson to become chairman. Carson considered the matter carefully, weighing up, no doubt the implications for the income, leisure and health. The future of the Union out weighed all these personal considerations, Carson accepted the position and the challenge. The Parliamentary Party met on February 21st, 1910 and formally elected Carson as its chairman. Carson was chosen on account of his ability (which was universally recognised) rather than his high profile in local Unionist politics.

Carson’s aim was the comprehensive defeat of Home Rule. Carson realised that Home Rule would not be viable without Ulster’s and more specifically Belfast’s heavy industry and had it not been for the fact that the whole of Europe’s economy was thrown into turmoil, as the result of two world wars, he would have been proved right. He recognised John Redmond and his nationalists would never accept Home Rule with Ulster exclusion. Therefore, Carson believed that if he could demonstrate that Ulster Unionists were resolute in their determination to oppose Home Rule, Home Rule would be dead in the water.

The signing of the Ulster Covenant on September 28th 1912, drilling and military preparations, the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the establishment of a provisional government in Belfast and large scale arming of the UVF were all intended to demonstrate the seriousness and depth of Ulster opposition to Home Rule.

In November 1911 Carson drafted a memo suggesting that “it might be necessary to raise the question (of Ulster exclusion) some time by amendment”. It was in this spirit that Carson supported the Agar-Robartes amendment for four county exclusion in June 1912 and Carson introduced his own amendment for the exclusion of the nine counties of Ulster in January 1913 Carson still believed that it was possible to defeat Home Rule by insisting on the exclusion of either the whole of Ulster or even part of it.

However, in November 1913 Carson meet a delegation of Southern Unionists and posed them a series of highly significant questions. Is it your decision that I am to go on fighting for Ulster? Yes. Will my fight in Ulster interfere in any way with your fight in the south? No. If I win in Ulster, am I to refuse the fruits of victory because you have lost? No.

This episode signaled the fact that Carson no longer believed it was possible to defeat Home Rule for the whole of Ireland. His task between November 1913 and the summer of 1941 was to save Ulster, or as much of Ulster as possible, from the operation of a Home Rule Bill.

By the time of the Buckingham Palace conference of July 1914 Carson had succeeded in establishing the case for some form of Ulster exclusion from the operation of the third Home Rule Bill. Two areas of contention remained. First, whether exclusion would be temporary or permanent and, secondly, the extent of the area to be excluded. As to the former issue, nationalists obviously viewed temporary exclusion with greater favour than permanent exclusion.

Unionists obviously preferred and expected exclusion to be permanent.  On the latter question, nationalists were reluctantly prepared to contemplate for county exclusion.  The formal unionists position was to insist on exclusion for all nine counties of Ulster, but Carson appreciated that the best they could hope for was six county exclusion.  But for the outbreak of the great war in August 1914 modern Ulster would consist of four rather than six counties. 

In May and June 1916, in the immediate aftermath of the Easter rebellion in Dublin, Lloyd George negotiated separately with John Redmond and Carson to secure a swift solution to the Irish question.  Lloyd George’s starting point recognised that Carson’s bottom line in July 1914 was six country exclusion.  Accordingly, Lloyd George offered Redmond immediate home rule with temporary six county exclusion and Carson immediate home rule with permanent six county exclusion.

On Jun 12th Carson undertook the painful task of persuading the Ulster Unionists Council to accept the Lloyd George scheme.  This of course was a source of great pain and anguish to the Unionists of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan.  Similarly, John Redmond and John Dilon convinced a nationalist convention to accept Lloyd George’s proposals on June 23rd.  On July 13th 1916 Lord Midleton, a leading Southern Irish Unionist, established that Lloyd George’s scheme was provisional and Redmond insisted that Nationalists would never acquiesce in permanent six county exclusion.  Lloyd George had no option but to shelve his proposals.

Carson never exhibited much enthusiasm for the Government of Ireland Act which was introduced in the commons on February 25^th 1920.  The bill proposed the establishment of two parliaments in Ireland, one in Belfast and one in Dublin.  Northern Ireland, the area to be placed under the Jurisdiction of the Belfast parliament was to be a six county rather than a nine county Ulster. The legislation was grafted in this way at the insistence of James Craig and the Ulster Unionist leadership.  Behind the scenes, as early as November 1919, they had indicated to Walter Long, Chairman of the cabinet committee that they would accept no other settlement.  This, of course, showed scant regard for the interests of the Unionists of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan. 

Ulster Unionists would take no responsibility for the bill which they disliked on principle but they would not oppose its progress onto the statute book because it conceded Ulster’s right to separate treatment in preference to the concept of an all Ireland parliament which was provided for in the 1914 act.  Carson’s response to the bill remained luke-warm. 

Carson was invited to become Northern Ireland’s first Prime Minister but it was an honour he declined.  It would have involved operating the government of Ireland Act which he had viewed with distaste.  The prospect of office had little attraction for him.  On February 4^th 1921 he formally relinquished the leadership of Ulster Unionism.

On May 21^st 1921 Carson accepted a life-peerage and judicial office as Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.  Two months later a truce was agreed between the IRA and the British government. Negotiations resulted in the Anglo Irish Treaty signed in December 1921. The treaty brought the Anglo Irish Conflict of 1919 – 1921 to a close and gave dominion status to the 26 counties while allowing Ulster to remain part of the United Kingdom. 

Carson’s maiden speech in the House of Lords on December 14th, 1921 was a bitter denunciation of the treaty. Carson regarded it as an abject surrender to terrorism and an utter humiliation for the British Empire. Carson’s acute sense of betrayal and bitterness at the treaty evidence in the speech were the product of his southern unionist roots.

Thereafter, Carson exhibited little public interest in Ulster politics he made occasional visits and the massive statue of Carson in front of parliament buildings at Stormont was unveiled in his presence on July 8th, 1933. 

Carson died on October 22nd, 1935 at Cleve Court, near Ramsgate.  HMS Broke conveyed the body to Belfast for a state funeral in St Anne’s Cathedral, where he was buried within the precincts.

Originally published in the Orange Standard