Madam, – Senator Eoghan Harris (October 10th) is right to indicate that precise figures are difficult, if not impossible, to find for the number of Protestant “involuntary emigrants” between the inter-censal periods of 1911 and 1926. I have researched this subject in some detail over many months with the help of Prof David Fitzpatrick of University College, Dublin. He pointed out to me that “These speculations show, above all, how treacherous and insufficient are the available figures”. I agree, having looked at all the available sources I can lay my hands on.
At the end of this research, the best estimate I can come up with is about 45,000 Protestants were “involuntary emigrants” between 1911 and 1926, a figure somewhat higher than that of Dr Andy Bielenberg. A comprehensive breakdown of this figure will, I hope, become available when the book I am writing on Protestants in this State since 1920 is published.
Mr Harris is right to say there was a major exodus of Protestants during this period who were intimidated, or made to feel unwanted, and my book covers many such examples, details of which can be found in the Irish Grants Committee archives at the National Archives, Kew, London and in periodicals of that time like the Church of Ireland Gazette and the Presbyterian Witness. – Yours, etc,
ROBIN BURY,
Military Road,
Killiney, Co Dublin.
Madam, – Eoghan Harris asserts there was an exodus of 60,000 Protestants with no political ties to the ancien regime fleeing the South around the period 1919 to 1926 (October 10th) and extrapolates from this a theory of sectarianism.
This begs some questions. Firstly, where is the figure of 60,000 obtained? Secondly, why did so many other Protestants stay on when others left? Thirdly, was there a similar exodus of Catholics from the South? I have recently completed a project on my family’s history and discovered that my own grandfather, who was both Protestant and an ex-British soldier, left Ireland some time around 1922 or 1923.
The principal reason appears to be that with the creation of the Free State his prospective job in the civil service fell through, along with most other jobs connected to the old British administration. Due to the state of unrest and open war that existed at the time, the economy was in tatters and jobs were not easily found.
I never heard any mention of a threat to his life from the IRA. On the contrary, the only time his life was threatened was from a British army officer in early 1921. My grandfather and his friend were returning from a pub in Crosshaven in high spirits and the friend began to sing some “rebel” songs. This friend was also an ex-British soldier, who had been a PoW and was not particularly political. It may have been he simply liked the tunes. But the result was that they both found themselves promptly arrested by a very angry British officer who wanted summarily to shoot them. A local RIC officer intervened to save their lives, saying he knew them both and they were “okay”. They were let go but the shock of realising how serious things were resulted in the friend emigrating soon after. My grandfather stayed on a few years but then he left too, seeing little future here, though he returned in the 1930s.
I hope this shows how much more complex the issue is than Mr Harris’s sectarianism thesis would have us believe. – Yours, etc,
NICK FOLLEY,
Carrigaline, Co Cork.