|
THEY PARTITIONED ULSTER TOO Ulster, the Northern province of nine counties, has played a great part in Ireland's national life. From Ulster came twenty-five of the forty-three High Kings of Ireland. In dividing Ireland, Britain also divided Ulster, yet each of the six counties torn from the province and from the nation has been the scene of events which shaped Ireland's national greatness and strengthened the movement for independent nationhood. The figures on the map indicate some of these events. 1. Armagh, primatial see and ecclesiastical centre of Ireland since St.Patrick's time. 2. Downpatrick, the burial place of St.Patrick, St.Brigid and St.Columbcille. 3.Drom Ceat, in Derry, where a national Assembly was held in A.D. 574. 4. Bellek, where, in 1258, Brian O'Neill was chosen King of Ireland to check the Norman penetration. 5. Connor, near Ballymena, where Edward Bruce defeated the Anglo-Normans in 1315 and initiated nation-wide effort to expel the invaders. 6. Enniskillen, where the Nine Years' War in defence of the Gaelic way of life began in 1594. 7. Yellow Ford, scene of Hugh O'Neill's defeat of the English in 1598. 8. Benburb, where Owen Roe O'Neill defeated the English forces under general Monroe in 1646. 9. Dungannon, where a National Convention of Volunteers, in 1782, asserted Ireland's right to legislative independence and led to the establishment of Grattan's Parliament in Dublin. 10. Belfast: on Cave Hill, just outside the city, the Society of United Irishmen, pledged to make Ireland an independent Republic, was founded by Wolfe Tone in 1791. 11. Antrim, where the United Irishmen gave battle for independence on June 9, 1798. 12. Grey Abbey, where Rev.Mr.Porter, Presbyterian Minister, was hanged for his part in the 1793 insurrection. 13. Dungiven, birthplace of John Mitchel, author of the Jail Journal, and the leader of the 1848 movement for independence. 14. At Broighter, near Limavady, was found, in 1891, a gold hoard containing a beautifully embossed collar regarded as the most perfect known example of Irish craftsmanship in pre-Christian times. 15. Thomas Clarke, First Signatory of the Proclamation of Independence issued by the Provisional Government in the Insurrection of 1916, lived the formative years of his life in Dungannon. |