Since the time of Elizabeth Secret Societies in Ireland have played a large and evil part in the agitations that have been kept up against the English connection. At the present time the secret society which dominates the policy of the Irish Nationalist Party is known as the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and, although it has not always had this title, as the subsequent pages of this chapter will show, it has had a direct and unbroken continuity from the Elizabethan times. In Great Britain the Nationalists have done their best to make this Society appear as a harmless benefit society giving sick relief to its members and assisting them when out of work; but there is no difficulty in proving that its principal object is to drive the English Government out of Ireland. There is no one who has read Irish history who will fail to recoil with horror at the terrible outrages and murders which have been perpetrated by members of this Order in bygone days, and in all the speeches that have been made by its present-day leaders we search in vain for any words of condemnation.
A few years ago it was officially stated that its membership numbered 380,000, and probably by this time its numbers will have increased to 400,000. We have not heard so much about this Order as we have about the Irish Society in America which is known as the Clan-na-gael. The Parnell Commission of 1890 showed the true character of the Clan-na-gael brotherhood, and the finding of the three judges on their inquiry into the connection between the so-called ‘constitutional’ agitation in Ireland and the extreme movement among the Irish in America presents it in its true colours. In the course of their finding the judges said:
‘We are of opinion that the evidence proves that the Irish National League of America has been, since the Philadelphia Convention, April 25th, 1883, directed by the Clan-na-gael, a body actively engaged in promoting the use of dynamite for the destruction of life and property in England. It has not, however, been proved that Mr. Parnell or any of the respondents knew that the Clan-na-gael had obtained control over the Irish National League of America, or was collecting money for the Parliamentary Fund, and the circulars of that body, as well as the evidence of Le Caron, show that their operations were secret. But, though it has not been proved that Mr. Parnell and the other respondents knew that the Clan-na-gael controlled the League, or that the Clan-na-gael was collecting money for the Parliamentary Fund, it has been proved
Mr. John Redmond has told us in his speeches of ‘a great unknown power’ waiting for an opportunity which might arise to have recourse, if necessary, to unconstitutional methods to advance the cause of Ireland, but he cannot mean by this the Clan-na-gael, as the Parnell Commission has thrown so much light on it that it is now fairly harmless. The principal Nationalist secret organisation which exists in Ireland to-day is the Ancient Order of Hibernians, sometimes nicknamed the Molly Maguires, and it may be fairly assumed that it is the ‘Unknown Power’ behind the Parliamentary movement. The antecedents of the society do not fill one with respect. Its early history (when it had another name) is one of pillage, murder, and rapine. From its foundation in 1565 by Rory Oge O'More it has undergone many changes in name, but its character has always remained the same. The names it has been known by are the following: —(1) Rapparees, (2) Whiteboys, (3) White Feet,
Rory Oge O'More was captain of an organised band whose duty ostensibly was that of protecting Roman Catholic priests while at Mass. Had this been its true object the society would have started on a creditable basis, but it has been proved that its original members were nothing more or less than a band of lawless brigands whose chief aim was to attack small towns or villages, burn the Protestant houses, and murder and mutilate the inhabitants. This is proved by a letter from Sir Henry Sidney to Sir Francis Walsingham, whose son was a prisoner in the hands of the rebel leader when the English soldiers attacked his house. The letter states:
‘The villainous rebel (Rory Oge O'More) fell upon my most dear nephew, being tied in chains and him most shamefully hacked and hewed with my nephew's own sword, to the effusion of such a quantity of blood as were incredible to be told. He brake his arm with that blunt sword and cut off the little finger of one of his hands, and in sundry parts of his head so wounded him as I myself in his dressing did see his brain moving.’’’
(Calendar of Carew Papers, 1575, p. 356.)
So much for the founder of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, whose career was one of horrible crime, and yet the Nationalist Party of to-day look upon him as a hero. He died in 1578, and was succeeded by Donald O'Driscoll, who continued to hold sway till he was killed in battle by the English troops. He was succeeded by the son of Rory Oge O'More, who continued the cruel methods of his father, till in 1600 he was slain in a fight with Queen Elizabeth's troops. Not much is heard of the ‘Rapparees’ till the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland took place, when their depredations broke out afresh. It is a strange fact that the Rapparees were then denounced by the Roman Catholic Synod of Ardpatrick as lawless bandits, but at the present time Pope Pius X. is said to be the most powerful friend of the Order, and the ban which until lately existed forbidding priests to become members has now been rescinded, and many of them have since joined the Order. The Order itself is, according to the late Mr. Michael Davitt, the most powerful pro-Celtic organisation in the world. It has branches in many lands, and in America the number of its lodges have reached the total of 6,000. The membership of this Order is divided into two degrees, the first of which has the majority. The oath is not administered nor secrets communicated to members of the first degree. The second degree consists of the initiated, who are bound to one another by
The form of this Oath will suffice to show what a disloyal, treasonable, and, above all, purely sectarian body of men composed its membership.
Among the successors of the Rapparees organisation the best known is that of the Whiteboys. It made its appearance in January, 1762, and received the name of Whiteboys on account of the members wearing their shirts over their coats at night for the purpose of disguise. Their chief work was the organising of agrarian outrages for the redress of their grievances, and the barbarism
Lecky also tells us ‘that the ‘mildest’ punishment was to drag a man out of his bed, often in mid-winter, beat him, and leave him bound and naked in a ditch by the roadside; not infrequently they put a man in a newly dug grave and left him, occasionally with his ears cut off, buried up to his chin in earth, in thorns and furze.’ Their outrages were so horrible and their cruelty so great that they were denounced by the Roman Catholic Archbishop, James Butler, as ‘a gang of wretches heaved out by hell’ and as ‘deluded victims of the devil,’ and he declared that their ‘accumulated enormities call to Heaven for vengeance.’ This society existed till after 1830, when it became known as the Ribbon Society, but in the meantime a branch of the Whiteboys appeared in Ulster under the name of Defenders,
One might easily fill a large book with stories of the atrocities committed by the Defenders, whose conduct was as brutal as it was criminal, and who evidently thought that the end justified the means. But, as has always been the case with these illegal societies, they did not succeed in benefiting anyone, not even themselves. So much for the Defenders, who on the eve of the Rebellion of 1798 joined the United Irishmen, and ultimately gained the control of that organisation after most of the Protestants had withdrawn from it disgusted
About the year 1812 the Ribbonmen became active. Like their predecessors, they continued to organise outrages against Protestants, and so violent did their crimes become that not only was the Government compelled to take special measures against them, but the Society itself was also condemned by the Roman Catholic Bishop, Doyle, who charged it with ‘establishing a reign of terror through the country.’
The Ribbonmen were known by different names, but no matter by what title they went they had only one object in view, and that was to expel the Protestants from Ireland. Bishop Doyle denounced them as ‘making war like the savages of the Desert.’ In a recent history of the Ancient Order of Hibernians the Ribbon organisation is described as ‘a grand and noble Society.’ Those who took the Ribbon oath swore to owe no allegiance to a Protestant Sovereign, to murder all the Protestant landlords, and to destroy all Protestant places of worship. Another form of the Ribbon oath included a clause to ‘wade knee-deep in Orangemen's blood.’
Mr. A. M. Sullivan, a well-known Nationalist, has described the Ribbon Society as ‘a hideous organisation of outrage and murder.’
The late Mr. Michael Davitt declared that the Ancient Order of Hibernians is ‘the trans-Atlantic offspring of Ribbonism in Ireland.’ Ireland has had many secret societies under Nationalist auspices, and their aim may be summed up in one brief sentence — Hatred of England and Hatred of Protestantism.
From the foregoing quotations it is quite clear that, whatever may be the character of the Hibernian Order of to-day, it originated in disloyalty, cruelty, outrage, and crime.
While no one contends that the Hibernians now display the bloodthirsty characteristics of their predecessors, still, the events of the last few years show that their presence makes for sectarian discord in Ireland. Not only that, but their whole weight is used to crush all those who dare to doubt the infallibility of the Nationalist leaders. The Cork Free Press (the organ of Mr. William O'Brien, who was fighting for Home Rule before many of the present generation were born), in an article in its issue of September 13th, 1910, sets out the present character of the Hibernian Order in plain but unmistakable language:
‘The most significant feature of Mr. Dillon's speech (at Limerick, September 11th, 1910) was his open championship of the Molly Maguires. Mr. Dillon indulged in the usual rubbish about a Ribbon Society, which was under the ban of the Church, ‘having protected the Faith of our Fatherland.’ He now asks
These are the words of a Home Ruler, who knows the true aims of the Nationalist party. They show the danger to which Protestants and Unionists would be exposed under a Home Rule Parliament, for to-day the Ancient Order of Hibernians is supreme in the councils of the Irish Party. Its decrees, as Mr. O'Brien clearly shows, would mean ‘extermination of the Protestant community.’ If the English people hand over the Protestants of Ireland to the rule of Secret Societies, they will do so with a full knowledge that it means their extermination. The only hope left to the Protestants would be to meet and overcome their enemies by physical force.