Party Processions Act 1850

Last updated

Party Processions Act 1850
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (1837).svg
Long title An Act to restrain Party Processions in Ireland.
Citation 13 & 14 Vict. c. 2
Territorial extent Ireland
Dates
Royal assent 12 March 1850
Repealed27 June 1872
Other legislation
Repealed by Party Processions Act (Ireland) Repeal Act 1872
Status: Repealed
Party Processions Act (Ireland) Repeal Act 1872
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (1837).svg
Long title An Act to repeal an Act, intituled "An Act to restrain Party Processions in Ireland."
Citation 35 & 36 Vict. c. 22
Dates
Royal assent 27 June 1872
Commencement 27 June 1872
Repealed25 August 1883
Other legislation
Repeals/revokesParty Processions Act 1850
Repealed by Statute Law Revision Act 1883
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
"Freedom to Ireland", a patriotic lithograph by Currier & Ives, New York, ca 1866. The Party Processions Act prohibited music, flags, banners, fire arms and party colours from being paraded in Ireland between its issue in 1850 and its repeal in 1872. Freedom to Ireland.png
"Freedom to Ireland", a patriotic lithograph by Currier & Ives, New York, ca 1866. The Party Processions Act prohibited music, flags, banners, fire arms and party colours from being paraded in Ireland between its issue in 1850 and its repeal in 1872.

The Party Processions Act (13 & 14 Vict. c. 2) was an 1850 Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom which prohibited open marching, organised parades and sectarian meetings in Ireland in order to outlaw provocative movements in the wake of the Dolly's Brae fighting of 1849. Written on 8 February, the Act was assembled against people "in the practice of assembling and marching together in procession in Ireland in a manner calculated to create and perpetuate animosities between different classes of Her Majesty's Subjects, and to endanger the public peace." [1] Actions such as using banners, emblems and flags constituted an offence, as did music "calculated or tend to provoke animosity". Violation of the Act was classed as a misdemeanor. [1] The Act was strongly supported by Sir Robert Peel however opposed by other politicians such as Lord Claude Hamilton who argued that religious parades would also be outlawed, yet posed no threat. [2] The Party Emblems Act was passed in 1860 to further support this measure following further riots at Derrymacash. The Act was "grudgingly" accepted by the Orangemen, however both the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Young Ireland movement, [2] and related Fenian movements were less placated. William Johnston of Ballykilbeg led a radical Orangemen group in defiance of the act during the 1860s, and was imprisoned prompting strong demand for its repeal in 1867, which succeeded in 1872. [3] The issue and repeal of the Act is viewed as an important milestone by nationalist historians of Ireland, and is said to be an example of Irish suppression by the "English" government. [3] Peel, however, was one of a number of Members of Parliament who viewed the Act as a necessity to prevent Catholic and Protestant in-fighting rather than Irish nationalism as a whole. [2] Traditional, revisionist and post-revisionist historians have subsequently supported either viewpoint and the Act remains a controversial one. [3]

Contents

Background

Dolly's Brae Dollysbrae Road - geograph.org.uk - 100732.jpg
Dolly's Brae

On 12 July 1849, Orangemen marched from Rathfriland to Tollymore Park in County Down, Ireland to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Boyne, where William of Orange defeated the Catholic King James II of England. While passing through Magheramayo, which was predominantly Catholic, the group exchanged shots with a number of Ribbonmen. [4] Ribbonism was a strongly Catholic Irish independence movement loosely associated with areas of Ulster and northern Connacht. [5] The Orangemen proceeded to attack Catholic houses within the town, and roughly 30 Catholic people were killed. The event was subsequently known as Dolly's Brae. [4] In the previous years, unrest in Ireland had been rising during the Great Famine which had reduced Ireland's population by over a quarter it was perceived by anti-Union movements including Young Ireland and the fenians to have been poorly handled by the English government. [6] Liberal policies of the United Kingdom government, manifesting in the Catholic emancipation of 1829 and other reforms spurned by the efforts of Daniel O'Connell were marginalising and polarising the Irish Protestant population. The Protestant Orangemen in particular utilised elaborate parades, with banners, music and flags, to facilitate an anti-Catholic agenda. [7] [8] The British government viewed these events with trepidation while much of the English media exhibited a blend of confusion and amusement. [4] [9] [10] As a result, a bill to "restrain party processions in Ireland" was put forward on 8 February 1850, in the House of Commons and amended by the House of Lords. [1] [11]

The Act

The Act itself, entitled "A Bill to Restrain Party Processions in Ireland" stated:

"Whereas Numbers of Persons have been in the Practice of assembling and marching together in procession in Ireland in a Manner calculated to create and perpetuate Animosities between different Classes of Her Majesty's Subjects, and to endanger the public Peace: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords, Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this Act all Assemblies of Persons in Ireland who shall meet and parade together or join in procession, and who shall bear, wear or have amongst them or any of them any fire-arms or other offensive Weapons, or any Banner, Emblem, Flag or Symbol, the Display whereof may be calculated or tend to provoke Animosity between different Classes of Her Majesty's Subjects, or who shall be accompanied by any Person or Persons playing Music which may be calculated or tent to provoke Animosity between different Classes of Her Majesty's Subjects, shall be unlawful Assemblies, and every person present thereat shall be guilty of a Misdemeanor, and upon Conviction thereof shall be punished accordingly." [1]

William Johnston of Ballykilbeg was imprisoned in the 1860s for violating the Party Processions Act, [3] and on 12 July 1867 a number of Orangemen partaking in celebration of the Battle of Boyne received summons for prosecution under the Act, which earned them local media notoriety. [7] An 1864 mass-rally for the memory of O'Connell, who had died in 1849, included several banners, flags, colours and songs prohibited by the Act, [12] which prompted discussion in the House of Lords and the House of Commons regarding the appropriate inclusion of such events in February 1865. Lord Hamilton claimed to have collated reports of 60,000 to 80,000 strong parades violating the particulars of the Act however without once resorting to language or behaviour constituting any breach of the peace. Peel retorted that the law was created to prevent conflict between Catholic and Protestant groups, and that it did not marginalise peaceful marches. [2] Johnston's imprisonment generated, by 1867, strong calls for the Act to be repealed along with its accompanying Emblems Act. [7] It was repealed in 1872. [4]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 1850 (34) Party Processions. (Ireland) A bill to restrain party processions in Ireland. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Great Debates on Party Processions," The Nation 25 February 1865.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Connolly, p. 161, 455.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Connolly, p. 161.
  5. Connolly, p. 512.
  6. English, pp. 115–171.
  7. 1 2 3 "Orange Demonstrations and Soiree in Portadown," The Belfast News-Letter, 16 November 1867.
  8. "The July Anniversary," The Belfast News-Letter, 17 July 1872.
  9. "Orange Celebrations in Ulster," The London Review, 20 July 1869.
  10. "Ireland," The Ipswich Journal, 2 February 1888.
  11. "Bill to restrain Party Processions in Ireland (Lords' Amendments)". House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. Parliamentary Papers Online. 1850. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
  12. "Public Notices," The Nation, 30 July 1864.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of the United Kingdom</span> Supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster in London. Parliament possesses legislative supremacy and thereby holds ultimate power over all other political bodies in the United Kingdom and the Overseas Territories. While Parliament is bicameral, it has three parts: the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The three parts acting together to legislate may be described as the King-in-Parliament. The Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation.

The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 are two Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which form part of the constitution of the United Kingdom. Section 2(2) of the Parliament Act 1949 provides that the two Acts are to be construed as one.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Republic of Ireland Act 1948</span> Law establishing the Republic of Ireland and severing political ties to the UK

The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 is an Act of the Oireachtas which declared that the description of Ireland was to be the Republic of Ireland, and vested in the president of Ireland the power to exercise the executive authority of the state in its external relations, on the advice of the Government of Ireland. The Act was signed into law on 21 December 1948 and came into force on 18 April 1949, Easter Monday, the 33rd anniversary of the beginning of the Easter Rising.

Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws. Requirements to abjure (renounce) the temporal and spiritual authority of the pope and transubstantiation placed major burdens on Roman Catholics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popery Act</span> United Kingdom legislation

An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery was an Act of the Parliament of Ireland that was passed in 1704 designed to suppress Roman Catholicism in Ireland ("Popery"). William Edward Hartpole Lecky called it the most notorious of the Irish Penal Laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independent Orange Order</span> Northtern Ireland Protestant fraternal group

The Independent Loyal Orange Institution is an offshoot of the Orange Institution, a Protestant fraternal organisation based in Northern Ireland. Initially pro-labour and supportive of tenant rights and land reform, over time it moved to a more conservative, unionist position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Twelfth</span> Ulster Protestant celebration

The Twelfth is a primarily Ulster Protestant celebration held on 12 July. It began in the late 18th century in Ulster. It celebrates the Glorious Revolution (1688) and victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690), which ensured a Whig political party and Anglican Ascendancy in Ireland and the passing of the Penal Laws to disenfranchise and persecute the nation's Catholic majority, and to a lesser extent Protestant Dissenters, until Catholic Emancipation in 1829.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, also known as the Catholic Emancipation Act 1829, removed the sacramental tests that barred Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom from Parliament and from higher offices of the judiciary and state. It was the culmination of a fifty-year process of Catholic emancipation which had offered Catholics successive measures of "relief" from the civil and political disabilities imposed by Penal Laws in both Great Britain and in Ireland in the seventeenth, and early eighteenth, centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interpretation Act 1850</span> Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Interpretation Act 1850, also known as Lord Brougham's Act, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that simplified the language that was used in statutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange Order</span> International Protestant fraternal order

The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, as well as in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States.

The Northern Ireland flags issue is one that divides the population along sectarian lines. Depending on political allegiance, people identify with differing flags and symbols, some of which have, or have had, official status in Northern Ireland.

In Ireland, the penal laws were a series of legal disabilities imposed in the seventeenth, and early eighteenth, centuries on the kingdom's Roman Catholic majority and, to a lesser degree, on Protestant "Dissenters". Enacted by the Irish Parliament, they secured the Protestant Ascendancy by further concentrating property and public office in the hands of those who, as communicants of the established Church of Ireland, subscribed to the Oath of Supremacy. The Oath acknowledged the British monarch as the "supreme governor" of matters both spiritual and temporal, and abjured "all foreign jurisdictions [and] powers"—by implication both the Pope in Rome and the Stuart "Pretender" in the court of the King of France.

Parades are a prominent cultural feature of Northern Ireland. The overwhelming majority of parades are held by Ulster Protestant, unionist or Ulster loyalist groups, but some Irish nationalist, republican and non-political groups also parade. Due to longstanding controversy surrounding the contentious nature of some parades, a quasi-judicial public body, the Parades Commission, exists to place conditions and settle disputes. Although not all parading groups recognise the Commission's authority, its decisions are legally binding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Johnston (Irish politician)</span> Irish politician

William Johnston was an Irish Orangeman, unionist and Member of Parliament for Belfast, distinguished by his independent working-class following and commitment to reform. He first entered the United Kingdom Parliament as an Irish Conservative in 1868, celebrated for having broken a standing ban on Orange Order processions and as the nominee of an association of "Protestant Workers". At Westminster, Johnston supported the secret ballot; the accommodation of trade unions and strike action; land reform; and woman's suffrage. He was succeeded in 1902 as the MP for South Belfast, by Thomas Sloan, similarly supported by loyalist workers in opposition to the official unionist candidates favoured by their employers.

The Loyal Orange Institution, better known as the Orange Order, is a Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland. It has been a strong supporter of Irish unionism and has had close links with the Ulster Unionist Party, which governed Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1972. The Orange Order has lodges throughout Ireland, although it is strongest in the North. There are also branches throughout the Commonwealth, and in the United States. In the 20th century, the organisation went into sharp decline outside Northern Ireland and County Donegal. McGarry, John; O'Leary, Brendan (1995). Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images. Blackwell Publishers. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-631-18349-5.; The Orange marches</ref> The Order has a substantial fraternal and benevolent component.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)</span> Primary legislation in the United Kingdom

An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament in Westminster, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piracy Act 1850</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Piracy Act 1850, sometimes called the Pirates Repeal Act 1850, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It relates to proceedings for the condemnation of ships and other things taken from pirates and creates an offence of perjury in such proceedings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statute Law Revision Act 1867</span> Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Statute Law Revision Act 1867 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed for the United Kingdom statutes that had ceased to be in force from the start of the Reign of William III of England and Mary II in 1688 to the tenth year of the Reign of George III in 1770. The at was intended, in particular, to facilitate the preparation of a revised edition of the statutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Succession to the Crown Act 2013</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered the laws of succession to the British throne in accordance with the 2011 Perth Agreement. The Act replaced male-preference primogeniture with absolute primogeniture for those in the line of succession born after 28 October 2011, which means the eldest child, regardless of gender, precedes any siblings. The Act also repealed the Royal Marriages Act 1772, ended disqualification of a person who married a Roman Catholic from succession, and removed the requirement for those outside the first six persons in line to the throne to seek the Sovereign's approval to marry. It came into force on 26 March 2015, at the same time as the other Commonwealth realms implemented the Perth Agreement in their own laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolly's Brae conflict</span>

The Dolly's Brae conflict occurred in County Down in Ulster on 12 July 1849. A contested procession by Orangemen resulted in a skirmish between the Orangemen, local Catholics and Ribbonmen and government troops. These troops successfully escorted the Orange procession through the waiting Catholics. However, on the return to Ballyward, the procession was ambushed by the Catholics, namely the Ribbonmen.

References

Primary

Online

Secondary printed