Pride of Lagan Valley Flute Band 1979

A huge well done to each and every one of the loyalist bands and societies that took part in the Lord Carson Memorial parade in London this past weekend. An impressive display of loyalist culture, musicianship and pageantry proudly displayed in our country’s capital city.

Ulster Day 28th September On this day in 1912 Unionists across Ulster, Ireland, & beyond, took part in one of the greatest demonstrations of unity and determination this island has ever seen. Nearly 500,000 men and women signed the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant on and after Ulster Day, as Loyalists committed themselves to resist home rule in protection of their British citizenship. On the eve of Covenant Day, Edward Carson summed up the sentiment at the time. “We will take deliberately a step forward, not in defiance but in defence, and the Covenant which we will most willingly sign tomorrow will be a great step forward, in no spirit of aggression, in no spirit of ascendency, but with full knowledge that, if necessary, you and I - you trusting me, and I trusting you - will follow out everything that this Covenant means to the very end, whatever the consequences.” On Covenant Day more than 500 church services were organised to encourage people to sign. The Archbishop of Armagh at the time, Charles D’Arcy explained his reasons for supporting the Covenant. “We hold that no power, not even the British Parliament, has the right to deprive us of our heritage of British citizenship.” The Northern Whig described the calibre of the men first signing the Covenant at Belfast City Hall. It wrote, “By 12.15 there was gathered round the flag-covered drumhead a body of men who represented a very large part of the capital, the talent, the genius, and the energy of the City of Belfast. If Covenant is treason, nearly all that makes for progress in this city will have to be impeached.” Thousands of men from Orange lodges and Unionist clubs volunteered to marshal the event and organised signatories into lines that allowed up to 540 signatures at a time. Martin Ross wrote about the effort at City Hall, “Four at a time the men stopped and fixed their signatures and were quickly replaced by the next batch. Down the street in a market house the women were signing, women who had come in flagged motors, and on bicycles and on foot…there was no hypnotic force of dense masses, no whirlwind of emotion, only the unadorned and individual action of those who had left their fields and take their lives and liberties in their hands laying them forth in the open sunshine as the measure of their resolve.” 2,000 Ulstermen in Dublin signed the covenant. It was also signed in major cities throughout the United Kingdom, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and London. In Edinburgh, Ulstermen signed the Covenant in the old Greyfriars Churchyard on the “Covenanters Stone”, a memorial to the Scottish Covenant of the 17th Century. Further afield, in countries like Australia, USA, Canada and South Africa people also signed the Covenant. Remarkably, six Belfast men on the lower decks of the HMS Monmouth, a cruiser heading to China, signed the Covenant and sent it back home to comprise part of the resistance. In total, 474,414 signed the Covenant, 237,368 men and 234,046 women signed the Declaration. Equal citizenship. Civil and religious freedom for all. Material well-being of Ulster. Resistance. Their spirit lives on today.