On This Day / March 18, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210318
Reference Date
19210318
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 18th March 1921, Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law resigned due to ill health, reports revealed, while tensions escalated during the Belfast boycott campaign against Northern goods. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Carson Ally Resigns | On This Day – 18th March 1921
AT THE conclusion of questions in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Lloyd George rose and said: ‘It is my very painful duty to read to the House a letter which I have just received from the Leader of the House who writes: “I very much regret that I have to inform you that I am no longer able to continue my political work.
‘The strain of the last few years has pressed very heavily upon me …
‘Now I am quite worn out and my medical advisers have warned me that my physical condition is such that, unless I have an immediate and long rest, an early and complete breakdown is inevitable …”
Mr Lloyd George was deeply affected.
Andrew Bonar Law was born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1858. His father was a Presbyterian minister of Scottish descent who had emigrated from Ireland.
The future Conservative leader returned to Scotland where his education was completed.
After several years in the iron and steel business, he turned his attention to politics and was elected for the Blackfriars Division of Glasgow through the Irish vote in 1900. He became leader of the Conservative Party in 1911.
Sir Edward Carson and his advisers in the North of Ireland then provided the English Unionist with the policy and the war cry.
The Ulster Volunteers were formed [1913] and elaborate preparations were made to inaugurate a rebellion against an Act of the Imperial Parliament.
Mr Bonar Law allied himself with Sir Edward Carson at once.
The sole object was to destroy the Liberal government and get back to power themselves.
Without caring in the least for the consequences of their actions in regard to Ireland, they threw themselves with ferocious fervour into the Carsonite campaign of threatened rebellion.
Henceforward Mr Bonar Law was Sir Edward Carson’s henchman.
Mr Bonar Law lost two of his sons during the war.
Boycott of Belfast
IT IS reported that Belfast goods consigned to Castleblayney [County Monaghan] were taken from a train which was held up at Inniskeen. The goods were burned.
Masked men entered the goods store of Sligo railway station. They broke open four boxes containing boots and confectionery and carried them away. Some of the goods were from Northern firms to local traders.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: A lifelong pipe-smoker, Bonar Law was suffering from the cancer which would kill him in 1923.
The son of a Coleraine Presbyterian minister, he made ‘Ulster’ a strong emotional issue to rally the Tories in opposition to Asquith’s Third Home Rule Bill.
Though ‘indisposed’ during 1921, Law used his powerful influence to support Craig during the Treaty negotiations.)
On This Day – 18th March 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210318
Reference Date
19210318
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 18th March 1921, Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law resigned due to ill health, reports revealed, while tensions escalated during the Belfast boycott campaign against Northern goods. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Carson Ally Resigns | On This Day – 18th March 1921
AT THE conclusion of questions in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Lloyd George rose and said: ‘It is my very painful duty to read to the House a letter which I have just received from the Leader of the House who writes: “I very much regret that I have to inform you that I am no longer able to continue my political work.
‘The strain of the last few years has pressed very heavily upon me …
‘Now I am quite worn out and my medical advisers have warned me that my physical condition is such that, unless I have an immediate and long rest, an early and complete breakdown is inevitable …”
Mr Lloyd George was deeply affected.
Andrew Bonar Law was born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1858. His father was a Presbyterian minister of Scottish descent who had emigrated from Ireland.
The future Conservative leader returned to Scotland where his education was completed.
After several years in the iron and steel business, he turned his attention to politics and was elected for the Blackfriars Division of Glasgow through the Irish vote in 1900. He became leader of the Conservative Party in 1911.
Sir Edward Carson and his advisers in the North of Ireland then provided the English Unionist with the policy and the war cry.
The Ulster Volunteers were formed [1913] and elaborate preparations were made to inaugurate a rebellion against an Act of the Imperial Parliament.
Mr Bonar Law allied himself with Sir Edward Carson at once.
The sole object was to destroy the Liberal government and get back to power themselves.
Without caring in the least for the consequences of their actions in regard to Ireland, they threw themselves with ferocious fervour into the Carsonite campaign of threatened rebellion.
Henceforward Mr Bonar Law was Sir Edward Carson’s henchman.
Mr Bonar Law lost two of his sons during the war.
Boycott of Belfast
IT IS reported that Belfast goods consigned to Castleblayney [County Monaghan] were taken from a train which was held up at Inniskeen. The goods were burned.
Masked men entered the goods store of Sligo railway station. They broke open four boxes containing boots and confectionery and carried them away. Some of the goods were from Northern firms to local traders.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: A lifelong pipe-smoker, Bonar Law was suffering from the cancer which would kill him in 1923.
The son of a Coleraine Presbyterian minister, he made ‘Ulster’ a strong emotional issue to rally the Tories in opposition to Asquith’s Third Home Rule Bill.
Though ‘indisposed’ during 1921, Law used his powerful influence to support Craig during the Treaty negotiations.)
On This Day – 18th March 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210318
Reference Date
March 18, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 18th March 1921, Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law resigned due to ill health, reports revealed, while tensions escalated during the Belfast boycott campaign against Northern goods. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Carson Ally Resigns | On This Day – 18th March 1921
AT THE conclusion of questions in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Lloyd George rose and said: ‘It is my very painful duty to read to the House a letter which I have just received from the Leader of the House who writes: “I very much regret that I have to inform you that I am no longer able to continue my political work.
‘The strain of the last few years has pressed very heavily upon me …
‘Now I am quite worn out and my medical advisers have warned me that my physical condition is such that, unless I have an immediate and long rest, an early and complete breakdown is inevitable …”
Mr Lloyd George was deeply affected.
Andrew Bonar Law was born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1858. His father was a Presbyterian minister of Scottish descent who had emigrated from Ireland.
The future Conservative leader returned to Scotland where his education was completed.
After several years in the iron and steel business, he turned his attention to politics and was elected for the Blackfriars Division of Glasgow through the Irish vote in 1900. He became leader of the Conservative Party in 1911.
Sir Edward Carson and his advisers in the North of Ireland then provided the English Unionist with the policy and the war cry.
The Ulster Volunteers were formed [1913] and elaborate preparations were made to inaugurate a rebellion against an Act of the Imperial Parliament.
Mr Bonar Law allied himself with Sir Edward Carson at once.
The sole object was to destroy the Liberal government and get back to power themselves.
Without caring in the least for the consequences of their actions in regard to Ireland, they threw themselves with ferocious fervour into the Carsonite campaign of threatened rebellion.
Henceforward Mr Bonar Law was Sir Edward Carson’s henchman.
Mr Bonar Law lost two of his sons during the war.
Boycott of Belfast
IT IS reported that Belfast goods consigned to Castleblayney [County Monaghan] were taken from a train which was held up at Inniskeen. The goods were burned.
Masked men entered the goods store of Sligo railway station. They broke open four boxes containing boots and confectionery and carried them away. Some of the goods were from Northern firms to local traders.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: A lifelong pipe-smoker, Bonar Law was suffering from the cancer which would kill him in 1923.
The son of a Coleraine Presbyterian minister, he made ‘Ulster’ a strong emotional issue to rally the Tories in opposition to Asquith’s Third Home Rule Bill.
Though ‘indisposed’ during 1921, Law used his powerful influence to support Craig during the Treaty negotiations.)
On This Day – 18th March 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.