On This Day / July 19, 1921

Summary: On This Day – 19th July 1921, a respected County Antrim magistrate was killed by mistake while the Independent Orange Order condemned the Partition of Ulster. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

Special’s Fatal Mistake | On This Day – 19th July 1921

A TRAGEDY of a most poignant character occurred on Sunday morning, resulting in the death of Mr Patrick McCarry, a well-known farmer and respected Justice of the Peace who resided at Ballylig, a few miles from Ballycastle.

Mr McCarry, accompanied by Constable William Barry, RIC, Antrim, a close personal friend who was at one time stationed in Ballycastle, called at the local barracks at one o’clock on Sunday morning.

The door was then opened and Special Constable Steele, the guard on duty, failing to recognise the men and evidently fearing that they were there for an unlawful purpose, fired.

Mr McCarry was hit and fell, badly wounded.

An extensive cattle dealer, Mr McCarry was a familiar figure in Belfast Market and regarded as a man of integrity whose word was his bond.

A poignant feature of this sad occurrence is that Mr McCarry (44) was to be married next month.

He was a cousin of the late Mr Alex McBride, publican, Church Street, Belfast [assassinated in Belfast].

At the 1918 general election, he unsuccessfully contested North Antrim for Sinn Fein.

Orangemen Against Partition

THE members of the Independent Orange Order held their demonstration at Malone [Belfast] and the procession marched form the City Hall.

Mr WJ Moore, County Grand Master, said great changes had come over Ireland since they last met and God only knew what changes would take place before the next 12th July.

As Protestants, they were opposed to the separation of Ulster or any section of it from their fellow-Protestants in the south and west of Ireland.

Mr James H Doherty moved a series of resolutions, one of which expressed opposition to the separation of Ulster from the rest of Ireland.

He said they all felt very keenly the desertion of their fellow Protestants in the counties outside the Northern parliament and they warned those responsible that no cause had ever prospered by the betrayal of their kith and kin.

Rev WJ Calvin referred to the prospect of peace in Ireland and urged them to pray for that peace and for the good of Ireland.

(Applause)

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: FOUNDED in 1902 as a radical breakaway from mainstream Orangeism, the Independent Orange Order had issued the non-sectarian ‘Magheramorne Manifesto’ in 1905.

This remarkable call for unity between Irishmen was the work of Lindsay Crawford, a Lisburn-born journalist who later joined Sinn Féin in Canada.

Though it later shed its radicalism, the IOO was angry at Carson’s ‘betrayal’ of Southern Protestants in 1920.

The ‘Independents’ were long associated with the Rev Ian Paisley and still have a base in north and east Antrim.)

On This Day – 19th July 1921

Further Reading on Irish History:

List of other On This Day columns

Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive

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