On This Day / May 19, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210519
Reference Date
19210519
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 19th May 1921, loyalist crowds seized Belfast’s Ulster Hall to block Labour candidates, while Derry nationalists rejected welcoming the new Viceroy of Ireland. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Free Speech Denied | On This Day – 19th May 1921
AN organised and successful attempt to prevent the holding of a meeting on behalf of the Belfast Labour candidates in the Ulster Hall, Belfast last night led to scenes of the wildest character.
A mass of workers from the two shipyards, under the direction of officials of the British Empire Union and the Ulster Ex-Servicemen’s Association, took part in the seizure of the building.
Notices had been posted up in Ballymacarrett yesterday morning calling upon the shipyard workers to ‘take possession of the Ulster Hall and drive out the Sinn Feiners’.
Thousands of men gathered at the appointed place and, preceded by a brass band and a brake containing prominent ‘Pogrom’ leaders, marched to the hall singing Orange airs.
Arriving at the Ulster Hall, they found the front and rear of the building held by a strong force of police.
Mr Alec McKay and Mr R Tregenna, two of the leaders of the Pogroms last year, addressed the crowd.
A wild rush was then made and in a few seconds every part of the building was in possession of the Pogromists, the platform being occupied by young fellows carrying Union Jacks and boards bearing mottoes uncomplimentary to Sinn Fein and ‘Rome’.
Referring to the Labour candidates [now under police protection], Mr Tregenna declared:
‘These are the men who in July [1920] went across the water to support the claims of the expelled men from the shipyards.’
[Mr Tregenna] announced that he intended to send a telegram to their ‘great political labour leader, Sir James Craig’ as follows:
‘Mass meeting of loyal shipyard workers who have captured Ulster Hall from Bolsheviks, Baird, Midgley and Hanna, earnestly request that you address them tonight.’
The chairman described the Labour candidates as men who supported the Bolsheviks of Russia.
It was the power of Rome that was at the very foundations of this movement in Ireland. It was Rome that was behind the Great War.
They would build a belt of steel round the six counties that neither de Valera, the priests of Rome or Cardinal Logue would ever be able to break. (Cheers.)
Viceroy Slighted in Derry
DERRY Corporation yesterday refused to present an address of welcome to the new Lord Lieutenant [Lord Fitzalan]. Eight Unionists voted for the resolution and eighteen Nationalists against.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The leaders of the Loyalist take-over of the Ulster Hall had been prominent in the expulsion of thousands of Catholics and Protestant Labourites from the shipyards in July 1920.
Councillor James Baird was a leading spokesman for the ‘expelled workers’ while Harry Midgely, a Somme veteran, was a former supporter of James Connolly.)
On This Day – 19th May 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210519
Reference Date
19210519
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 19th May 1921, loyalist crowds seized Belfast’s Ulster Hall to block Labour candidates, while Derry nationalists rejected welcoming the new Viceroy of Ireland. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Free Speech Denied | On This Day – 19th May 1921
AN organised and successful attempt to prevent the holding of a meeting on behalf of the Belfast Labour candidates in the Ulster Hall, Belfast last night led to scenes of the wildest character.
A mass of workers from the two shipyards, under the direction of officials of the British Empire Union and the Ulster Ex-Servicemen’s Association, took part in the seizure of the building.
Notices had been posted up in Ballymacarrett yesterday morning calling upon the shipyard workers to ‘take possession of the Ulster Hall and drive out the Sinn Feiners’.
Thousands of men gathered at the appointed place and, preceded by a brass band and a brake containing prominent ‘Pogrom’ leaders, marched to the hall singing Orange airs.
Arriving at the Ulster Hall, they found the front and rear of the building held by a strong force of police.
Mr Alec McKay and Mr R Tregenna, two of the leaders of the Pogroms last year, addressed the crowd.
A wild rush was then made and in a few seconds every part of the building was in possession of the Pogromists, the platform being occupied by young fellows carrying Union Jacks and boards bearing mottoes uncomplimentary to Sinn Fein and ‘Rome’.
Referring to the Labour candidates [now under police protection], Mr Tregenna declared:
‘These are the men who in July [1920] went across the water to support the claims of the expelled men from the shipyards.’
[Mr Tregenna] announced that he intended to send a telegram to their ‘great political labour leader, Sir James Craig’ as follows:
‘Mass meeting of loyal shipyard workers who have captured Ulster Hall from Bolsheviks, Baird, Midgley and Hanna, earnestly request that you address them tonight.’
The chairman described the Labour candidates as men who supported the Bolsheviks of Russia.
It was the power of Rome that was at the very foundations of this movement in Ireland. It was Rome that was behind the Great War.
They would build a belt of steel round the six counties that neither de Valera, the priests of Rome or Cardinal Logue would ever be able to break. (Cheers.)
Viceroy Slighted in Derry
DERRY Corporation yesterday refused to present an address of welcome to the new Lord Lieutenant [Lord Fitzalan]. Eight Unionists voted for the resolution and eighteen Nationalists against.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The leaders of the Loyalist take-over of the Ulster Hall had been prominent in the expulsion of thousands of Catholics and Protestant Labourites from the shipyards in July 1920.
Councillor James Baird was a leading spokesman for the ‘expelled workers’ while Harry Midgely, a Somme veteran, was a former supporter of James Connolly.)
On This Day – 19th May 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210519
Reference Date
May 19, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 19th May 1921, loyalist crowds seized Belfast’s Ulster Hall to block Labour candidates, while Derry nationalists rejected welcoming the new Viceroy of Ireland. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Free Speech Denied | On This Day – 19th May 1921
AN organised and successful attempt to prevent the holding of a meeting on behalf of the Belfast Labour candidates in the Ulster Hall, Belfast last night led to scenes of the wildest character.
A mass of workers from the two shipyards, under the direction of officials of the British Empire Union and the Ulster Ex-Servicemen’s Association, took part in the seizure of the building.
Notices had been posted up in Ballymacarrett yesterday morning calling upon the shipyard workers to ‘take possession of the Ulster Hall and drive out the Sinn Feiners’.
Thousands of men gathered at the appointed place and, preceded by a brass band and a brake containing prominent ‘Pogrom’ leaders, marched to the hall singing Orange airs.
Arriving at the Ulster Hall, they found the front and rear of the building held by a strong force of police.
Mr Alec McKay and Mr R Tregenna, two of the leaders of the Pogroms last year, addressed the crowd.
A wild rush was then made and in a few seconds every part of the building was in possession of the Pogromists, the platform being occupied by young fellows carrying Union Jacks and boards bearing mottoes uncomplimentary to Sinn Fein and ‘Rome’.
Referring to the Labour candidates [now under police protection], Mr Tregenna declared:
‘These are the men who in July [1920] went across the water to support the claims of the expelled men from the shipyards.’
[Mr Tregenna] announced that he intended to send a telegram to their ‘great political labour leader, Sir James Craig’ as follows:
‘Mass meeting of loyal shipyard workers who have captured Ulster Hall from Bolsheviks, Baird, Midgley and Hanna, earnestly request that you address them tonight.’
The chairman described the Labour candidates as men who supported the Bolsheviks of Russia.
It was the power of Rome that was at the very foundations of this movement in Ireland. It was Rome that was behind the Great War.
They would build a belt of steel round the six counties that neither de Valera, the priests of Rome or Cardinal Logue would ever be able to break. (Cheers.)
Viceroy Slighted in Derry
DERRY Corporation yesterday refused to present an address of welcome to the new Lord Lieutenant [Lord Fitzalan]. Eight Unionists voted for the resolution and eighteen Nationalists against.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The leaders of the Loyalist take-over of the Ulster Hall had been prominent in the expulsion of thousands of Catholics and Protestant Labourites from the shipyards in July 1920.
Councillor James Baird was a leading spokesman for the ‘expelled workers’ while Harry Midgely, a Somme veteran, was a former supporter of James Connolly.)
On This Day – 19th May 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.