Whisky Galore - The Irish version......almost.

This will be a little convolutes at first, but please persevere.  I first got interested in this story because of an old book I was reading.  Like me, you may think that climate change is a relatively new concept.  Google says different, and it is right, the concept may have gained popularity and significance in the last 60 or 70 years, but it is not new.

This is what Google has to say on the subject:  "While the concept of human-caused climate change dates back to the 19th century, the phrase "climate change" gained prominence in the 1950s-1970s. Gilbert Plass used the phrase in 1956".

The old book mentioned above is called Ulster Folklore, by Elizabeth Andrews, which was published in 1913.  I can't say that I would recommend it (the supposed science in it can't have been good at the time, and age has not helped it), but at least the book is short.  From page one, it is filled with bad science, most of which seems to attempt to link all the old folk takes from Ireland that relate to 'the little people', to a genuine historic race of pygmy like people.  I do realise that humans have grown in stature over the years, but this book is speculative at best.  To prove the increase in human Stature (but not in the terms of this book), there are, for example, a number of crusader coffin lids near me at the Movilla Cemetery in Newtownards.  They are ornately carved with swords, armoured figures etc, but these days would be pushed to cover the grave of the average 10 year old.  The book also has some glaring errors in its photo illustrations, like a picture of the Norman aged motte in Antrim town (below), which in the book is attributed to a much earlier era.

Despite its faults there is some interest to be had from it other than criticising the reasoning of those from an earlier age.  Each chapter is based on a talk given by Elizabeth Arden to like minded believers.  The last chapter in particular I did find interesting on a number of points.  It covers the work of Rev. William Hamilton (1755–1797), a Protestant minister whose parish was on the Fanad peninsula in Donegal.  Hamilton was a contemporary of people like Adam  Smith, the famous economist of the time.  He was made a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1788, and was a founding member of Royal Irish Academy (RIA) in 1785.

A lot of the information that follows does not come directly from Elizabeth Andrews book, but my search for information started there.

OK, meanwhile back to Reverend Hamilton, (I'll get to the booze in due course, I promise).  Let's ignore his attempts at archaeological research and mention a few of his other areas of interest.  You need to remember that this was during the burst of scientific study that has come to be known as 'The Enlightenment'.  Hamilton wrote on geology, gathering evidence for, and then proposing a number of things that are now accepted as fact.  For example, the origins of the Giants Causeway were not known, but he proposed that the causeway was formed underground by the slow cooling of magma.  No one these days would argue with that (except perhaps MAGA supporters), yet at the time any theory that the Causeway was of volcanic origin held little sway because there are no volcanic cones around the causeway.  His proposal that eons of erosion had revealed them from below the ground was also quite novel at the time.

He also looked at some of the mineralised forests of tree stumps that are often found below peat bogs, proposing that it was the cutting down of these forests by ancient peoples that caused the bogs to form leaving the earlier landscape covered.  He used the term Climate Change for this (perhaps its earliest use?).  While these views must have been both enlightened and controversial in a world that was seen as the fixed creation of a god a few thousand years before, he somehow managed to merge them with a very conservative view of the bible, and of law and order.  As an educated person in what must have been a fairly remote parish, he also served as a local magistrate.

In these last two roles he was not well liked by the local (largely Catholic) population.  Not well liked puts it very mildly  of course in an Ireland where only the Church of Ireland held any real political or social power.  Hamilton would have been responsible for administering the collection to Tithes and for the punishment of anyone who did not comply with this collection.  His role was subsidised by the money gained in this way too. This being Ireland, opposition to this concentration of power was brewing throughout Ireland at the time.

As a part of this opposition, and inspired by the French Revolution a few years earlier, the growing United Irishmen movement were conspiring to revolt in 1796, and enlisted the aid of the French.  15,000 French soldiers were supposed to have landed at Bantry in the far south of the island, but foolishly, the French attempted this in mid winter, and a huge storm scattered their fleet.  One of the supply ships, apparently loaded largely with wine (because why would you send an army to war without wine?), was wrecked at Fanet, right in Hamilton's area of jurisdiction.  The cargo would have been popular with the locals just as in Whisky Galore, but Hamilton and the local militia stepped in and claimed the cargo for the crown.  Elizabeth Andrew's book quotes a somewhat understated written statement from the time, "that Dr. Hamilton's active exertions on this melancholy occasion gave rise to feelings of animosity on the part of some of his parishioners."  No doubt Hamilton got some sort of salvage payment too, so just how loyal and benign his actions were is open to debate.  He also locked up and prosecuted some of those who had been trying their own 'salvage' efforts.

Locals soon besieged Hamilton's house, demanding the release to those he had arrested.  Some servants who attempted to escape and seek help using Hamilton's boat, found that holes had been drilled in its hull, so he, and a naval officer who was at the house disguised themselves and slipped through the the ranks of those surrounding the house instead, returning later with the militia who then had to stay to protect the house for some time afterwards.  Of course, yet more arrests were made too, further raising Hamilton's esteem in the neighbourhood.

I suppose the similarities with the light hearted tale in Whisky Galore are somewhat tenuous.  The local inhabitants didn't get the booze, and many lost their freedom.  What they did get, in the end, was Hamilton.  By the following spring, Hamilton was starting to feel safe again and he went on a trip to visit the Bishop of Raphoe.  On his way back towards his home, a storm prevented his party from crossing Lough Swilly, so he sought accommodation locally with an old collage friend, a Dr. Waller, who in the terminology of the time, was crippled.  Hamilton's stay at this new and unprotected house did not stay secret for long. A crowd soon approached seeking retribution on Hamilton.  His actions from there seem reprehensible; he hid in the basement, leaving the crippled Dr Waller and his wife to face the crowd.  

The incident was reported to the Irish House of Commons. Speaking on March 6, 1797, four days after the event, a member, Dr. Brown who said:

"As that gentleman (Dr. Hamilton) was sitting with the family in Mr. Waller's house, several shots were fired in upon them, the house was broken open, and Mrs. Waller, in endeavouring to protect her helpless husband by covering him with her body, was murdered. Mr. Hamilton, from the natural love of life, had taken refuge in the lower apartments.  Thence they forced him, and as he endeavoured to hold the door they held fire under his hand until they made him quit his hold. They then dragged him a few yards from the house, and murdered him in the most inhuman and barbarous manner."

Hamilton's body lay outside all night before anyone inside ventured out to look.  None of the attackers were caught.  I saw mention when looking for further information on Hamilton, that his murder was the catalyst for the start of the United Irish rebellion.  The French returned to Ireland in 1798 to support this cause, this time landing at a more sensible time of year in Mayo, but only 2000 of their troops were involved.  They had some limited successes, but were soon defeated, as were the United Irishmen, a rebellion in which the north of Ireland and Presbyterians was heavily involved along with their disenfranchised Catholic countrymen. In 1801, the Irish parliament at Dublin was abolished, and the act of union created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.  In hindsight, we all know what a success that turned out to be in Ireland.

The first oath of the United Irishmen was taken at McArt's Fort, which is set on the top of a plateau just outside Belfast.  You can still climb the path up to it for a spectacular view over the city. The aims of the cause, as laid out in the oath were far from radical, as below.

I, (name) in the presence of God, do pledge myself to my country, that I will use all my abilities and influence in the attainment of an impartial and adequate representation of the Irish nation in parliament: and as a means of absolute and immediate necessity in accomplishing this chief good of Ireland, I shall do whatever lies in my power to forward a brotherhood of affection, an identity of interests, a communion of rights, and a union of power among Irishmen of every religious persuasion, without which every reform must be partial, not national, inadequate to the wants, delusive to the wishes, and insufficient for the freedom and happiness of this country.