Armagh disturbances
[2] According to James Bryson, writing on 29 December 1783: "I remember something of the state of the public affairs for more than 30 years and I do aver that I never was witness to a more profound tranquility [sic] than what prevails at present.
[5] Another of the relaxed Penal Laws meant that Catholics were granted a parliamentary vote, which brought them into competition with Protestants in the land market.
[3][5][4] Dr. William Richardson stated, in what Jonathan Bardon describes as a "detailed analysis" of the situation, in 1797: "much offence had lately been taken because the Catholics in the general increase in wealth had raised the price of land by bidding high when it became vacant.
[2] The local MP, Richardson of Richhill, heard of the fight and managed to arrive in time to persuade both sides to disperse peacefully.
Jackson went on to claim: "Poor and struggling Catholic farmers scratching a living from a stony hill-top farm rarely, if ever, excited Protestant zeal even in the heart of Antrim".
[7] Lord Gosford observed of the Peep o' Day Boys that they were a "low set of fellows who with guns and bayonets, and other weapons break open the houses of the Roman Catholicks, and as I am informed treat many of them with cruelty".
[3] As the majority of magistrates in County Armagh were anti-Catholic, with the police[citation needed] only successfully countering daytime disturbances, night-time acts went unpunished.
[2] This resulted in Catholics having to defend themselves, and to so they formed a night-time neighbourhood watch, keeping an eye out for Peep o' Day Boys gangs.
[2] The Defenders started out as independent local groups, defensive in nature; however, by 1790 they had merged into a widespread secret-oath fraternal organisation consisting of lodges, associated to a head-lodge led by a Grand Master and committee.
[2] The magistrates acquitted any Peep o' Day Boys that appeared in court, as juries consisted of Protestants, whilst convicting and punishing any Defenders.
[2] By 1788 the government, to the chagrin of the county governor, Lord Charlemont, and the magistrates, sent in more troops to sort out the most troublesome areas; Armagh, Keady, Newtownhamilton, and Tandragee; however they were soon removed.
[2] The County Armagh Volunteers remained loyal to Charlemont, and it was suggested they be used in place of the military to deal with the trouble and augment the magistrates.
[2] These new Volunteers were tasked with putting down any disorder impartially, however as some Peep o' Day Boys had joined, they made it their intention to confiscate arms held by Catholics.
[2] Here the Benburb Company was marching to a religious service in Armagh Cathedral, however as they passed the Catholic chapel at Tullysaran, trouble broke out.
[2] Various contemporary accounts are given, with the general picture given that the Benburb Volunteers, who were hated by the Catholics of Tullysaran, marching past its chapel whilst the congregation was present, playing tunes such as "The Protestant Boys" and "Boyne Water", contrary to their official purpose of impartially maintaining peace.
[2] Rather than fulfilling Charlemont's aims of quelling the trouble in County Armagh, the new Volunteers made the situation worse, with day-time fights and night raids still occurring.
[1] The point of no return occurred on 28 January 1791, when Catholics cut off the tongues of Mr Barkeley, a popular schoolmaster from Forkhill, and his wife and her 14-year-old brother.
[1] In July 1795 a Reverend Devine had held a sermon at Drumcree Church, Portadown in County Armagh to commemorate the "Battle of the Boyne".
[9] In his History of Ireland Vol I (published in 1809), the historian Francis Plowden described the events that followed this sermon: "Reverend Devine so worked up the minds of his audience, that upon retiring from service, on the different roads leading to their respective homes, they gave full scope to the anti-papistical zeal, with which he had inspired them... falling upon every Catholic they met, beating and bruising them without provocation or distinction, breaking the doors and windows of their houses, and actually murdering two unoffending Catholics in a bog.
[12] The aftermath of the battle saw the Peep o' Day Boys retire to James Sloan's inn in Loughgall, where they would found the Orange Order.
[15] Although James Hope and Henry Joy McCracken did much to reach out to the Defenders in Armagh, recognising the sectarian tensions (Robert Simms reported to Wolfe Tone that "it would take a great deal of exertion" to keep the Defenders from "producing feuds"), the Belfast Executive of the United Irishmen chose emissaries from its small number of Catholics.
[16] Chief among these were Charles Teeling, son of a wealthy Catholic linen manufacturer in Lisburn and witness to the Battle of the Diamond,[17] and Father James Coigly whose family home in Kilmore, County Armagh, Peep O'Day boys had ransacked.
