Table of Contents
Historical Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
Date: 14th March 2025
Speaker: Rev. Gordon Dane
Below is a detailed summary of the lecture delivered at the third annual lecture of the Historical Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster on 14th March, 2025, by Reverend Gordon Dane, a retired minister of Crossgar Free Presbyterian Church. The lecture focuses on the 1641 rebellion in Ulster, its causes, commencement, cruelties, consequences, and its significance in Presbyterian history and modern understanding.
Introduction and Context
The lecture begins with a warm welcome from the committee chairman, introducing the event as part of the Historical Committee’s efforts to preserve and promote the history of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. The committee, comprising three ministers and two elders, is tasked with archiving denominational materials, encouraging church history studies, and publishing relevant works. The guest speaker, Reverend Gordon Dane, is introduced to discuss the 1641 rebellion, a pivotal event in Irish history, with gratitude expressed for his research and presence. Thanks are also extended to Reverend Daryl Abernathy and the congregation for hosting the event, as well as to those preparing a post-lecture supper. The chairman highlights new and existing publications available for purchase to support the committee’s work, including “The Land of the Giants, Two Thousand Years of Irish Christianity” by Reverend Peter McIntyre and “Calvin Antlers,” the previous year’s lecture booklet.
The meeting proceeds with a prayer by Reverend Stephen Nelson, setting a reflective tone, followed by Reverend Dane’s lecture. Dane frames the discussion with biblical references (Isaiah 46:9 and Hebrews 10:32), emphasizing the importance of learning from history to understand God’s providence and avoid repeating past mistakes.
Focus on the 1641 Rebellion in Ulster
Reverend Dane narrows the scope to Ulster, acknowledging that the 1641 rebellion spanned all of Ireland but holds particular relevance for Ulster’s Protestant community. He argues that the rebellion’s legacy shapes contemporary Ulster Protestant attitudes, notably the “siege mentality,” rooted in fears of a recurrence of 1641’s violence. He notes historical attempts to rewrite the narrative, citing 18th-century pro-Catholic polemicists like John Curry and Charles O’Connor, who challenged Protestant accounts, a trend he sees continuing today. The rebellion also contextualizes Presbyterianism’s establishment in Ireland, brought by Scottish armies under General Monroe in its aftermath.
Historical Context
The rebellion’s roots trace back to the 1607 Flight of the Earls, when the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell forfeited their lands, which the English Crown then used for the Plantation of Ulster. This involved relocating Scottish Lowlanders and Northern English borderers (Reivers) to Ulster, displacing native Irish. By 1618, Nicholas Pynnar’s survey recorded significant settlement, including 107 castles with bawns, 42 bawns without castles, and 1,900 English houses, estimating around 12,000 armed men in the plantation counties (excluding Antrim and Down).
Causes of the Rebellion
Dane rejects the oversimplified view that the rebellion was solely about Irish dispossession, offering three deeper causes:
- Greed: The Irish lords, such as Sir Phelim O’Neill and Sir Connor Maguire, led the rebellion despite benefiting from English land grants. The English inheritance system replaced the Irish feudal model, preventing lords from arbitrarily taxing tenants, fueling their discontent.
- Racism: The influx of prosperous Scottish and English settlers, who spoke a different language, bred resentment among the native Irish, perceived as racial outsiders.
- Sectarianism: The strongest driver, according to Dane, was religious animosity. The Roman Catholic Church, losing tithes to the established Church of Ireland (estimated at £111,000 annually in 1641, a vast sum), supported the rebellion to suppress Protestantism. A meeting at Multifarnham Abbey debated this goal, with even moderate priests agreeing to despoil Protestants, while radicals, like the Franciscans, advocated violence. Testimonies, such as rebels claiming it was “no sin to kill a Protestant” and offering mercy for conversions, underscore this sectarian motive.
Commencement of the Rebellion
The rebellion’s planning began as early as 1634, with Rory O’Moore orchestrating a scheme involving Owen Roe O’Neill and a failed plot to seize Dublin Castle on October 23, 1641. Lord Maguire confessed to this plan, which unraveled when Owen O’Connolly, a drunken Presbyterian informant, alerted Dublin authorities, thwarting the attack. Meanwhile, in Ulster, the rebellion erupted:
- Dungannon: Patrick Modder O’Donnelly tricked Captain Perkins into granting entry to Dungannon Castle, capturing and stripping its occupants.
- Mountjoy: Sir Phelim O’Neill’s forces took Mountjoy Castle, killing a woman named Williams and Ensign Pugh, marking the rebellion’s first bloodshed.
- Charlemont: O’Neill deceived Lord Caulfield, capturing the castle and executing servants.
- Armagh: On October 24, O’Neill proclaimed a commission (allegedly from the King) in the marketplace, though many Protestants, aware of earlier violence, fortified themselves in the cathedral.
By late October, Ulster was engulfed, with towns like Newry and Tandragee falling to rebel leaders like the Maguires, O’Reillys, and O’Neills.
Cruelties of the Rebellion
Dane details the rebellion’s brutality, emphasizing specific incidents across Ulster:
- Fermanagh: Rory Maguire’s failed trap at Crevenish Castle led to rampages, including the hanging of Arthur Champion (an MP) and 31 others at Shannock House, the murder of a pregnant woman at Waterdrum, and mass killings at Lisnaskea.
- Armagh: At Loughgall, 300 Protestants were tortured in the church, with Alice Craig witnessing her son quartered alive. At Portadown Bridge, convoys of Protestants were drowned, with estimates ranging from 308 to over 1,000.
- Cavan: Philip MacHugh O’Reilly stripped and expelled British settlers after promising safety, with 60 later drowned at Belturbet Bridge.
- Antrim: Massacres at Dunseverick, Dunluce, and Oldstone targeted families, including the elderly and infants.
- Christmas Day at Tully Castle: Rory Maguire butchered 75 residents after promising safety, sparing only Lady Hume and two others.
Dane cites depositions (preserved at Trinity College, Dublin) as evidence, countering critics who downplay the violence, and highlights the rebels’ tactics of deception, stripping victims in winter, and mass drownings in rivers like the Bann and Blackwater.
Consequences of the Rebellion
Estimates of deaths vary widely:
- Early boasts claimed 150,000, likely exaggerated.
- Nationalist historians, counting depositions, suggest 4,000, but Dane argues this underestimates unrecorded massacres.
- Thousands died, with survivors fleeing as refugees, leaving parts of Ulster devoid of Protestants.
Dane critiques modern revisionism (e.g., a Guardian article claiming 1641’s “lies” justified Cromwell’s atrocities), defending the depositions’ reliability despite delays in their recording, comparing them to the 1972 Bloody Sunday inquiry’s accepted late evidence.
A significant outcome was the arrival of Major General Robert Monroe’s Scottish army in 1642, whose Presbyterian chaplains established the first Kirk Sessions in Carrickfergus, founding Irish Presbyterianism. This led to the Sixmilewater Revival, a spiritual renewal Dane sees as God’s redemptive work amid tragedy.
Theological Reflection and Conclusion
Dane concludes by asking why God permitted such suffering, suggesting it chastised Ulster’s Protestants to turn them to Him. He urges remembrance not for morbidity but to discern God’s providence, hoping for renewed blessing in the present day. The lecture ends with a prayer by Reverend Davis Stewart, closing a sobering yet hopeful reflection on a dark chapter of Ulster’s history.
Key Themes
- Historical Memory: The rebellion’s lasting impact on Ulster Protestant identity.
- Sectarian Divide: Religion as a central motivator of violence.
- Evidence and Revisionism: Defending primary sources against modern skepticism.
- Divine Purpose: Viewing history through a lens of God’s sovereignty and redemption.
