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The
Leaders If the campaign against the Third Home Rule Bill was a campaign which captured the imagination of a people, it was also a movement fired by the leadership qualities and the example of those towering figures who identified with and shared in the trials and the fears, the hopes and the principles of ordinary folk. What might have degenerated into an ill- directed, frustrated and, ultimately, violent protest, shone forth to the rest of the United Kingdom, the Empire and the world as an example of what a disciplined and determined people could achieve if given thoughtful and unflinching leadership. The 1912 Crisis proved beyond any doubt that Ulster could summon to its cause outstanding men: prominent aristocrats; wealthy businessmen; talented lawyers; able parliamentarians; devout clergymen. They were not absentee leaders. All were local, some even national, establishment figures; all might have bargained for an accommodation of their personal interests in a Home Rule Ireland; all might selfishly have abandoned the people amid a verbal smoke-screen of pious platitudes and supposed appeals to recognise harsh political realities. Instead, they stood firm, upholding that which they believed to be central to their way of life; their right, the people's right, to be treated in the same way as the British citizens of any other part of the United Kingdom. Above all the momentous events and the commanding figures stood Carson, the great parliamentary and legal advocate. His hand was steady on the helm and he knew well how to manoeuvre the British Government on to the rocks of its own political ineptitude. When the Government rejected a compromise protecting just four counties from Home Rule, Carson, realising that he had wrong-footed the Government, confidently stepped up his campaign against Dublin Rule. Carson's command of tactics, his powerful oratory, his obvious sincerity won for him the confidence of the Conservative Party's leadership. The Tory leader, Bonar Law, paying tribute to the disciplined restraint of Ulster Loyalists, told the House of Commons, "These people have only been restrained by two reasons. They have been restrained by the wise leadership and the self control displayed by my right hen. friend." (Carson)
Carson looks towards the assembled photographers at the historic moment of his signing the Covenant. Beside him stands Craig, the hard-working organiser of the Covenant Campaign rallies. The specially-provided silver inkstand is clearly visible on the Union Flag-draped table. Behind Carson can be seen the controversial Boyne banner. The text of the Covenant saw in Home Rule a political thraldom which would undermine Ulster's industrial and commercial prosperity while denying to present and future generations of Ulstermen "Our cherishedposition of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom. " To meet the danger the signatories pledged themselves to join "in using ail means which may be found necessary," and that meant even the use of force. As leader of the Ulster Unionists, Carson was the first to sign. Lord Londonderry representing the aristocracy and gentry, came next. The vital contributions of the Churches and of the Christian faith were recognised by the prominence given to the signatures of notable Churchmen. Despite his powerful position in the protest movement, Craig modestly did not claim any special place in the order of signing.
The Duke of Abercorn, who had chaired the 1892 Ulster Convention protest against Home Rule, two decades later was again involved in defending his native Province from the threat of Dublin domination. In failing health and too ill to travel, the Duke signed the Covenant in the grounds of his Baronscourt home. Perhaps it was intentionally symbolic that he sat under a sturdy oak tree since, however frail his body, the Duke remained as determined as ever in spirit.
E E. Smith was one of the most prominent English Conservative supporters of the Ulster Unionist position. A brilliant lawyer and devastating wit, his talents were given a recognition shared only with A. J. Balfour among the Tories, the separate publication of his speeches in Parliament. He was widely expected to emerge as a future leader of his party and, indeed, to become Prime Minister. During the Covenant Campaign, Smith spoke at five of the demonstrations, coming second only to Carson himself (who spoke at six). The photograph catches his typical use of the emphatic physical gesture to reinforce a well-expressed point. In 1919 Smith became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain at the age of 46, the youngest holder of that office since the infamous Judge Jeffries. The Ulster Hall souvenir programme cover was intended not only to be an attractive souvenir for the thousands of Unionists who took part, but also to emphasise that Carson, though pre-eminent in the Campaign, was supported by an array of able men. The Marquess of Londonderry, the Duke of Abercorn and E E. Smith played a particularly prominent part in the determined fight to defend the Ulsterman's right to be treated as any other British citizen. In that battle they defended the rights of all, regardless of class or political allegiance.
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