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Ulster
Day Outside Belfast The vast crowds gathered in Belfast, the capital of Ulster, were impressive and caught the imagination of much of the Press, but without the rest of Ulster the Covenant would not have been a success. It was a fact recognised by the Ulster Day Committee when on 25 September, it dispatched 700 boxes of forms for signature to the many local committees. In villages and towns all over Ulster, Unionists shut up their shops and their homes and walked or took a car to the nearest centre and signed the Covenant. The sense of special occasion was overwhelming: streets bedecked with flags and bunting; cars displaying Union Flags; Loyalists, dressed in their best clothes, wearing Unionist badges. Though it was the height of the harvest in the countryside, the farmers laid down their scythes and, in many cases, trudged miles to share in the privilege of signing. Unionists, urban and rural, rich and poor, peer and pauper, farmer and factory worker, were all fired by the same vision of unbreakable unity in adversity. All over the Province the determination of Belfast's Unionists was matched, even outstripped. In the Nationalist-dominated areas of rural Ulster, Unionists were not discouraged but perhaps were even more determined to participate in Ulster Day. There were some nasty incidents, such as the attack on a Unionist farmer and his family, including children, in County Monaghan, but the outrages were doubtless seen as merely a test of the even greater resolve which would be necessary in the seemingly dark days ahead.
After a service in Enniskillen Barish Church, where the Bishop of Clogher emphasised the religious aspect of the occasion to a congregation of 2,000, the wouldbe signatories marched to the Town Hall, accompanied by local yeomanry. The first to sign was the Earl of Erne, His Majesty's Lieutenant for Fermanagh; the second name was that of Dr. Maurice Day, the Bishop of Clogher.
The Loyalists of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, heavily outnumbered by the Nationalists, felt particularly threatened and betrayed by the prospect of a Dublin- dominated Home Rule parliament. They played their full part in Ulster Day, aware of its especial importance to them. In this photograph the men of Raphoe, County Donegal are turned out to sign the Covenant.
The women of Raphoe were as well acquainted with the consequences of Home Rule as were the men folk, and turned out with equal determination. In this photograph the women sign the parallel Declaration. The End
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