Jim Carroll - 15 May 16 - 06:14 AM

" The Ulster Unionists had no intention of honouring any treaty which included Independence for Ireland - they publicly stated that in their declaration."

Could you point anybody in the direction of any treaty that compelled the citizens of Northern Ireland to accept independence? I know of none, they made their declaration and signed their Covenant in 1912 when the Irish Home Rule Bill was still before Parliament

" Theirs were the first Arms to enter Ireland and be put in the hands of civilians."

Correct, the pro-unionists in the North were justifiably concerned that no-one in Parliament or anywhere else for that matter was taking their interests or concerns into account and they felt that they were being coerced into something that they did not want.

" About half the British Officers stationed in Ireland were prepared to back the claims of the Unionists - in essence a threat of Military Coup."

This is YOUR OPINION and about as factually wrong as you could get it.

"Half the British Officers stationed in Ireland" – Where on earth did you get that ill-informed twaddle from? All in all only 100 officers threatened to resign – if you are attempting to tell us that there were only 200 Army Officers stationed in Ireland then you are more of an ignoramus than I thought – 57 out of that 100 came from the 3rd Cavalry Brigade alone - My Source: The telegram sent by the Commander in Chief in Ireland to the War Office dated 20th March

prepared to back the claims of the Unionists

Again YOUR OPINION not fact, they were not prepared to "back" anything, what they threatened to do was resign. By the way how could a small number of Army Officers who had resigned their Commissions and left the Army mount a Military Coup? – IDIOT

British Army at the time numbered some 440,000 Officers, NCOs and other ranks – woudn't have had any trouble finding replacements for 100 officers.

The Republican Citizens Army was set up to defend the Irish people from the threat from the Unionists and The Easter Rising was seen as the only way to obtain Independence for Ireland in any shape or form.

WRONG – The Irish Citizen Army:

The Irish Citizen Army (Irish: Arm Cathartha na hÉireann), or ICA, was a small group of trained trade union volunteers from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) established in Dublin for the defence of worker's demonstrations from the police. It was formed by James Larkin, James Connolly and Jack White on 23 November 1913

At most they numbered less than 300 men.

As opposed to :

The Irish Volunteers (Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force[1][2][3] or Irish Volunteer Army,[4][5][6] was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland".

The IVF at their strongest numbered ~200,000 men. At the start of the First World War the Redmond faction numbering some ~180,000 decided to support Britain's war effort against Germany. The Rump 15,000 group elected armed struggle and fully intended mounting some form of rising while Great Britain was engaged in the conflict with Germany. Redmond's group were there to protect ambitions of Home Rule, Pearse's group were for armed insurrection and outright independence.

Neither the ICA or the IVF were set up to protect anybody from the Unionists.

But here's one for you:

Eoin MacNeill Leader of the IRB, Professor of Early and Medieval History at University College Dublin, was encouraged by The O'Rahilly, assistant editor and circulation manager of the Gaelic League newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis, and this resulted in the article entitled The North Began, giving the Irish Volunteers its public origins. On 1 November, MacNeill's article suggesting the formation of an Irish volunteer force was published. MacNeill wrote::

There is nothing to prevent the other twenty-eight counties from calling into existence citizen forces to hold Ireland "for the Empire". It was precisely with this object that the Volunteers of 1782 were enrolled, and they became the instrument of establishing Irish self-government.

Then back to the Act of Parliament that was never changed:

Lloyd George colluded with the Unionist leadership in secretly altering the Home Rule Bill bu changing an agreed period of temporary partition to a permanent state for Ireland.

WRONG – You are passing your opinion off as being fact again - here is the 1914 Home Rule Act - Goverment of Ireland Act 1914
Now show us where that Act was ALTERED after the 18th September 1914.
Show us where permanent partition is mentioned as being incorporated into the Act passed on 18th September 1914.

Far from being "unpopular", the Rising was in fact supported by many people throughout Ireland (with the exceptions listed above) and the War, far from being supported was, in fact "extremely unpopular" with the Irish people.

WRONG – YOUR OPINION AGAIN – NOT FACT
The numbers just do not support your contentions.
You say that the Rising was in fact supported by many people throughout Ireland - ~15,000 of whom only 1,250 to 1,500 turned up to fight. FACT
You say that the War, far from being supported was, in fact "extremely unpopular" with the Irish people. – I would say that all wars are unpopular but out of a population of just over 3 million people over 210,000 Irishmen volunteered to fight for the British Armed Forces in this extremely unpopular war. FACT

The violence and killing - I see is restricted on the Nationalist/Republican side to the Rising {1916} whereas that by those you define as "unelected" Ulster Unionists covers the period from the end of the war {What War – The First World War or the Irish War of independence?} to the 1950s.

Never mind I will give you the figures:

Easter Rising 1916 – 485 killed (Includes 260 civilians)

Irish War of Independence 1919 to 1921 – 2,014 killed (Includes ~750 civilians killed in the North and the South)

Irish Civil War 1922 to 1923 - ~4,000 killed (Number of civilians killed UNKOWN)

"Ho hum more uncorroborated denials
These are the fact as you have been presented - all from researched works"

Ho hum the garbage you presented as fact is no such thing – it represents your opinion masquerading as fact and it does not even withstand the most cursory examination.