CHAPTER XXXII

THE RIBBONMEN
The Ribbon Societies came into existence early in the nineteenth century and may be said to have continued down to the present day, though the purposes of the modern representatives of this movement differ widely from those of their original progenitors.
There is little doubt that they were the direct descendants or successors of the Defenders ; and at times they are alluded to by contemporaries as Defenders or Whiteboys, which are used as interchangeable terms for Ribbonmen. It will be well to remember that after, say, 1803 these three terms are convertible and were often employed to describe one organized body which, for the sake of distinction as well as of strict historical accuracy, is referred to in this book as the Ribbon Society.
The objects of the Ribbon Society were chiefly agrarian, but it seems to have contained a political element also, as was but to be expected.
Our best information about the secrets of the Ribbonmen comes from the Irish novelist William Carleton. A short sketch of his life will show what authority he had to be its historian.
William Carleton was born in 1794 at Prillisk, County Tyrone, the fourteenth child of a Roman Catholic tenant farmer. He was intended by his family to become a priest, and was given the best education available at local schools. At the age of nineteen he was still at his books, which did not prevent him from becoming initiated as a Ribbonman. In 181 7 he left home, and went to seek his fortune in Dublin. Here later on he became a Protestant, and as a convert
237
238 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
won the patronage of several clergymen and other well- meaning people. An underpaid clerkship, improvident love marriage, drudgery as a literary hack, the “ unpalatable bread and unending stairs ” of Dante’s hanger-on — such was his lot till in 1830 he published his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry , which established his literary reputation both in Ireland and England. From then till his death in 1869 he continued writing with more or less success. Through the whole of his life he was poor, though a civil-list pension of £ 200 a year was given him in 1848. All his books deal with peasant life in Ireland, which he has described with surpassing fidelity and vigour. In his extreme old age he began his autobiography, but did not live to finish it, and from this interesting book, full of magnificent egotism, are taken the following accounts of his dealings with the Ribbon Society. 1
Carleton tells us that when at the age of nineteen he visited fair or merry-making, he used constantly to be asked what age he was, and the questioners, young men of his own religion, used to look disappointed at his truthful reply. Then one night at a dance he was led away behind a hedge by a knot of acquaintances, and before he knew what was happening was sworn in as a Ribbonman on a Catholic prayer-book.
“Now,” said his initiator, “you’re up — you’re a Ribbon- man; all you want is the words and signs; and here you are.”
He then communicated these, and Carleton, though but a schoolboy, went home a Ribbonman.
Carleton saw fit to give in full these secrets, and they are transcribed here without comment on either his taste or his memory that purported to set down so exactly information of this kind after a lapse of fifty years. Perhaps he is his own best apologist in the following passage:
“I am not a friend to any of these secret societies, because they are nothing but curses to the country. The Orange system is a curse to the country, and will be as long as it
1 David J. O’Donohue, The Life of William Carleton, being his Autobiography, etc. London, 1896.
THE RIBBONMEN
239
exists. It is now comparatively harmless, but at the period of which I write (1814) it was in the very height of its ascendency, and seemed to live only as if its great object were to trample upon ‘Popery.’ The truth, however, is, if there can be an apology for Ribbonism, that it was nothing more nor less than a reactive principle against Orangeism, of whose outrages it was the result.”
This is Carleton’s account of the Ribbon secrets.
“ The following is the Ribbon oath, a curiosity in its way : —
“I, A.B., with the sign of the Cross do declare and promise, in the name and through the assistance of the Blessed Trinity, that I will keep inviolate all secrets of this Fraternal Society from all but those whom I know to be regular members of the same, and bound by the same solemn oath and fraternal ties: —
“ 1st. I declare and profess without any compulsion, allegiance to his present Majesty, George the Third, King of Great Britain and Ireland.
“2nd. That I will be true to the principles of this Society, dedicated to St. Patrick, the Holy Patron of Ireland, in all things lawful and not otherwise.
“3rd. That I will duly and regularly attend on the shortest possible notice, at any hour, whether by night or by day, to perform without fail or enquiry, such commands as my superior or superiors may lay upon me, under whatever penalty he or they may inflict for neglecting the same.
“4th. I will not deliberately or willingly provoke, challenge or strike any of my brothers, knowing him to be such. If he or they should be ill-spoken of, ill-used, or other¬ wise treated unjustly, I will, according to circumstances and the best of my judgment, espouse his cause, give him the earliest information, and aid him with my friendship when in distress as a Ribbonman.
“5th. I also declare and promise, that I will not admit or propose a Protestant or heretic of any description as a member of our Fraternal Society, knowing him to be such.
24O FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
“6th. That whether in fair or market, in town or country, I will always give the preference in dealing to those who are attached to our national cause, and that I will not deal with a Protestant or heretic — but above all with an Orangeman — so long as I can deal with one of my own faith on equal terms.
“7th. That I will not withdraw myself from the Society without stating my reasons for the same, and giving due notice to my superior or superiors; and that I will not without permission join any other society of different principles or denominations, under penalty of God’s judgment, and whatever penalty may be in¬ flicted on me — not including in these the Masonic Institution, Trade Societies, or the profession of soldier or sailor.
“8th. That I will always aid a brother in distress or danger by my person, purse, and counsel so far as in me lies; and that I will not refuse to subscribe money, according to my means, for the general or particular purposes of this our Fraternal Society.
“9th. That I will not, under the penalty inflicted by my superiors, give evidence in any Court of Law or Justice against a brother, when prosecuted by an Orangeman or heretic; and that I will aid him in his defence by any means in my power.
“10th. That when forced to take refuge from the law in the house of a brother or of any person friendly to our national cause, I will not have any improper intercourse or foul freedom with his sister, daughter, wife, or cousin, and thus give cause of scandal to our Society.
“Having made the above solemn declaration and promise of my own free will and accord, I swear true and real allegiance to the cause of Ireland only, and no longer to be true as a subject nor to bear allegiance to George the Third, King of Great Britain and Ireland; and I now pray that God may assist me in my endeavours to fulfil the same; that He may protect me and prosper our Society and grant us to live and die in a state of grace ! Amen.
THE RIBBONMEN
241
“I may as well give what were then the ‘Words’ and ‘Grip ’ as I am on this subject. The words were as follows:
“ What age are we in?” Answer: “ The end of the fifth.”
“ What's the hour?” Answer: “ Very near the right one”
“ Isn't it come yet?” Answer: “ The hour is come but not the man”
“ When will he come?” Answer: “ He is within sight”
“ The grip was, when shaking hands, to press the point of the thumb on the second joint of the forefinger, and if the person with whom you shook hands was a brother, he was to press upon the middle joint of your little finger. Such were the words and grip of Ribbonism about the year 1814.
The position of the Ribbon Societies in Ireland at this time can be further illustrated by statements made by Daniel O’Connell in a speech delivered on 31st December, 1813. He was speaking to a gathering of constitutional Emancipationists, and attacked political secret societies of all kinds. According to him, up to the year 1809 the County of Donegal had been free from secret societies, but at that date the society of Ribbonmen got a footing in the country in order to counter the proceedings of the Orangemen. By 18 1 1 they had made such progress as enabled them to form a regular Grand Lodge sitting at Derry which had over 90 Lodges affiliated and a membership of over 20,000.
As for the obligations taken by the members, he asserted that the oaths were three times uttered. The first con¬ tained a “direct, positive, and unconditional oath of alle¬ giance.” Another was then substituted, promising allegiance to the king, so long as he should protect the Catholic priests and laity. The third oath, “and that lately adopted,” omitted all mention of allegiance.
O’Connell went on to say that the Ribbon Society had promised to disband itself at the entreaty of the Catholic Board (the body he was then addressing), but he feared that the excesses of the Orangemen would make this promise impossible of accomplishment.
1 Op. cit.
242 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
Whatever the cause, O’Connell was right in his fears. The Ribbon Society did not disband itself.
Colonel William Blacker, giving evidence in 1835 before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, told how in the year 1822 he arrested “in a kind of grocer’s shop in Armagh some fourteen or fifteen persons, delegates from various parts, Ribandmen, who were from different parts of the country, from Dundalk, from the county of Derry, from the county of Antrim, and from Cavan.” He produced two papers that had been found in their possession. The first contained an oath which may possibly have been the form taken by provincial delegates.
“I, A.B., do in the presence of Almighty God, and that of His Son Jesus Christ, declare and promise that I will keep secret all things that I will see or hear now and here¬ after relative to this board, and these regulations which I am intended to hear.”
The oath goes on to promise: (1) Allegiance to King George III; (2) Fidelity to his Brethren, and to the board “in all things lawful, not otherwise”; (3) To avoid quarrels with his Brethren, and help their needs; (4) Not to admit any bad character to the board; and to further brotherly love; (5) To avoid intoxication; (6) To give business prefer¬ ence to his Catholic Brethren; (7) “I also declare and promise, that I will not withdraw myself from this right honourable board; and should I ever join in where the enemies of our emancipation are, may the wrath of He who suffered for us fall on me (I do not mean trade societies or soldiers).”
The other paper found ran as follows:
“These times are distressing.
“Who are distressed? The poor.
“Who are poor? Only those that God hates.
“Our laurels are fading. Next spring will revive them.
“Do not abuse me, I am for peace. You shall not be abused.”
THE RIBBONMEN
243
These pieces of evidence go to show that at a period when education in Ireland was very restricted, and few of the peasantry could write or read, the Ribbonmen possessed members who were not without a certain amount of fluency in composition, and skill in inventing catechisms containing a double meaning.
Another point illustrated is the speed with which the society could extend its ramifications throughout a whole district. O’Connell was probably speaking no more than the truth in his reference to the state of County Derry.
An explanation of these phenomena is easily found.
The rapid spread of Ribbonism among the Roman Catholic peasantry was undoubtedly abetted by the fact that practically all the hedge-schoolmasters in Ireland “held articles,” in other words, were Masters of Ribbon Lodges. Such a one was Patrick Devine, the ringleader in the murders at Wildgoose Lodge, in County Louth, in 1817, a dreadful crime, dreadfully expiated.
In another book of his, Roddy the Rover , Carleton gives an explanation of why the society was called the Ribbonmen.
“The two ribbons are to be two signs that will guide you — the green one is for Ireland and friendship, and the red one for revenge and blood ; the one is for your friends — the other for your enemies.”
When an Article Bearer had enlisted fifty men to form his own Lodge, he was bound to swear in another Article Bearer to carry on the work. When the whole parish was “up,” that is, sworn in, the first Article Bearer became a Parish Delegate. He possessed the privilege of attending all meetings of the society in his district, to inspect the men and their proceedings; decided complaints; adjusted differ¬ ences; expelled refractory or suspected members; and enforced discipline. He also collected a poll-tax from all members. He reported all these proceedings quarterly to the County Delegates, who reported in turn to the Provincial Delegates, who reported to Headquarters.
244 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
Exactly how far this chain of organization ever became efficient is uncertain. The existence of a central authority for all Ireland is extremely doubtful.
At the same time it seems possible that all the agrarian secret societies which existed in different parts of Ireland under different names (such as the Whitefeet, Caravats, Shanvests, etc.) during the first half of the last century were branches of the one Ribbon Society. All of them seem to have possessed rituals, which probably varied according to districts, such at least would appear to be indicated by documents taken from contemporary newspapers.
At Trim Assizes, 23rd July, 1815, the Ribbonman’s oath was given in evidence as follows:1
“In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen!
“What is your name? I do come here and make oath on the Evangelists and Catholic Church, and enter into the following resolutions, that I will keep secret of all that I will see here this day, until death and after.
“That I will keep secret and help and aid and assist and support these articles until death and after and lead a Catholic life.
“That you will not connect with any Protestant or free¬ mason or any other connection that is against you, but those that is connected with us.
“That you shall not quarrel, riot, brag or boast out of the strength of your confederacy.
“That you will not rob nor steal nor defraud any Brother to the valuation of from one sixpence to a shilling to your knowledge, or knowing without making a restitution.
“That no man shall be taken in here on your vigour or strength without two or more of the same society.
“That you shall not appear before Judge, Bar, Jury or Justice for the injury of your said Brother.
“That if anything derives between you and your said Brother, that you will leave it to the decision of two or more of the said Brothers.
“That you shall not leave one penny with a Protestant which you will get with a Roman Catholic as cheap.
1 Belfast News-Letter, 4th August, 1815.
the ribbonmen
245
“That no man shall be received here but a true Catholic, and that alone unless he is duly inspected into his character by two or more of the same society.
“That you are not to let yourself be knowing to any man unless he is tried by word or sign, and to not divulge your secret in drunkenness, in your sobriety, in dread or fear, or let yourself knowing to any man but a Brother.
“That you will attend at all true and lawful causes, and if not that you shall give true and lawful account of your non-attendance That you are to stand for each other in all true and lawful causes till death.”
It is patent that this document was either drawn up or copied by a badly educated man; the main provisions of the code are, however, clear enough: secrecy, help to his Brethren,, etc., etc.
The next is a much more interesting production, and if it be genuine, which is quite probable, would indicate a survival from the days of the United Irishmen. It is entitled “ Document dropped by a Limerick Whiteboy.”1
“What are you? I am a man.
“How can you prove yourself to be a man? By being born a true member of the Church of Christ, which is the greatest river you ever met with. [.sic.]
“Were you baptized? Yes.
“What name did you get? Truth and Liberty.
“What do you mean by Liberty? I mean the sons of Liberty, the North Star.2
“How long are you from the centre of Ireland? It lies in the centre of my heart.
“Hatfe you any proof for that? Yes, God prosper the True United Boys.
“What are you up to? To the rights of my country.
“Who keeps your rights from you? My former Brothers.
“How comes it that we are equal to the builders of Babel? We do not understand each other.
“How long are you in the world? Since my baptism.
1 Belfast News-Letter, 15th May, 1815. Cf. what has been said before about the survival of the name Whiteboy.
2 Neilson’s newspaper, The Northern Star, was the organ of the United Irishmen.
R
246 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
“What arms of protection do you carry? I carry the cross as a gift from God under my heart.
“What is your age? My age is my name, and my name is my number.
“What is your number? B.
“What is the chief countersign? Elephantio notes elisin Montique.
“What is that in English? Death to a traitor, or a traitor to death.
“Where do you keep your secrets? In a bone box in my left side.
“How high are you? Three steps towards paradise.
“Which are they? F.H.C.
“There are seven clouds over us. I hope heavy showers will bring them down.
“You are going on one side of your shoes. It is no matter to you whether I stand upright.
“Do you stand so? No.
“Why so? There is a heavy yoke over us since the Battle of the Boyne.”
It would be fruitless to hazard a conjecture what language the countersign was supposed to be. This piece of ritual as a whole argues a considerable amount of organization in the society which practised it.
Evidence tendered at the House of Commons enquiry into secret societies held in 1835 contained more terrible versions of the Ribbonman’s oath as said to be then current. Appended is the recension favoured by Colonel Verner, Grand Master of the Orangemen. Other versions given in evidence were more or less the same in sentiment, but not so clear in phrasing.
“I, A.B., in the presence of Almighty God, and this my Brother, do swear that I will suffer my right hand to be cut from my body and laid at the gaol door at Armagh, before I will waylay or betray a Brother; and I will persevere, and not spare from the cradle to the crutch, and from the crutch to the cradle; that I will not pity the moans or groans of infancy or old age, but that I will wade knee-deep in Orange¬ men’s blood, and not do as King James did.”
THE RIBBONMEN 24*/
Verner could not state where he had learnt of this oath, and much value cannot be given his evidence, for in other respects he showed more bias than exact knowledge. Thus he labelled as “Ribandmen processions” those which were attended by the Roman Catholics on St. Patrick’s Day and by the Freemasons on the 24th June — a statement dictated more by bigotry than ignorance, for it was a habit of the Orange party to call all processions in which Roman Catholics took part “Riband processions,” and the epithet must be taken in this sense as merely a term of abuse, not as denominating the secret society of the Ribbonmen.
The term Ribbon Lodge was also used in Ulster quite wrongly about the year 1835 to describe a very curious association of which little is known. This was the Union Lodge, composed of persons of all religious denominations brought together for the purpose of securing the abolition of tithe and the reduction of rents. It had, of course, nothing to do with the Ribbon Society, and even members of the Orange “Black Lodges” were said to take part in the plottings of the Union Lodges.
In the north of Ireland the genuine Ribbonmen would seem to have become almost extinct by 1835. Various police witnesses from Ulster declared at the House of Com¬ mons enquiry in that year that they had never come across a genuine Ribbonman; but the body persisted in other parts of Ireland, particularly in Connaught, where it was extremely strong.1
In process of time some of these Ribbon associations merged into the Irish Republican Brotherhood; others retained their original agrarian policy throughout the Irish Land War; yet others abandoned their militant activities, and became transformed into societies that were merely religious and provident. In the last case the ban of the Roman Catholic Church on secret societies was obviated by a rule declaring members of the priesthood ipso facto members of the society.
1 “ I gathered from various sources that it was easier, at nearly all times, to turn an Orangeman into a Fenian than to effect the same metamorphosis with a Ribbonman. . . . Connaught was (as indeed I fear it still is) the headquarters of Ribbonism.” — O’Leary, Fenians and Fenianism, 1896.
248 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
The most famous of these transformed bodies was re¬ modelled about the year 1825 under the name of the Brotherhood of St. Patrick. It was intended to be a benefit society, and membership was confined to Catholics. The oath was simple; the candidate, after having had the rules explained to him, merely swore to be true and faithful to his duties as a member.
Sometime in the eighteen-thirties the society was carried to America, and there rechristened the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which title was subsequently adopted by the parent stem in Ireland, but not universally so, the old name being retained by some branches till well within the present century.
According to a not very reliable authority, Pierce Nagle, the Fenian informer, in his early days joined the Brother¬ hood of St. Patrick, “the most conspicuous of the ‘legal organizations’ with which Ireland was then plagued, and under cover of which the I.R.B. made such amazing progress.”1
This statement is misleading, for while the Fenians absorbed some of the Brotherhood, the bulk of it seems to have held aloof; though as a body it might co-operate in public and legal demonstrations, as in 1861, when it took charge of the M’Manus funeral in Dublin.2 “ The Brother¬ hood was an open and legal organization, with objects rather undefined and vague. It was, however, ultra-National. . . . In reality this St. Patrick’s Brotherhood was a feeder for the Fenian Society, which gradually absorbed all its mem¬ bers, and finally snuffed it out of existence altogether.”3
This is another misstatement of fact. Fenianism may have absorbed some branches of the Brotherhood that desired to revert to militancy, but many of the older secret societies, whether militant or innocuous, would have nothing to do with the newer Irish Republican Brotherhood, either in Ireland or in America.
1 John Rutherford, The Fenian Conspiracy, 1877.
2 M’Manus was an exiled political felon who died in San Francisco, and whose body was given a public funeral in Dublin as a national demonstration of feeling.
3 Richard Pigott, Personal Recollections of an Irish National Journalist, 1882.
THE RIBBON MEN 249
A historian better qualified than most to speak with real knowledge has declared:
“There is nothing common to Fenianism and Ribbonism but illegality . . . their aims and objects are as wide as the poles asunder. Ribbonism is purely agrarian and religious, i.e. anti-landlord and anti-Protestant, while Fenianism is purely National, i.e. anti-English. . . .
I learnt to my astonishment that there were Ribbonmen or rather a Ribbon organization, ‘The Ancient Order of Hibernians’ in America. ... I suppose the body to be now something of a trade union of a mutually supporting or charitable kind, and much a matter of habit and of that desire in human nature, and especially in Celtic nature, to belong to some gild, confraternity or other society.”
O’Leary goes on to say that the Ribbonmen in America would have nothing to do with the Fenian movement; and elsewhere he speaks of the former associations as being approved of by the priesthood.1
Rutherford2 also speaks of the “Hibernian Society” as being a form of Ribbonism, and says it was established at Toronto in 1851 in opposition to the Orange Order. Le Caron3 mentions the Order as being a purely benevolent body, and implies that it had, in itself, no political aims, though its branches had largely affiliated with the open political campaign being carried on in the United States in favour of Irish autonomy.
In Ireland the activities of the Ancient Order of Hiber¬ nians have been directed on the same principles. Before 1914 it represented an association of Catholic Nationalists pledged to support that political party; it was in favour with the Catholic hierarchy; and at the same time it strove as a secret society to countermine the political energies of the Orange Society. Its membership ran into many thousands.
1 O’Leary, Op. cit.
2 Op. cit.
3 Twenty-five Tears in the Secret Service.
25O FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
Whether its aims have altered since the year 1922 it would be futile to speculate. The position of the Lodges that are situated in Ulster would appear to be willy-nilly one of enforced warfare, particularly in County Armagh, where the burning of an A.O.H. hall by unidentifiable armed bands has been known to provide a “bonfire night” on more than one occasion; as for turning the other cheek — the Ulsterman has never learnt to do so to a religious opponent. The A.O.H. has probably not forgotten that it is the de¬ scendant of the Defenders.
The other descendants of the same body probably died out for the most part with the end of the Land War; and others have merged into modern organizations. It is doubt¬ ful if any still exist for the purposes that called them into being a century and a half ago.