Redemption - Leon Uris [159]
“I happen to love you, Father. Now, will you get yourself calmed down?”
A petulant pause. “It will be so good to see you,” Weed said. “It’s been a fortnight and I’ve missed you.”
The Camp Bushy mutiny dissolved along with all records of the resignations, the Irish would get a home army, the Militia had an arsenal at Lettershambo Castle large enough to conquer a continent, the Home Rule Bill was put into a dead letter file, perhaps forever, and serenity ruled the land.
As war on the continent inched closer, the Balkans exploded in what was apparently a preamble to the big show. Churchill felt it might be a good time to go over to Ulster and smooth things over.
They did suffer a sense of isolation over there and Winston could promote the unity theme as his father had done thirty-four years earlier.
Astute politician that he was, Winston, as First Lord of the Admiralty, might follow up a successful Belfast rally with a speaking tour across the province.
Caroline Hubble, one of the few important Liberals in Ulster, became one of Churchill’s sponsors, although she warned him not to make the trip. She told him once again that if they discussed the same thing at the end of the century, the Unionist position would not have changed one iota. Churchill, seeing too much future political coin to gain through a unity call, did not take her good advice.
As Churchill’s ferry crossed the Irish Sea, Weed called in the press.
“It is lamentable,” Sir Frederick said, “that this man, Churchill, deliberately comes to this loyal city to voice the line of the John Redmonds, to espouse treason, and defile the very same platform his beloved father, Randolph, spoke from so gloriously in behalf of our liberty.”
Weed was asked by a reporter if the Liberal Party was or was not entitled to free speech in Belfast.
“Free speech,” Freddie snapped back, “is not extended to turncoats. Winston Churchill has renounced his magnificent birthright and heritage and bolted the Conservative Party to consort with those radicals who would destroy the empire. Do not be taken in by his cunning. He is the most provocative orator in Britain and this visit is nothing more than an arrogant exercise at a time and in a place where the immortal words of his revered father still ring in our ears—‘Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right.’ In my frank opinion,” Weed concluded, “Winston Churchill is no Englishman.”
Landing at Larne, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill met with a far different reception than had been accorded Lord Randolph.
A great crowd had gathered and the mood was ugly. Churchill was booed along the route from the Midlands to the Grand Central Hotel. Effigies hung from lampposts and thousands of placards bearing the gravest insults were waved.
Churchill looked out at men edging to the brink of violence, shaking their fists, spitting, and screaming oaths at him. Rock throwing broke out and, at one juncture, two wheels of his vehicle were lifted off the ground and the auto shaken jarringly.
His welcome was only the beginning. After hasty consultations the Constabulary said it could not guarantee Churchill’s safety if he spoke at Ulster Hall, the site of his father’s triumphant speech.
At the last moment, Parnell Field, a rugby ground in the Catholic Falls section, was used for the rally. The mission was a complete fizzle.
Churchill recrossed the Irish Sea needing no comfort from Caroline Hubble. They had played rough; he had played rough. The British people did not want a pussycat to lead their Admiralty. No grudges to be held, no scores to be settled. He might need them sometime in the future and they might need him. The main thing was that the Liberals were still in power, the Irish situation was on hold, and he could now concentrate full time on the coming war.
In August of 1914 the Great War began and the British Navy was ready.
A few months afterward the Ulster Militia’s arsenal at Lettershambo Castle was destroyed by a small, swift raiding party of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
The meaning of the destruction of Lettershambo