Ulster Unionists in America, 1972-1985

Abstract

Ulster Unionists in America, 1972–1985 Andrew J. Wilson Throughout the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, Irish nationalists received vital support from across the Atlantic.1 Leading Irish-American politicians formed a powerful political network that pressured the British government and worked for a constitutional nationalist agenda on Capitol Hill. In addition, millions of dollars and supplies of weapons were channeled to the IRA and played a key role in sustaining its campaign of violence. While this Irish-American connection has been the focus of extensive media and scholarly analysis, virtually nothing has been written about the simultaneous small, but determined, Unionist support network in the United States. Unlike Irish-American nationalists, Unionists had little constituency from which they could draw support. Although nearly 250,000 Ulster Protestants had crossed the Atlantic in the eighteenth century and initially formed a distinct Scotch-Irish community, the vast majority, over time, assimilated into mainstream American society. Their descendants had little or no interest in the politics of their ancestral homeland—a fact that Unionists in Northern Ireland have sometimes failed to appreciate. Restrictive immigration laws drastically reduced the numbers of Irish entering the United States throughout the twentieth century. Almost all of those who were able to enter came from the Republic of Ireland or were Catholics from Northern Ireland, driven into exile by the lack of opportunities under the Stormont regime. Ulster Protestants who migrated to North America tended to settle in Canada. For the few who did come to the United States, the Irish cultural and political environment they found was generally a "cold house" for anyone from a Unionist background; many aspects of the "Irish kitsch" in America, from bars to St. Patrick's Day parades, were decidedly nationalist in tone. In this environment, it is hardly surprising that when journalist Wendy Martin [End Page 50] interviewed Ulster Protestant immigrants in the early 1970s, she found that most hesitated to talk about Irish politics and just wanted to be left in peace.2 * * * Despite these obstacles, a small network of Ulster Protestant and Unionist activists, composed of members of the Orange Order, the Scotch-Irish Society of the United States, and the Ulster-Irish Society, emerged when communal violence erupted in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s. They tried to undermine the activities of Irish-American support groups for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association by launching "information initiatives" that portrayed Stormont as a bastion of equality and good government. Leaders of this network also helped to organize the Unionist Party's first coordinated publicity drive in August, 1969, when Robin Bailie, a member of the Stormont parliament, and William Stratton-Mills, a member of the British House of Commons, traveled to New York as part of a "Truth Squad" aiming to confront Bernadette Devlin, who was then in the midst of a highly publicized tour. The climax of the campaign came with a nationally televised debate between Stratton-Mills and Devlin during which raucous exchanges and scuffles erupted between Irish-American nationalists seated beneath an Irish tricolor and members of the Ulster-Irish Society clustered around a Union Jack.3 The "Truth Squad" initiative convinced a few Unionist Party officials that nurturing a more extensive grassroots support network in the United States could be a useful way to promote their views abroad. Eventually two new groups emerged. In New York, Reverend Charles Reynolds, from a fiercely Unionist background in Belfast, established the Northern Ireland Service Council (NISC). In Los Angeles, Harry Bennison, another Belfast native, launched the Ulster American Loyalists (UAL). Both organizations claimed about one hundred members and followed similar tactics. Reynolds and Bennison led letter-writing campaigns to local and national newspapers, appeared on television and radio to debate Irish-American nationalist leaders, and provided logistical support for visiting Unionist politicians. Their most ambitious initiative, however, was to bring Prime Minister Brian Faulkner to the United States in late June, 1972, shortly after the British government had prorogued Stormont and imposed Direct Rule. Bennison and Reynolds organized a nationwide series of media appearances, public forums, and receptions, at which Faulkner was given [End Page 51] the opportunity to defend his administration, explain the Unionist case, and attack...