Defence of Crossgar

DESCRIPTION: Thrashers prepare "not to leave a Protestant soul in Crossgar" on St Patrick's Day. A policeman encourages them and the peelers don't stop them. "Many a Thrasher that day was detained" by Orange shot. "We fought them and beat them an hundred to one"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland patriotic political police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 17, 1849 - "Ribbon parades at Castlewellan and Crossgar were attacked by Orangemen, and at Crossgar a policeman and a young woman were killed" (source: Neil Jarman and Dominic Bryan, _From Riots to Rights; Nationalist Parades in the North of Ireland_ (1997),
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 13, "Defence of Crossgar" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Seige of Carrick" (tune, according to Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
NOTES [93 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "The Irish Constabulary, like the R.I.C. which superseded it, was largely composed of Roman Catholics."
Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812 and its success led, in 1829, to the Metropolitan Police Act for London. Originally the term "Peeler" applied to the London constabulary. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.)
The Thrashers were one of the Catholic agrarian groups like the Defenders, Whiteboys and Ribbonmen (source: "Orange Institution" at the Wikipedia site). - BS
File: OrLa013

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