“Long looked for, come at last”: discourses of Whiteboyism and Ribbonism in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Newfoundland

Abstract

Ethnicity is complex and historically contingent. The ways that ethnic identities are negotiated vary over time and place, as a range of circumstances and ethnic others present themselves in different contexts. Thus, Irishness in diasporic communities, as in Ireland itself, is fluid and often contested. Yet, there can be persistence in certain articulations of ethnicity, especially if the identity is rooted in long-term oppression and resistance. The Irish who came to Newfoundland migrated primarily in the period from the early 1700s to the mid-1800s. They were Catholics from the southern counties of Ireland, and they carried with them a sense of marginalisation and grievance rooted in British colonialism, even though they were grasping opportunity in the burgeoning Newfoundland cod fishery. They also brought with them traditions of resistance, such as Whiteboyism and Ribbonism, and deployed these techniques to assert their interests, in terms of ethnicity, or class or both. Ethnic tensions between Irish Catholics and English Protestants persisted well into the twentieth century, and the residue of ethnic difference remains in the twenty-first. Articulations of Irishness in Newfoundland are therefore undergirded by a collective historical memory of unequal access to power and struggle.

Keywords:

• Irish ethnicity
• Newfoundland
• Whiteboyism
• Ribbonism
• marginalisation
• resistance

Notes

1. Ruth Barton, quoted by Negra, “Introduction,” 2.

2. Negra, “Introduction,” 2.

3. Dietler, “Celticism, Celtitude, and Celticity,” 240.

4. McCarthy and Hague, “Race, Nation, and Nature,” 387.

5. Material from the oral traditions is primarily drawn from extensive interviewing by the author in both subareas, including interviews with 26 residents/former residents of the southern Avalon and 16 residents/former residents of Conception Bay, in the period between 1999 and 2004.

6. Sir Francis Drake, “Answers to the Queries Contained in His Majesty’s Instructions,” 22 November 1751, and related correspondence, fol. 107–11, vol. 25, CO 194, Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL); Governor Hugh Palliser, Order, 31 October 1764, fol. 272–73, vol. 3, GN 2/1/A, PANL. Similar attitudes and fears about the Irish in Newfoundland can be found throughout the CO 194 series and the GN 2/1/A series. For further discussion, see Keough, The Slender Thread, Chapter 2.

7. Little, “Plebeian Collective Action,” is a notable exception. I have also discussed this subversiveness and sense of ethnic grievance in The Slender Thread, “Contested Terrains,” and “Ethnicity as Intercultural Dialogue.”

8. See: Beames, “Rural Conflict in Pre-Famine Ireland”; Beames, “The Ribbon Societies”; Donnelly, “The Whiteboy Movement”; Garvin, “Defenders, Ribbonmen and Others”; and Knott, “Land, Kinship and Identity.”

9. Keough, “Contested Terrains.”

10. Keough, Slender Thread, Chapter 3.

11. Petition from the merchants and principal inhabitants of Renews to Governor John Montagu, 29 July 1778, fol. 96–98, vol. 7 (reverse end), GN 2/1/A, PANL.

12. See, for example, John H. Martin to Governor Thomas Cochrane, 13 February 1826, fol. 29–32, vol. 1, GN 2/2, PANL.

13. The term “popular class” in this article encompasses families engaged in household production, labourers, tradespeople, the unemployed and the poor in this pre-industrial context in which relationships to production had not polarised around capital and labour but in which a proto class consciousness had developed.

14. ESF, interview with author, Cape Broyle, 25 August 1999.

15. Anonymous, “A Song,” Carter Family Papers, file 64, MG 31, PANL.

16. See, for example, James Walsh v. John Rossiter, 7 September 1835, 73, box 1, Ferryland, GN 5/4/C/1, PANL; Christopher and Burk v. Kielly, 6 October 1823, 137, St. Mary’s, GN 5/4/C/1, PANL; and Robert Carter Diary, Friday, 30 August 1839, MG 920, PANL.

17. Grand Jury presentments, Ferryland, 3 November 1835 and 6 November 1839, GN 5/2/C/3, PANL.

18. “Patrick Crane,” and “Patrick Kent,” John Mannion Name Files, Cape Broyle, citing court hearings on 14, 27, and 28 November and 10 and 17 December 1817, GN 5/2/A/1, PANL.

19. Keough, The Slender Thread, Chapter 5.

20. Quotation from XT, interview with author, Calvert, 19 July 1999; similar thoughts were expressed by AG, interview with author, Ferryland, 21 July 1999; and ESF, interview with author, Cape Broyle, 25 August 1999. For a fuller discussion of wrecking activities, see Keough, The Slender Thread, Chapter 5.

21. This account is taken from the following sources: correspondence and enclosures, fol. 1–24, vol. 94, CO 194, PANL; Slade, Elson and Company v. Rev. James Duffy et al., 29 October and 3 November 1835, 80–81, box 1, Ferryland, GN 5/4/C/1, PANL; Bishop Michael Fleming, reports and letters cited in Howley, Ecclesiastical History, 323–28; McCarthy, The Irish in Newfoundland, 143–61; and Whelan, “History of the Community of St. Mary’s,” 19–31.

22. William Lush, deposition sworn before Peter Weston Carter, JP of the Central District, 13 November 1835, and before Chief Justice Henry Boulton, St. John’s, 24 November 1835, fol. 19–24, vol. 94, CO 194, PANL.

23. John H. Martin to Joseph Templeman, 22 December 1835, fol. 11–18, vol. 94, CO 194, PANL.

24. John Dingle to Governor John Waldegrave, 28 July 1797, 163–65, vol 13, GN 2/1/A, PANL. Dingle was living in Trepassey temporarily, his home community of Bay Bulls having been attacked by the French in 1796.

25. John Dingle to Governor James Gambier, [15 September?] 1802, 288–94, vol. 16, GN 2/1/A, PANL.

26. Five captives were executed on a gallows erected at the site where they had congregated. The remaining eight were sent in Halifax in irons to be dealt with by the Duke of Kent. Three of them were executed, and the others were transported from British North America.

27. Thomas Tremlett, Jr., to William Adams, MP, 30 April 1800, fol. 305–306, vol. 42, CO 194, PANL; and Thomas Tremlett, Jr., to Thomas Tremlett, Sr., 30 April 1800, fol. 307–308, vol. 42, CO 194, PANL.

28. John Ogden to Governor William Waldegrave, 2 July 1800, fol. 167–69, vol. 42, CO 194, PANL.

29. Newfoundland Patriot, 10 February 1835.

30. Public Ledger, 11 November 1834.

31. Public Ledger, 21 November 1834.

32. Public Ledger, 2 June 1835.

33. Newfoundland Patriot, 26 May 1835.

34. These figures are taken from Newfoundland Population Returns, 1836 and include resident fishing servants.

35. For an in-depth discussion of sealing strikes and manuses, see Ryan, The Ice Hunters, 328–53. For an excellent analysis of collective actions in Conception Bay more broadly, see Little, “Plebeian Collective Action.”

36. William Churchward, deposition, 19 May 1835, file 30, box 11, Harbour Grace, GN 5/3/B/19, PANL.

37. Henry Winton, information and complaint, 19 May 1835, and William Churchward, deposition, 19 May 1935, file 30, box 11, Harbour Grace, GN 5/3/B/19, PANL; Harbour Grace Magistrates to Colonial Secretary James Crowdy, 20 May 1835,enclosure, GN 2/2, PANL.

38. PANL, GN 2/2, Harbour Grace Magistrate Stabb to James Crowdy, 10 June 1835, GN 2/2, PANL.

39. CO 194, vol. 90, Governor Henry Prescott to Earl of Aberdeen, 30 May 1835, enclosure.

40. Herman Lott, deposition, 15 February 1840, reported in Public Ledger, 22 May 1840.

41. Star and Conception Bay Journal, 20 May 1840.

42. Star and Conception Bay Journal, 20 May 1840.

43. PANL, GN 5/3/B/19, box 11, file 30; Newfoundlander, 21 May 1840 (quoting the Harbour Grace Mercury, 15 May 1840); Public Ledger, 22 May 1840; Star and Conception Bay Journal, 20 May, 3, 10, 24 June, and 8 July 1840.

44. Newfoundlander, 21 May 1840, p. 2 (quoting the Harbour Grace Mercury, 15 May 1840); Star and Conception Bay Journal, 3, 10, 24 June, and 8 July 1840.

45. Examinations described in this section appear in box 11, file 30, Harbour Grace, GN 5/3/B/19, PANL.

46. See various depositions in PANL, GN 5/3/B/19, box 11, file 30.

47. Little, “Collective Action,” 57–9.

48. The Orange Order was first established on the island in the 1860s and grew extensively among English-Protestant populations (there were very few Irish-Protestants in Newfoundland).

49. Keough, “Ethnicity as Intercultural Dialogue.”

50. I have written more extensively about this episode in Keough, “Contested Terrains”. Contemporary reports of the incident appeared in newspapers of the period, such as the Harbour Grace Standard and the Evening Telegram, as well as incoming and outgoing correspondence of the Governor’s Office (GN 2/1 and GN 2/2) and the local Colonial Secretary’s Office (GN 1/3/A and GN 1/3/B), PANL. A typescript of the evidence in the ensuing trials in May–June 1884 and November 1884–January 1885 appears in the Mildred Howard collection, “The Harbour Grace Affray”, housed in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies (CNS).

51. The attorney general, Sir William Whiteway, was Protestant, and the solicitor general, James S. Winder was provincial Orange grand master. Two of the three justices of the supreme court were Protestant, including Chief Justice F.B.T. Carter.

52. Hiller, “Confederation Defeated.”

53. O’Flaherty, “Rogues Among Rebels.”

54. MacLeod, Connections.

55. Fitzgerald, “Confederation of Newfoundland.”

56. Trew, “The Forgotten Irish,” 58–66.

57. Many meanings and origins have been attached to the “pink, white, and green”. It was once thought to have originated with the highly political Catholic bishop, Michael Fleming; an alternate reading associated it, ironically, with the Newfoundland Native Society, which actually established itself to promote “native” (i.e. Newfoundland-born) politicians over non-native, Irish-born usurpers. The Native Society did adopt a red, white and green tricolour, and by the 1850s, it was frequently flown as the unofficial flag of Newfoundland (the official flag being the Union Jack). The colours of pink, white and green were actually adopted by the Catholic Star of the Sea Association and merged into a tricolour; this newer rendition became the preferred unofficial flag during the 1880s and 1890s. By the twentieth century, a new mythology had developed around the flag as representing the green of Ireland, the pink of England’s rose and the white of Scotland’s thistle, all existing in harmony. Although it was not a “republican” flag, it was a “nationalist” flag and was frequently flown as a show of independence, whether from Britain (by supporters of Responsible Government in the early 1850s and at the centenary of Daniel O’Connell’s birth in 1875) or Canada (by anti-Confederates in the late 1860s and late 1940s). It continues to make appearances in post-Confederation Newfoundland, usually as a sign of patriotism and often as a sign of protest. See Lambert, “Emblem of our country.”

58. See http://theindependent.ca/.