Remembering the 1605 Gunpowder Plot in Ireland, 1605–1920

W riting in November 1873 of the commemoration of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot (the conspiracy hatched by Guy Fawkes and other English Catholics to blow up parliament and thereby assassinate King James I), the Dublin-based liberal newspaper, the Freeman’s Journal, observed that, whereas in England the “dubious incident” was now remembered “only in connexion with a funny effigy and a schoolboy’s half-holiday,” in Ireland Protestants still found in “the miserable conspiracy of three centuries since a pretext of keeping fellow-countrymen asunder in distrust and hate.” The newspaper’s comments had been prompted by events two days earlier, when the “Sons of William” had assembled outside Portadown—“one of the most inflammable localities in Ulster”—determined to march to the sound of their “execrable” music through the Catholic residential area known as “the Tunnel” (named after a local underground walkway). But Portadown had been the scene of a riot in July 1873, and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) had been forewarned that a similar incident might occur on 5 November. As a result, 110 additional constables were drafted from counties Armagh and Down to ensure that peace was maintained, while on the day itself, the RIC fixed bayonets and stopped the quarter-mile-long Orange procession from gaining access to the Tunnel, whereupon the great majority of Orangemen withdrew and entered the town from a different direction. However,