Osprey - Essential Histories 065 - The Anglo-Irish War 1913-1922

Portrait of a civilian
Thomas Hornibrook
In 1891, 10 per cent of the population of the
26 counties that now constitute the Republic
of Ireland was Protestant. By 1991
Protestants constituted a mere 3 per cent.
Although this process of decline began in
1911, when the spectre of Home Rule began
to rear its head, it had levelled off by 1926. It
is not surprising that the most rapid period
of decline was 1921-23, when the country
was experiencing the most turmoil.
In many respects the Protestant population
of Southern Ireland were the real losers in the
Anglo-Irish War. For the most part they were
Irish-born and their families had been in
Ireland for hundreds of years, yet in the eyes
of some Republicans, like the West Cork
Republican activist Kathleen Keys McDonnell,
they were 'foreigners'. To many Irish
Catholics they were merely strangers in a
strange land. One such alien in the land of his
birth was Thomas Hornibrook of Ballygroman
House, in the Bandon district of Co. Cork.
Overall Protestant population in 1891 was
10 per cent. In 1861 only Kilkenny had less
than 6 per cent Protestants. Dublin had a
Protestant population of 20 per cent, as did
Monaghan and Cavan. In many respects, the
Dunmanway area of Co. Cork was the Ulster
of the south. Co. Cork's Protestant population
numbered 8.3 per cent across the county, but
was higher than the national average at 16 per
cent in Dunmanway, and for several hundred
years an uneasy coexistence existed between
the Protestants and the Catholic majority.
Unlike the Protestants in Ulster, most of Cork's
were English by descent and Church of Ireland
by faith rather than Scots Presbyterians.
However, like their Ulster brethren there was a
deeply ingrained fear of sectarian violence if
law and order ever broke down, which
engendered a siege mentality more usually
associated with the Northern Protestants. In
their cultural collective memory the massacres
of 1641 and 1798 were as fresh in their minds
as if they were in Ulster.
Thomas Hornibrook was a landowner
who lived at Ballygroman, halfway between
Bandon and Cork, and was typical of his
caste. He served for at least ten years as a
magistrate in Ballincollig and only resigned
the bench under pressure from the IRA in
1921. He was a man of very strong Unionist
convictions and, unlike most Cork
Protestants, he was unafraid of voicing his
support for the British governance of Ireland.
He had a reputation for being a hard man,
as did his son Sam.
Many Republicans viewed the Protestant
community as a fifth column within their
midst. Although there were plenty of Irish
Catholics who worked for the Castle regime
it was Ireland's Protestants who made up the
bulk of the political and social elite. In many
Nationalists' eyes it was the Protestant
landlords, big business and Freemasons who
kept the British regime operating in Ireland.
Some Catholics did reach senior positions in
the police, army and Civil Service but the
perception was that the Castle positively
discriminated in favour of the Protestants.
The Republicans had an especial dislike
for Freemasons who they viewed as
particularly pro-British. As a result, the IRA
killed several Irishmen - like Tom Nagle and
Francis Fitzmaurice, both from Dunmanway
- who were Protestant Freemasons. This
dislike was probably reinforced because
policemen were barred from being members
of any 'secret' societies except the
Freemasons. It is strange that Republicans
should have been so hostile towards the
Freemasons when one considers that most
of the founders of the United Irishmen, the
spiritual ancestors of the IRA, were not only
Protestants like Wolfe Tone, but also
Freemasons themselves.