How a Misunderstood 300-Year-Old Battle Fueled Conflict in Northern Ireland for Generations
As Feargal Cochrane tells us in his 2021 book, Northern Ireland: The Fragile Peace, in 1995, while the “peace process” was in progress in Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister John Major was interviewed by Ulster Television’s Ken Reid. Major asked Reid where he wanted him to begin the discussion. “In a deadpan but mischievous response, the reporter quipped, 1690, Prime Minister.”
1690? What did anything that happened way back then have to do with what was going on in Northern Ireland in the 1990s? The answer, surprisingly, is a lot.
1690 was the year of the Battle of the Boyne (River) in Ireland, where the Dutch Protestant William of Orange, installed by Parliament in 1688’s “Glorious Revolution,” as King William III of England, Scotland and Ireland (English kings even claimed the sovereignty over France at this time!), defeated the deposed Roman Catholic King James II. James had sought to regain his throne, using Catholic majority Ireland as a springboard for an invasion of England. James and William’s armies met at a ford on the river near the town of Drogheda on July 11, 1690. William’s forces, which included his elite Dutch Blue Guards, Danish and French Huguenot (Protestant) troops, prevailed over those of James, which consisted of some French infantry, loaned from Louis but were primarily Irish Catholic “Jacobite” (Jacobus is Latin for James) volunteers.
As Feargal notes, the battle was important because it ensured that Ireland remained under Protestant control. It became “hardwired into Irish Protestant folklore and the slogan ‘Remember 1690’ can still be seen in graffiti and murals today.” He tells us further:
The reason why this battle is remembered and celebrated in Northern Ireland today, in a way that, for example, the Boston Tea Party in America is not, is that it still defines the current political divisions in [Ireland]. In a facetious (but nonetheless telling) example, one renowned Irish academic colleague revealed to a friend, in an unguarded moment, that he had set his ATM bank pin-code to ‘1690,’ as it was the one sequence of numbers he could be sure to remember.
Irish Protestants idealized the Battle of the Boyne, forming institutions like the Orange Order (for William of Orange) that is best known for its yearly marches, the the biggest of which are held on or around July12 (the day after the battle) But as Feargal tells us, in reality, the idea that William fought the Battle of the Boyne to protect Protestantism in Ireland is about as accurate as “John Wayne’s role in Stagecoach in term of understanding the early U.S. settlers relations with Native Americans.” The fact is that William was really fighting a much larger battle against the growing threat of French expansionism under King Louis XIV and had the support of Pope Innocent XI. Innocent shared William’s concerns about Louis attempt to make France the dominant power in Western Europe. He was also angered by the French king’s desire to assert control over the Gallican Catholic Church. But as Feargal says, this has been all been airbrushed out of Irish Protestant folklore.
The truth is Ireland was a relatively insignificant battlefield where William could assert his influence by defeating James, who had allied himself politically to Louis. As Feargal tells us this gap between myth and reality collided when a painting by Dutch artist Claes Pietersz van der Meulen, entitled, The Entry of King William Into Ireland, (see image above) was unveiled in 1933 at newly built Stormont, home to Northern Ireland’s Parliament. The painting depicts Innocent, hovering above William, giving his blessing to the enterprise of defeating a Roman Catholic monarch. The painting had to be hastily removed from the chamber after angry complaints from the Protestant Unionist contingent.
Though “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland ended with the Good Friday Agreement and referendum adopting it in 1998, to this day the “Orangemen” still carry on their “walks” and parades in honor William III’s victory in a 300-year-old battle they choose to see their way.