Ulster Covenant Parade

This year was the 100th Anniversary of the Ulster Covenant on September 28th. I thought I'd use Beth's blog post about the Covenant as a guest blogger.

From Beth:               Ulster Covenant Parade

"This is a video I took while watching the parade on Saturday that was to commemorate 100 years since the signing of the Ulster Covenant. In order to explain what the Ulster Covenant is you have to understand some history.  Ulster is one of 4 provinces in all of Ireland. Within Ulster there are 9 counties, 6 of those counties are in Northern Ireland. The other 3 counties are in the Republic of Ireland.

Pink is Northern Ireland; Green+Pink=Ulster Province

At one time all of Ireland was under British rule. In the early 1900's Ireland wanted its independence from the United Kingdom. However, the province of Ulster wanted to remain British. 

In 1912 the Ulster Covenant was created and nearly half a million people signed. This covenant stated that those who signed pledged to use "all means that may be found necessary". Shortly after Ulster Day and the signing of the covenant, the Ulster Volunteer Force was formed. In response, the Irish Volunteers were formed in Dublin. Because of this, King George V invited both sides to Buckingham Palace for "all-party talks". This talk failed and the United Kingdom found itself on the brink of Civil War.

Finally in 1921, the split of Ireland became official. The southern part of Ireland became independent and is now called the Republic of Ireland. The 6 counties in Ulster where the majority of the Unionist were became Northern Ireland. And it remains that way to this day. 

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a country in the United Kingdom. Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is a self-governing country. The Republic of Ireland is Irish and Northern Ireland is British. (Click for more info BBC-Ulster Covenant)."

Here are some of the photos I took from the parade: