Brendan Duffy

The Ribbonmen were a secret society of 19th-century poor Catholics in Ireland. Their movement Ribbonism was borne of desperation caused by the grinding poverty and oppression endured by tenant farmers and labourers. It was also a counterweight to the Protestant Orange Order. They were the spiritual and socio-economic heirs of earlier agrarian movements like the Whiteboys of the 1760s and the Defenders of the late 18th century. When the 1798 Rebellion collapsed fragments of the Defender network survived underground. These remnants evolved into Ribbon lodges, carrying forward the tradition of secret resistance. The name came from the simple symbol of membership, a green ribbon worn discreetly in cap or lapel. Ribbonism thrived in Ulster, north Leinster and Connacht, regions where sectarian violence and agrarian grievance ran side by side. Above all, Ribbonmen were the mobilisation of the peasant poor to protect tenants from arbitrary eviction, resist rack-rents imposed by absentee landlords, and strike back at tithe collectors who forced Catholics to support the Protestant Church of Ireland. Their justice was violent and uncompromising. It frequently involved barn burning, cattle maiming and the dreaded “intimidation letters” arrived bearing drawings of coffins or pistols. Ribbonism was also a form of protection and opposition to the Orange Order, which by the early 19th century staged provocative parades through Catholic districts and policed Protestant ascendancy in Ulster. Ribbonmen and Orangemen clashed repeatedly, their battles filling the summer calendar of fairs, processions, and public holidays with violence. In these confrontations, Catholic nationalism and rural resistance fused, turning local grievance into a wider political identity. Ribbon lodges resembled Orange lodges in structure, often meeting in the backrooms of public houses. They provided solidarity in a society that denied Catholics both land rights and political voice. Their main method was clandestine intimidiation and they cenertainly earned their fearsome reputation fearsome. Threatening letters were first delivered by night, warning landlords, agents, or “land grabbers” not to cross Ribbon law. If that didnt work, next came violence. Nocturnal raids, shots fired through windows, barns and hayricks set aflame. Punishments like “carding”, basically dragging a victim across a spiked plank were reserved for informers. By the mid-19th century, Ribbonism was waning. The Great Famine tore apart the social fabric of rural Ireland, scattering the networks of the poor and decimating the communities from which Ribbon lodges drew their strength. In 1871, the movement was declared illegal, though by then its influence had already ebbed. New movements had risen to take its place, the Fenian Brotherhood abroad, and constitutional nationalism at home. – at Dublin City, Ireland