NAM.2014-05-6-1

Souvenir in Commemoration Of Londonds [sic] Protest against British Troops Being Asked To Shoot Ulster Loyalist in Hyde Park Saturday April 4th 1914. Colour wood engraving on crepe paper, 1914. Printed in London, possibly by Mrs S Burgess, 1914. Border decorated with red ensigns, white ensigns, English flags and union flags, with royal standards at two corners and trophies of colours and standards around a St George cross shield at the other two corners; in the centre a portrait of a decorated officer, possibly Brigadier Hubert Gough, General Officer Commanding 3rd Cavalry Brigade and one of the participants in the Curragh Incident. Associated with Curragh Incident, Ireland (1914-1915) 1914. Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry served as viceroy of Ireland from 1886 to 1889. He was the most vocal Unionist in the House of Lords, opposing the third Home Rule Bill and signing the Ulster solemn league and covenant in September 1912. He also subscribed £10,000 to an indemnity fund designed for the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force. The Ulster Unionists had set up illegal militias to resist the 1914 Home Rule Act. British government plans to use the British Army to suppress them led to the Curragh Incident on 20th March 1914. Mrs S Burgess was based in York Place, off the Strand and specialised in similar paper souvenirs. The right column of text is not printed in full.

Curragh Incident, 1914 (Ireland 1914-1915)