He has indeed. This is a few lines from the NL of Paddy's Day in 1878. Gives an insight of how it was seen then.
The Feast Day of St Patrick in 1878 was marred by rioting in a number of towns across Ulster. Lurgan was just one of those towns. A correspondent from the Armagh town wrote,
''From ten o'clock last night drums were heard beating in the Pound and other Roman Catholic neighbourhoods. Crowds were collected in Shankill Street...from an early hour this morning and drumming was kept up incessantly.''
The 10am train brought the Portadown contingent. This party then proceeded to Shankill Street from where a procession emerged at 11.15am. They were led by the St Patrick flute band and carried banners and flags.
By this time,the correspondent reported considerable numbers of Protestants had collected in Church Place. The correspondent remarked: ''The authorities had adopted the usual precautionary measures to prevent a breach of the peace and an extra force of 150 men together with the local constabulary in the vicinties (chiefly Church Place) where a collision was anticapted.''
The procession passed though Lurgan shortly after one 'o clock,. There were flags and banners ''of the usual colours,manty of which bore representations of O'Connell,the crownless harp,the Irish wolf dog,the round towers,& ''while mottos,such as ''God Save Ireland'', ''Erin-go-Bragh'' and ''Who fears to speak of 98?'' were emblazoned on nearly all of them. The drums were embellished,''like the heads of the boys and girls accompanying them'', with large bunches of shamrock''
A cordon of police crossed the southern end of the road but that ''a few stones were exchanged'' between the processionists and the crowd behind the police. It was noted that the Protestant party rushed around the church to the northern end where they found a free avenue and thus stone throwing was renewed by both parties simultaneously. At this stage Captain Redmond and a number of police placed themselves between the combatants and did their utmost to stop the riot but were unable to do so.
The correspondent wrote: ''When the Protestant party were charged by the police the processionists threw stones after them and then the former returned to the assult. The stone-throwing was kept up while the procession passed the church but when the rear of the procession had entered North Street then the riot commenced in right earnest.''
The processionists then turned on the police and Protestants and for some minutes the stones ''flew in hundreds'' in all directions. The processionists appeared eager to retrace their steps but this plan was ended by a strong detachment of constabulary in William Street who dashed down ''with drawn swords''
March 14,2011
I also had copied the Trojan Horse article and the Ruane one too. They were all stapled together so that fella will have a good read. I'll do that each weekend I'm out and have them with me and ready to give to someone who is interested. Its a good way of getting at least some of the message out. You never know that fella may pass it on to others. Heres hoping so.