Editing Conradh na Gaeilge (section)

== Northern Protestants ==
The first Ulster branch of the Gaelic League was formed in east [[Belfast]] in 1895, a year after the death of [[Robert Shipboy MacAdam]] who, with [[James MacDonnell (physician)|Dr. James MacDonnell]], had presided over a precursor of the League earlier in the century: ''Cuideacht Gaoidhilge Uladh / T''he Ulster Gaelic Society (1828–1843).<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last=Blaney |first=Roger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qf2LuAEACAAJ |title=Presbyterians and the Irish Language |date=1996 |publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation |isbn=978-0-901905-72-7 |language=en}}</ref> The new Belfast branch was formed under the active patronage (until he left to become Church of Ireland Lord [[Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin|Bishop of Ossory]]) of the Rev. [[John Crozier (archbishop of Armagh)|John Baptiste Crozier]] and the presidency of his parishioner, Dr. [[John St. Clair Boyd|John St Clair Boyd]], both unionists,<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Gaelic Revival Movement in East Belfast – Great War Gaeilgeoirí of East Belfast|url=https://www.greatwargaeilgeoiri.org.uk/history/gaelic-revival-movement-in-east-belfast/|access-date=2021-03-14|language=en-GB}}</ref> and of the [[Orange Order]] Grand Master, the Rev. [[Richard Rutledge Kane (senior)|Richard Rutledge Kane.]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Geoghegan |first=Patrick |date=2009 |title=Kane, Richard Rutledge {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/kane-richard-rutledge-a4379 |access-date=2022-12-19 |website=www.dib.ie |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Ó Snodaigh |first=Pádraig |title=Hidden Ulster, Protestants and the Irish Language |publisher=Ultach Trust, Lagan Press |year=1995 |isbn=1873687354 |location=Belfast}}</ref>{{rp|86–87}} Claiming to afford a "common platform to Catholic and Protestant", by 1899 the League had nine branches in the city including one in the unionist [[Shankill Road|Shankill ward]] where, in the 1911 census, 106 people recorded themselves as Irish speakers.<ref name=":4" />{{rp|91}}

For other Protestant pioneers of the [[Irish language in Northern Ireland|Irish language in the north]] the League was a non-sectarian door into the nationalist community with whom their political sympathies lay. This was the case for [[Alice Milligan]], publisher in [[Belfast]] of ''[[The Shan Van Vocht]].''  Milligan's command of Irish was never fluent, and on that basis [[Patrick Pearse]] was to object when, in 1904, the Gaelic League hired her as a travelling lecturer. She proved herself by establishing new branches throughout Ireland and raising funds along the way. In the north, in [[Ulster]], she focused on the more difficult task of recruiting Protestants, working with, among other activists, [[Douglas Hyde|Hyde]], Ada McNeill, [[Roger Casement]], [[Alice Stopford Green]], [[Stephen Gwynn]], and Seamus McManus.<ref name="Morris">{{cite book|last=Morris|first=Catherine|title=Alice Milligan and the Irish Cultural Revival|date=2013|publisher=Four Courts Press|isbn=978-1-846-82422-7|location=Dublin}}</ref>

James Owen Hannay (better known as the novelist [[George A. Birmingham]]), originally of [[Belfast]], was co-opted onto the League's national executive body in December 1904 while a Church of Ireland (Anglican) rector in Westport in [[County Mayo]]. Hyde and [[Arthur Griffith]] sympathised with Hannay's desire for a "union of the two Irish democracies", Catholic in the south and Protestant in the north. In the north Hannay saw a potential ally in [[Robert Lindsay Crawford|Lindsay Crawford]] and his [[Independent Orange Order]]. Like the ''Conradh na Gaeilge'', he saw the IOO as "profoundly democratic in spirit" and independent of "the rich and the patronage of the great".<ref>J.O. Hannay to Lindsay Crawford, 29 May 1905, Lindsay Crawford Papers, National Library of Ireland, Ms.11,415</ref><ref name="Murray2">{{cite journal|last1=Murray|first1=Peter|date=February 2002|title=Lindsay Crawford's 'Impossible Demand'? The Southern Irish Dimension of the Independent Orange Project|url=http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/1198/1/WPS05.pdf|journal=National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Working Paper Series|access-date=15 December 2020}}</ref>

Crawford, who stood for election to the League's executive committee, was critical of what he regarded as the League's impractical romanticism.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Jones|first=Siobhan|date=2005|title="The 'Irish Protestant' under the editorship of Lindsay Crawford, 1901—6"|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23199801|journal=Saothar|volume=30|pages=85–96|jstor=23199801 |issn=0332-1169}}</ref> In his paper, ''Irish Protestant'', he suggested that the Irish Ireland movement needed an injection of "Ulsteria", an "industrial awakening on true economic lines: it is wrong when people crave bread to offer them 'language and culture'".<ref>''Irish Protestant'', April 1903</ref>

Offence taken at his successful play ''[[General John Regan (play)|General John Regan]],'' and his defence of Crawford's opposition to church control of education, strained Hannay's relations with nationalists and he withdrew from League. Meanwhile, in North America, Crawford (who had found no political home in Ireland) went on to campaign with [[Éamon de Valera|Eamon de Valera]] for recognition and support for the [[Proclamation of the Irish Republic|republic proclaimed in 1916]].<ref name="Boyle 2">{{cite journal|last1=Boyle|first1=J. W.|date=1971|title=A Fenian Protestant in Canada: Robert Lindsay Crawford 1910-1922|journal=Canadian Historical Review|volume=LVII|issue=2|pages=165–176|doi=10.3138/CHR-052-02-03|s2cid=162210866}}</ref>

[[Ernest Blythe]], who joined the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] in 1909 with the distinction of maintaining for three years his membership of the [[Orange Order]],<ref name="neillt">Neill, T. (1979) Ernest Blythe: The Man from Magheragall. [Electronic Version] Lisburn Historical Society, 2 (4)</ref> had as his first ''Conradh na Gaeilge'' teacher [[Sinéad de Valera|Sinéad Flanagan]], de Valera's future wife. To improve his knowledge of the Irish language, he lived in the [[County Kerry]] [[Gaeltacht]] earning his keep as an agricultural labourer.<ref name="boy2">{{cite book|last=Boylan|first=Henry|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition|publisher=Gill and MacMillan|year=1998|isbn=978-0-7171-2945-4|location=Dublin|page=29}}</ref> A similar path was followed by IRB organiser of the Irish Volunteers, [[Bulmer Hobson]].