Samuel Beckton: East Donegal petition has many valuable lessons that we can apply to the modern era in Northern Ireland

In November 1934, 7,368 East Donegal Protestants signed a petition calling for their region to be incorporated into Northern Ireland. A fascinating period of history, that has largely been forgotten.

The petition came as a reaction to Fianna Fáil policies after the 1932 general election. This started the process of cutting the Free State’s ties with the UK by abolishing the oath of allegiance, the right of appeal to the Privy Council, and prerogatives of the Governor-General.

The most important change for southern loyalists was the Irish Free State Citizenship Bill, altering the state’s nationality laws from British subjects to Irish citizens. The Statute of Westminster 1931 made these changes legal.

To exacerbate matters, an Anglo- Irish Trade War, the Economic War, took place from 1932-8, depressing agricultural prices. Its impact was especially felt in the border counties that relied on cross-border trade, as East Donegal farmers struggled as a new hard border was established and felt action needed to happen.

Therefore, in November 1934, canvassing began in East Donegal among the former unionist community for signatures to petition the British and Northern Irish governments to transfer their region to Northern Ireland.

Most of the press, including the News Letter, reported the 1934 petition obtained 8,000 signatures, yet other figures were published. The manner in which the press reported the memorial often reflected the newspaper’s political leanings. The nationalist Derry Journal, for example, said that the petition originally claimed to represent 5,000 loyalists, based on the original draft memorial, while the more unionist Irish Times asserted 8,500 and the Irish edition of the Daily Express claimed 10,000.

However, the press became more interested in the case when a local district justice from Letterkenny, Louis Walsh, called the petition treason that threatened war and that the petitioners would face potential legal action. However, instead of quelling the petition, he exacerbated the matter as newspapers across the British Empire reported the movement and Walsh was internationally condemned.

The Australian Daily Telegraph reported the headline ‘WALSH TRAILS HIS COAT’; the Southern Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) Bulwayo Chronicle headline was ‘ASKING FOR TROUBLE IN IRELAND’, and the South African Cape Argus headline was ‘OUTBURST BY A JUDGE’. Even Ulster Unionists used the situation to remark that a double standard was potentially at play. Noting there would be outrage by nationalist politicians and their supportive press if a magistrate or judge in Northern Ireland condemned the political actions and speeches of the nationalist population residing in Northern Ireland, in a manner similar to that of Walsh.

Despite this, the petition went nowhere. Even after East Donegal farmers asked instead for financial assistance to migrate to Northern Ireland, which received some sympathy but no action from the Northern Irish or British governments. It was not long until these Donegal farmers’ anger was directed towards Stormont.

From 1934-8, Donegal milk farmers rejected the 1934 Northern Ireland Milk Act, which restricted dairy products from outside the UK coming into Northern Ireland.

As a response, Donegal farmers still entered their traditional markets in Derry and Strabane, regardless of potential consequences. The police in Northern Ireland did not interfere with these farmers, besides give warnings they were open to prosecutions without a licence and took the names of all milk vendors from the Free State selling their goods in city.

Despite these threats from Stormont, and ongoing court legal battles, the Donegal farmers kept going over the border to trade their goods.

This series of stand-offs and threats became known as the ‘Derry-Donegal Milk War’. The Irish Free State government efforts to help Donegal farmers were ineffective. Two alcohol factories were established in Carndonagh and Manorcunningham to encourage farmers to grow potatoes, and a bacon curing factory in Letterkenny.

This did not cover the loss of the milk trade, and these respective sites came into operation in 1937 and 1940. It was not until the Economic War ended in 1938, and a milk factory opened in Derry/Londonderry, that the situation returned to normal.

Overall, even though the East Donegal petition was nearly a century ago, it still has many valuable lessons that we can apply to the modern era in Northern Ireland, as we contemplate the impact of Brexit on the Northern Irish economy, and ongoing discussions of a potential united Ireland.

The biggest lesson of all is that change is not always embraced by all and, as seen time and time again, crises often inadvertently create reactionary political movements.

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Dr Samuel Beckton is a historian of 19th and 20th Irish History from Belfast. He has an MPhil in International Peace Studies from Trinity College Dublin, an MPhil in Politics from Queen’s University Belfast, and undertook a Department of Education PhD scholarship in History from Ulster University. On September 30 2022, he spoke in the Seanad Éireann after submitting his research as evidence to the Public Consultation on the Constitutional Future of the Island of Ireland Committee.

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Samuel Gary Beckton: The East Donegal Border Petition and the Derry-Donegal Milk War, 1934-8 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2023) is available to buy