Life

Jake O'Kane: So why the hell am I bothering to write about Edward Carson?

While the simple brass plaque marking Edward Carson's resting place initially seems humble, the fact that he’s the only person buried in the Cathedral means St Anne’s is, in essence, his private mausoleum

Jake O'Kane

Jake O'Kane

Jake is a comic, columnist and contrarian.

Jake's Carson memorabilia: 'I found them irresistible when they came up for sale at local auctions'
Jake's Carson memorabilia: 'I found them irresistible when they came up for sale at local auctions' Jake's Carson memorabilia: 'I found them irresistible when they came up for sale at local auctions'

THIS weekend marks the 83rd anniversary of Edward Carson’s burial in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. The photo shows my collection of Carson memorabilia. Of no great monetary value, I found them irresistible when they came up for sale at local auctions, later assembling them into this little tableau.

From the left there is a picture sent by Carson to admirers; next is a commemorative lapel badge worn by mourners at his funeral, and beside this is a letter sent by Carson to a Miss Margaret Morrow, who along with a Miss Stanfield, had gifted him handkerchiefs. The final item is a contemporary cartoon of the man once owned by DUP leader Peter Robinson.

My small collection of loyalist political memorabilia came about due to finance more than intention, with the boom of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years putting nationalist material beyond my pocket.

While I’ve always been fascinated by Carson the man, I only visited his grave in St Anne’s Cathedral for the first time a couple of weeks ago when I attended a Sunday service at which my son’s choir was singing. I only remembered Carson was buried in the Cathedral when I found myself, by chance, sitting near his grave.

While the simple brass plaque marking his resting place initially seems humble, the fact that he’s the only person buried in the Cathedral means St Anne’s is, in essence, his private mausoleum.

At this stage, some of you may be about to throw this paper across the room in annoyance. Why the hell am I bothering to write about Carson? Control your temper and hopefully you’ll understand before I finish.

For a start, Carson was an enigma on legs; while projecting power and poise in public, he lived as a hypochondriacally depressive in private. A keen player of hurling while studying at Trinity College, he spoke with a Dublin accent.

When his wife died he remarried at the age of 60, his new wife being 31 years his junior. He joined the Orange Order at 19 yet once described speeches by its members as "the unrolling of a mummy. All old bones and rotten rags". A strident loyalist, he found no contradiction in using "all means necessary" to thwart Irish Home Rule, even importing guns for his newly formed UVF in 1914.

One of the most brilliant and highest paid barristers of his age, he was involved in two of the most famous trials of the time, those being Oscar Wilde vs Queensbury and the ‘Winslow Boy’ vs Royal Naval College.

While history portrays him as the cold-hearted adversary who destroyed Oscar Wilde, he initially didn’t want the brief due to knowing Wilde from their days at Trinity. It was Wilde who ill-advisedly instigated his libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, leaving himself open to its inevitable outcome. After the case, it has been reported, Carson urged the then-solicitor general to "let up on the fellow now, he has suffered a great deal".

In the celebrated Winslow Boy case of 1910, Carson took on and won against the Royal Navy College which had wrongly accused the boy of stealing. These were but two cases in a glittering legal career.

Of course, this is seldom mentioned due to his long campaign against Home Rule which saw him fight, but fail, to keep all of Ireland within the United Kingdom. While his statue may dominate the entrance to Stormont, it’s not by accident that it’s James Craig whose body lies buried within its grounds and not his. Carson viewed partition as a betrayal by the British government and had no part in the creation of the Frankenstein state of Northern Ireland, leaving negotiations to James Craig and Eamon De Valera.

His sense of betrayal was clear in a speech he made in 1921 opposing the pending Anglo-Irish Treaty which was to lead to partition, saying, "What a fool I was! I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into power."

And so history comes full circle as we once again have unionists trusting a Conservative Party with their future. As the DUP luxuriate in their ‘confidence and supply’ deal they must surely be looking over their shoulders for the inevitable dagger in the back.

If not, they should ponder this: Edward Carson, one of the most brilliant men of his time, was by his own admission betrayed by the Conservative Party, and Arlene Foster is no Edward Carson.