T he death has occurred in New york of Mr Lindsay Crawford, secretary of the American National Foreign Trade Council since 1933, and a former Irish trade representative in New york.
A native of Gilford, County Down, Mr Crawford went to Dublin as a young man and, as he said later, 'drifted into journalism', subsequently founding the Irish Protestant newspaper. When his capital and credit were exhausted, he had to sell the paper to men who were opposed to his moderate and conciliatory views. In 1906 Mr Crawford unsuccessfully contested Mid Armagh as a Liberal, after which he became editor of the Liberal Ulster Guardian. He was removed from his post because the owners 'would not allow the paper to be used directly or indirectly in support of devolution or home Rule'.
Mr Crawford was then offered London appointments but when he got in touch, was informed that a condition of his employment was that he, as 'Special Correspondent' in Ireland, should 'write down his country'. He wrote to a friend, saying: 'I need scarcely say I prefer to starve.' He subsequently emigrated to Canada where he founded a paper in support of the Sinn Fein policy and, in 1922, he was appointed Irish Free State Trade Representative in New york in which capacity he served until 1929.
Mr Lindsay Crawford's activities on behalf of Irish trade were widely appreciated in America and, as a delegate to the National Foreign Trade Convention, his emphasis at all times on the necessity of direct trade between the two countries resulted in shipping services for freight by the Oriole and Isthmian Lines. His aggressive campaign against the misuse of the trade name, 'Irish' also had its effects in decisions by the US Federal Trade Commission. (One of the most intriguing figures in modern Irish history, Robert Lindsay Crawford (1868-1945) was born into a strongly evangelical family in Co Down. Entering journalism he became the founding editor of the Irish Protestant newspaper. In 1906 he founded the Independent Orange Order, a radical break-way faction of Orangeism with (initially) a radical social and non-sectarian outlook. Crawford joined forces with Tom Sloan, the Independent MP for South Belfast and accused Unionism of 'blindly surrendering Ireland's interests' to Britain. He always saw his greatest achievement as the non-sectarian 'Magheramorne Manifesto' (1905) which attacked Ulster Unionism and called for a 'brotherhood of Irishmen.' This led to Crawford's expulsion from the Order he had founded in 1906. Now a supporter of Home Rule, he briefly edited the pro-Liberal Ulster Guardian before emigrating to Canada in 1910.
After the Easter Rising, Lindsay Crawford endorsed the cause of an Irish Republic and launched the 'Protestant Friends of Irish Freedom in New York'. Though by now a Republican, he reluctantly supported the Treaty and became the Free' State's Trade Representative in New York in 1922. This former Orangeman stands out as a rare example of a 'Protestant Fenian'.)
Edited by Eamon Phoenix e.phoenix@irishnews.com