The  Minstrel Boys

Recreating the role of the Irish in the American Civil War 1861-65

During August 2005, members of the Minstrel Boys worked with Lynx Productions on a documentary portraying the United Irish Rising in North Down. The film shows the rising from the Ulster Protestant point of view. Like the Jacobite risings in Scotland, the 1798 rebellion was really a civil war pitting brother against brother and father against son.

 

Many in the Ulster Protestant community were radicalised by the ideals of the French Revolution and took up arms in a bid to overthrow what they perceived as a corrupt Irish Parliament in Dublin and establish a Republic with rights and freedom of religion for all. Others remained loyal to the government.

 

The film is based around the battle of Saintfield where a column of government troops including the York Fencibles (a militia unit from Yorkshire) was ambushed and overrun by local United Irishmen. Many on both sides fell during the fighting and are buried together in a common grave close to the site. The York Fencibles established one of the first Orange Lodges in Ireland.

BRETHREN IN ARMS (the Battle of Saintfield 1798)

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Above Left: The York Fencibles patrol the roads around Saintfield in a show of strength to overawe the United Irishmen. They are however blissfully unaware that they are walking straight into an ambush.

 

Above: The trap is sprung  and,  after some fierce fighting, the outnumbered Fencibles are overrun. Some escape, others are taken captive. On the battlefield many from both sides lie dead and wounded.

 

Left: The United Irishmen are defeated at the Battle of Ballynahinch and the rebellion is crushed. The leaders are tried for treason. Some are condemned to death, others such as Richard Frazer are sent into exile to work in the salt mines of Silesia (today part of Poland).

Left & Above: June 1798 and the York Fencibles (portrayed by the Minstrel Boys) muster in the sunshine outside of Saintfield. News has reached them that most of north Down has joined the rebellion.

 

Left: In the woods nearby, the rebels  also gather. The United Irishmen in north Down were mainly Presbyterians and a number of Presbyterian clergymen were leaders in the movement. The Rev. Thomas Ledlie Birch of Saintfield leads the United Irishmen (members of his own congregation) in prayer before the battle. To the left in the green coat is the leader of the Saintfield rebels, ’Colonel’ Richard Frazer.