Ireland, Peace Crusade, Ulster Volunteers
The Peace Walk in Ireland in July 1884 culminated with a rally in a park in Armagh in the afternoon of Saturday 26 July. The Walk and the rally were organised by the executive committee of the Peace Crusade. The rally was addressed by Bridget Heaney and Thomas Lawson of the executive committee, and Sinead Heaney, the editor of Hope , the journal of the Crusade. There were an estimated fifty thousand people at the rally.
Tens of thousands of men and women walked to Armagh from towns and cities throughout Ireland. Many wore sashes in the Crusade's colours of green, orange and white. Where necessary the walkers stayed overnight in the homes of supporters, or camped out. Patrick and Sarah O'Neill walked from Belfast to Armagh. They wore green, orange and white sashes, Sarah's young siblings, stayed with neigbours. They returned home by train from Armagh.
The Walk and the rally were peaceful. Though the Ulster Volunteers denounced them as not being impartial, but propaganda for the Commonwealth and Irish National parties, they did not attack them.
Tens of thousands of men and women walked to Armagh from towns and cities throughout Ireland. Many wore sashes in the Crusade's colours of green, orange and white. Where necessary the walkers stayed overnight in the homes of supporters, or camped out. Patrick and Sarah O'Neill walked from Belfast to Armagh. They wore green, orange and white sashes, Sarah's young siblings, stayed with neigbours. They returned home by train from Armagh.
The Walk and the rally were peaceful. Though the Ulster Volunteers denounced them as not being impartial, but propaganda for the Commonwealth and Irish National parties, they did not attack them.