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Ulster conflict 1
Nationalists are outmanoeuvred by the UVF

UVF takes heart
The successful landing of guns in the North in September 1912 changed the nature of Irish politics fundamentally. It would also have far reaching effects on the wider UK. From being, at least in their own eyes, an oppressed minority, the Unionists gained new confidence. Now well equipped and increasingly better trained, the UVF began to patrol much more aggressively. While they did not actively patrol through Nationalist areas, they made their presence well known and began what were effectively border incursions, with a view to demonstrating both their superior arms and training, and their willingness to fight.

Much of this new aggression was driven, not by the leaders of the movement but by new men, often virulently anti-catholic and full of anger at both the Catholic Church – which they saw as the enemy within – and at the British Government for what they saw as a policy of appeasement. Locally produced handbills and pamphlets expressed this anger in violent language. Said one such handbill:
The Pope and his men have gained much from the bomb and the bullet, frightening the cowards in London into feeble submission. It is time to take back our country, if need be by feeding the soil of our nation with our blood.​
Until then the Nationalists had believed they were getting their way. The idea of a separate Ulster had been defeated in the Commons and all the signs had been that some sort of Independence would be granted. Now with the Unionists apparently ready to use the Nationalists' own tactics against them they realised they had lost serious ground and had to organise themselves for the fight back. In November they seemed to have found a way.

Nationalists respond
The Belfast Dock Strike of 1907 had been brutal with pitched battles between strikers and blacklegs. It had however also been characterised by rare expressions of worker solidarity across the normal sectarian divide. On 12th July for example, instead of the rioting and sectarian clashes which typically accompanied Orange Order parades, strike leaders gave public speeches defending the workers' interests against all forms of sectarianism. On 26th July, 100,000 workers marched in support of the strike along the Shankill Road, a regular site for sectarian clashes. The parade, featuring flute bands from both Unionist and Nationalist traditions, ended at a mass rally held outside City Hall, where 200,000 demonstrators had gathered. The Unionist establishment had however opposed the strike and subjected the strike organiser James Larkin to virulent sectarian attacks in an attempt to persuade Protestant workers away from the strike.

Larkin was now in Dublin, but James Connolly, just appointed as Belfast organiser for the Irish Transport and General Workers Union was just as effective as Larkin and had been, with him, a founder of the Irish Citizen Army. When in November 1912 a dispute broke out again on the Belfast Docks, Connolly seized the opportunity to try and prise support away from the Unionists by a similar display of non-sectarian solidarity. At first the strike was successful. Transport workers refused to handle goods offloaded by blackleg labour and dockers in other ports refused to offload ships diverted from Belfast. Soon the docks at Larne were also at a standstill. Sympathy strikes broke out across Belfast and it looked as if the city was set for a repeat of 1907.

One factor however was different. The Unionists were themselves much better organised this time and much of their support had come from the business men whose interests were being affected by the strike. They recognised that the strike was only partly about workers interests and was a serious threat to their authority. With the same brutal efficiency that they had handled the gun-running they organised themselves to break the strike.

Strikebreaking by UVF
The UVF Command issued an instruction on 1st December to all members not to take part in the strike, emphasising Connolly's Nationalist links. Support for the strike was presented as support for at best Home Rule and potentially for an Independent Ireland. While some support faded away, the strike still retained significant support across the City. The next step was to move in units of the UVF to protect blacklegs and to support the movement of goods in and out of the docks. These men were not armed with anything but pick axe handles, but rapidly made their presence felt. In a series of brutal confrontations with strikers three men were killed and many others badly beaten.

The strike committee had been caught off balance. They had expected police intervention but not from the UVF, and not from a UVF so willing to use violence from the beginning. The violence did not however have the effect the Unionist commanders had hoped. Strikers' resolve was stiffened and they began to fight back. Attacks on UVF patrols elsewhere became a regular occurrence and incidents of sectarian violence across the City began to increase in both their number and severity. By the 18th December, there had been 10 further deaths, including 2 killed in an explosion at a UVF drill hall and 3 in a gunfight on the Shankill Road.

The RIC and the government were caught equally off balance. Sectarian violence had been a fact of life in Ulster, but the ferocity of the UVF was something new. Dublin Castle were reluctant however to move against the Unionists. They were aware of high levels of support for the Unionist cause amongst the officer class and were concerned that if the army was ordered into action against the UVF there was a risk of mutiny.

Sectarian violence erupts
Paradoxically, this indecision was taken by the IRB and the trades unionists involved in the dispute as being tacit support for the UVF actions. Posters appeared on the streets proclaiming “Shun all policemen and spies!” Anyone seen to be having any contact with police was liable to find themselves at best given a warning beating, in some cases kneecapped or simply murdered and dumped on the street with a sign around their neck denouncing them as collaborators.

Attacks on police also increased. On 18th December an RIC inspector named Geoghan was shot dead in broad daylight in Central Belfast. A campaign of assassinations followed. By mid-January 1913 half a dozen police officers, two magistrates and two prominent Belfast businessman and funder of the UVF had been killed. Although the UVF command called for restraint this was met by numerous tit for tat killings of Catholics, including a leader of one of the IVA units active in Belfast. There was also an unsuccessful attempt on the life of James Connolly.

Given the levels of violence now seen on the streets of Belfast, the governments reluctance to face up to the UVF evaporated. A state of emergency was declared and four battalions of infantry moved into Belfast and the surrounding area, together with many more police. The Government's chief negotiator, Askwith moved into Belfast and after intense negotiations persuaded the Dock employers to agree an increase in wages and improved working conditions to the strikers. Connolly reluctantly agreed and the strike was over. To the Nationalists however, even though there had been major economic gains, this had been a defeat. They had been out gunned and outmanoeuvred by the Unionists. Things had to change.
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