User:Rodhullandemu

{{header
  | title = Ballyhegan Petition
  | author = Various
  | section =
  | previous =
  | next =
  | notes =
}}

The following is the text of the Ballyhegan or 'Ballyhagan' Petition that was submitted to the British Parliamentary Select Committee on Orange Lodges in 1833 [1]. Portadown born anthropologist, Dr. Peter Mulholland included the Ballyhegan Petition along with other historical documents and archival material in his submission to the [Parades Commission] that was established by the British Government in the 1990s folling recommendations from Professor [Peter North]. The following version of the Ballyhegan Petition is taken from Mulholland's research paper 'Two Hundred Years in the Citadel' [2][3]

SELECT COMMITTEE ON ORANGE LODGES. [181]

Affairs at Maghery, Portadown, Tanderagee (Tandragee), &c.

To his Excellency Henry William Marquis of Anglesey, Lord Lieutenant-General and General Governor of Ireland, &c. &c.

The Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of the townland of Ballyhagan, near Portadown, in the county of Armagh. Humbly Sheweth, That Petitioners had fondly hoped that all party processions in Ireland, and the numerous evils arising therefrom, would have ceased on the enactment of a law prohibiting such processions; and that the declared determination of His Majesty’s Government to establish internal peace, and promote concord among all classes of His Majesty’s subjects, would have met with the approbation of every good and loyal subject, and of every friend of peace and good order: That petitioners, with deep regret, are sorry to be obliged to approach your Excellency on the present occasion, for the purpose of representing to your Excellency, that notwithstanding the expressed sense of the Legislature and the Government, the law, in this part of the country, continues to be reviled and set at nought; and that party processions are not only allowed with impunity, but, as petitioners have every reason to believe, are encouraged and fomented by persons in authority, whose bounden duty, as magistrates and clergymen, ought as petitioners humbly submit, to cause them to act very differently: That the townland of Ballyhagan, in which petitioners reside, is principally inhabited by Roman Catholics; and that on the 12th day of July last, two lodges of Orangemen bearing flags, and some of whom were armed with pistols, entered the said townland on their return from parading round the country. And attacked a number of people, among whom were petitioners, without having received any provocation whatever; and that a shot from a pistol was deliberately fired by one Robert Williamson, at a man named Michael Carron, who had a narrow escape, the ball from the pistol having entered his dress and grazed his belly; that several individuals were severely cut and wounded. That petitioners, with others, being enabled to identify twenty-one persons who walked in said procession, and who were concerned in said outrage, applied to Curran Woodhouse, esq., a magistrate of the county of Armagh, who at once granted summonses against the parties, to answer the charges on Saturday next, at the petty sessions of Portadown; and petitioners being afraid to serve said summonses themselves, same were placed in the hands of the police at Portadown for that purpose; but petitioners have reason to believe that said summonses have not yet been served: That Lieutenant Colonel Blacker, a deputy-lieutenant of the county of Armagh, and an Orangeman, is chairman of the petty sessions at Portadown; and that petitioners firmly believe this gentleman encourages Orange processions, as he permitted a large Orange procession with banners and music to enter his demesne at Carrick, on the last 12th July, when he received them very kindly; and he and his lady appeared with party colours on their persons, having caused their gates to be decorated with orange colours, and that he has since been very active in collecting subscriptions, and in arranging the defence of a number of men of the same procession, who were tried at last Armagh assizes, for unlawfully assembling and marching in procession at Lurgan, in said county: That Joseph Atkinson, esquire, of Crowhill, another of the magistrates, who sits at said petty sessions, is an Orangeman, and a relative of one of the parties accused, and as petitioners believe, also encourages and approves of such processions: That petitioners’ lives have been threatened, in case they prosecute the offenders on this occasion; and they humbly represent, that before a tribunal, constituted as the petty sessions of Portadown is, they do not believe their cause would receive such an investigation as the ends of justice and the vindication of the laws require: That petitioners further humbly beg leave to represent to your Excellency, that from the well-known principles of a large majority of the magistrates in Armagh, and the selection of the juries of that county, most of whom are composed of Orangemen, that there is little probability of petitioner’s cause receiving a fair and impartial trial and judgement, particularly if same be tried in the court of quarter sessions; and petitioners, therefore, humbly hope, that your Excellency may be pleased to order a magistracy of the county to take informations against such persons as can be identified who composed the unlawful assembly and committed the outrage in question; and that such information may be returned to the assizes, and the parties accused dealt with in the mean time according to law.

(signed) Barnard Halligan, William McQuillan, Daniel McKeever, Henry Dowley, Arthur McGeough, Francis Hughs, Francis Hagan, John Laventry (possibly Laverty), Patrick McCormack. 24th July 1833