ULSTER REALITIES.
[To TEE EDITOR OF TUE "SPECTATOR,"] SIR,— The motive force of the Ulster volunteer movement, we are often told, is bigotry, while Orange halls are supposed to be specially consecrated to the consignment of the head of the Roman Catholic Church, if not of all its members, to very undesirable quarters in the life to come. Will you allow me to mention some facts which seem inconsistent with these theories ? I was lately addressing a crowded meeting of men in an Orange ball in the Co. Donegal, most of whom had been enrolled in the Ulster volunteers, and most of whom were Orangemen, and they cheered me when I spoke of the duty of cultivating relations of courtesy and friendliness towards our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. The meeting was a most enthusiastic one, and it was not all talk, for most of those present bad come to sign enrolment papers, and we had also some drill. The district is one where there is and has long been a spirit of friendliness and good neighbourhood between us Protestants and our Roman Catholic neighbours, and at the same time the answers to the call to join the Ulster volunteer force have been among the most numerous in proportion to the number of Protestant inhabitants.—I am, Sir,
H. S. VERSCHOYLE.
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