In March, 1920, State Senator John J. Walsh Rebukes Ulster Loyalists for Spreading Propaganda about Irish Independence

On March 22, 1920, Massachusetts State Senator John J. Walsh offered up a stinging rebuke to a group of Loyalists from Ulster who were seeking to create a permanent effort in the United States "for the avowed purpose of frustrating the right of the people of Ireland to determine the form of government under which they shall live."

The group, known as the Ulster Delegation Reception Committee, came to the U.S. in winter 1920 to dissuade Americans from contributing funds to an Irish Bond campaign spearheaded by Irish leader Eamon de Valera, in an effort to create an Irish Republic separate from Great Britain.

de Valera's success prompted the Ulstermen, who were loyal to the union with Britain, to launch a propaganda campaign against the quest for Irish independence.

State Senator Walsh's order read:

Senator Walsh was born in Dublin in 1871 and emigrated to Boston with his family in 1876, when he was five years old. He attended Boston University Law School and worked for a time with Boston Irish leader Patrick Collins. In 1920, Walsh was the democratic nominee for the Governor of Massachusetts, which he lost in the general election to Republican nominee Channing H. Cox.

The efforts by the Loyalist Coalition may have have the opposite effect, according to the Fall River Globe, which wrote in February 26, 1920:

"The presence of the Ulster delegation of clergymen in this country in opposition to the bond campaign will have the means of making the campaign more successful than it otherwise would have been."

The New Bedford Standard wrote about the Loyalist propagandists:

"But even if it could be demonstrated that British rule in Ireland was advantageous to the Irish, it would be of slight consequences against the fact that the Irish who live under that rule want to substitute their own."

By November, 1920, over $5 million had been pledged in the U.S., mainly in New York and Massachusetts.

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