Two-hundred Scottish Protestants stood on one side of a field in Belfast, P.E.I.; 300 Irish Catholics stood on the other. A group of police from Charlottetown rushed between the parties, desperate to stop the impending violence, but after crowds attacked them, they retreated to the city.
Nobody was going to halt the battle.
The groups surged forward, armed with sticks, and pummeled each other, staining the ground with their blood. By the time it was over, at least two Irish teenagers and a Scotsman were dead – with rumours lingering of more bodies being secretly buried – and roughly 100 people were seriously injured.
It was one of the worst election-related riots in Canadian history, although not many people know about it, a fact Dr. Callum Beck is hoping to change with his new book.
“I’ve been working on this for 20 years,” said Beck. “It’s been very much a focus of mine to get my research out there so it can be passed on for posterity. This is the first book I’ve ever done.”
“The Belfast Riot of 1847” details the leadup to and fallout from the political brawl on Prince Edward Island more than 170 years ago. It’s a fight Beck, who is a sessional lecturer at the University of Prince Edward Island, says created cultural and religious aftershocks in the province that lasted for decades.
“Up to 1847, Catholics and Protestants got along pretty good,” Beck said. “Immediately after this happened, it becomes political. Your faith and your politics are going to be connected for the next 30 years.
“The deep divide between Protestants and Catholics grows and grows for the next 30 years.”
Beck’s interest in the battle started during his PhD research. His thesis centered on bridging the divide between Catholics and Protestants on P.E.I. and he picked the Belfast Riot as a sub-topic in the larger issue, figuring it would only amount to a two-page summary.
“On Island history, it wasn’t considered significant; it was a bad one-off,” he said. “You get an answer and it raises two more questions. I ended up writing over a third of my thesis on the riot itself.
“I had to cut some of it back. I kept the material and continued to study it. I realized it was an absolutely pivotal event on Island history.”
Origins of the riot
The riot of 1847 really started in 1846.
Going into the election that year, Belfast was roughly 85 per cent Protestant and 15 per cent Catholic (the province as a whole was 55 per cent Protestant and 45 per cent Catholic). For many Catholic men (who received the right to vote on the Island in 1830), land was a major issue.
Candidate and land agent William Douse had introduced 21-year land leases on the Island at a time when 999-year leases were common. Several Catholics came out against Douse, causing the results to be overturned and triggering a byelection in March of 1847.
“The Irish Catholics come out,” Beck said. “They call it ‘muscular persuasion.’”
Initially the Catholics drove out the Douse supporters, but Scottish Protestants returned on horseback. Hundreds of them crashed into each other, leaving death and injury in their wake.
“There was blood all over the field,” Beck said.
Aftermath
Beck says the brawl did more than put people in early graves; it redefined political divisions in the province for a generation.
“The Belfast Riot kickstarted sectarian wars on P.E.I.,” he said. “From then on, we had very intense sectarian violence. It was the issue that determined many results of our elections at that time.
“When people feel insecure or threatened, you resort to your tribal groupings.”
Beck says a turning point happened in 1877 when a conflict broke out between Protestants and Catholics in Charlottetown.
“They were throwing stones at each other,” he said. “The next day there was going to be another big riot. Gun sales just took off.”
Beck credits government officials for deputizing several hundred people to lock up anyone who looked like they might spark the riot. They were able defuse the situation before it spiraled out of control.
Beck says many Catholics and Protestants would continue to be divided politically and socially following that event, but the amount of violence reduced.
Legacy
Beck said the Belfast Riot has largely fallen into the dustbin of history as many Islanders don’t know much about it.
“Until the 1950s, people were quite aware of the riot,” he said. “They stopped talking about it. Basically, they buried it because it was too intense to talk about.”
Beck says he sees some parallels with the fallout of the riot and today’s deep political divisions.
“People get into their tribal groupings, but the tribal grouping now isn’t religious, it’s left wing and right wing,” he said. “It’s extremely intense. In some ways that divide is even deeper and more intense.”
Book launches for “The Belfast Riot of 1847” will be held at the SDU Main Building at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown on March 5 and at the Eptek Art and Culture Centre in Summerside on March 30.
It’s available for purchase from Island Studies Press.
For more P.E.I. news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
