"The Party Procession Hero" [Political Interest] Belfast El...

Hammer

€190

"The Party Procession Hero"

[Political Interest] Belfast Elections Cartoons, [Johnston (Wm.)] A portfolio of numerous satirical caricature Prints relating to the "Belfast Elections of 1868," each of variant sizes, as a collection, w.a.f. (1)


Note: The redoubtable William Johnston [1829-1902] of Ballykillbeg [near Downpatrick, Co. Down] was a legend in his own lifetime.. an Orange and Protestant folk hero second only to that other William of 'glorious, pious and immortal memory'. He led the campaign against the Party Processions Act. It was his opposition to this legislation which was to make William Johnston of Ballykillbeg a folk hero, [see Bangor and No Surrender and references there.] Johnston was elected M.P. in 1868. The law was repealed in 1872. After some time away from Commons he was re-elected in 1885 and remained so until his death. He opposed Gladstone's Home Rule bills (source: Ian Mc Shane, "William Johnston of Ballykillbeg" on OrangeNet site) - BS.
The radical streak in the Orange Society's activity was represented by William Johnston of Ballykillbeg House, the Grand Master of County Down, who in March 1868, was sentenced to a month's imprisonment for marching, in defiance of the Party Processions Act, from Newtownards to Bangor at the head of a crowd of twenty to thirty thousand with beating drums, orange flags and a band playing the "Protestant Boys" and other provocative tunes.