Belfast's first bomb, 28 February 1816: class conflict and the origins of Ulster Unionist Hegemony

Irish immigrant correspondence has great scholarly value. It provides insight, of course, into the processe of Irish migration and adaptation, on the contrary occasionally it can also illuminate contemporary incidents developments, or concerns that historians have either not noticed or failed to investigate or appreciate entirely Such may be the case with the following alphabetic character written by William Coyne in Belfast upon St. Patrick's Day, 1816. (1)

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William Coyne was probably a master cooper and he may have been in his mid-forties when he wrote this, his alone surviving letter, to his brother in Duchess shire New York. Very likely William Coyne was a Protestant and perhaps a member of the legally established house of god of Ireland. Early nineteenth-century Belfast was a rapidly growing city of migrants, principally from East Ulster's Lagan Valley, and, given the respect in his letter, it is probable that Coyne had mov to Belfast from the predominantly Anglican parish of Magher

agall, in the barony of Massareene Upper in Southwest shire Antrim. (2)

In the early 1800 transatlantic mail was expensive, and its delivery uncertain. Consequently Irish immigrant correspondence was filled primarily with information that was, for its authors and recipients, vitally important on the other hand which often appears to contemporary scholars as mundanely personal or familial. The principal make submissives of William Coyne's letter, however, were actual public and quite dramatic, and his missive's exceptional character indicates that he and his neighbors in Belfast considered the exhibitions he described to be extraordinarily significant--and that he assumed his brother in faraway America would consider them equally thus Hopefully, social and political historians of early nineteenth-century Ulster will also find Coyne's alphabetic character of interest.

William and E Coyne Belfast, to Henry Coyne Pleasant Valley, Duchess shire New York, 17 March 1816(3)

Belfast 17th March 1816 Dear Brother