Presbyterians were now Dissenters: suspicious of establishments - civil and religious...

With the Restoration of the Monarchy, most of these ministers were evicted from their charges by the newly appointed bishops and the separation of Presbyterianism from the Protestant (i.e., Anglican) Establishment was all but complete. Yet the non conforming ministers continued to minister to their congregations as the first Presbyterian meeting houses were built.. Presbyterians suffered various disabilities- four Donegal ministers were imprisoned for about six years but there was little consistently active persecution.

Presbyterians were now Dissenters: suspicious of establishments- civil and religious, yet considering themselves at times as almost an alternative establishment. Their position became somewhat anomalous in 1672 when Charles II made a grant to Presbyterian ministers. The regium donum which was, with interruptions, paid until the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1870.) Yet Presbyterians were considered a volatile force whose loyalties might be ambivalent. In the next major upheaval in Irish history, the Williamite Wars, they gave a firm indication of where their loyalties did lie- not with the Catholic Irish with whom they shared some disabilities but with the Protestant Establishment. They were among the defenders of Derry during the Siege of that city in 1689.

Presbyterian marriages were not recognised...

Their loyalty, however, brought them little real reward. Their numbers grew with emigration of Scots into Ulster in the 1690s but they were effectively excluded from government and from positions of influence. When the Test Act requiring all who held public office to receive Holy Communion in the Church of Ireland was passed in 1704, two thirds of the members of Derry Corporation were removed when they failed to fulfil the law. There was difficulty in a number of places over sites for Presbyterian meeting houses. Presbyterian marriages were not recognised. Yet various Toleration Acts meant that, in general, Presbyterians suffered fewer disabilities as the 18th century passed.

Within the denomination, there was theological controversy during the first 20 years of the century over subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith- a document adapted by the Church of Scotland in 1647. A small number of ministers objected to the use of any human confession and these withdrew to form a separate Presbytery of Antrim.

Relations with the Scottish Church remained close. Almost all students for the Presbyterian ministry attended Glasgow University and when there was a secession from the Church of Scotland, the Seceders gained support in Ireland, even though the original reason for the split had no relevance in Ireland at all.

These Scotch Irish, as they became known, played a major part in the struggle for American Independence...

In the middle years of the 18th century large numbers of Irish Presbyterians emigrated to the American colonies. Estimates of the numbers vary from 100,000 to 250,000 as do the reasons suggested for the exodus. Economic conditions were undoubtedly a factor; the sense of being second class citizens probably played a part. These Scotch Irish, as they became known, played a major part in the struggle for American Independence- they also influenced the political views of many of their co-religionists back in Ireland.

At the end of the 18th century, many, although certainly not all, of Belfast’s Presbyterians were radical in their politics. They had supported the American struggle for Independence and welcomed the Revolution in France. They aspired to a new and liberated Ireland where there would be no oppression or disability on the grounds of religion. Some of these Presbyterians found expression for their ideas in the Society of United Irishmen established in Belfast in 1791. Its leading embers were Presbyterians. Presbyterians were also to the forefront of the 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down. Henry Joy McCracken, the rebel commander at the Battle of Antrim, was a member of the Third Congregation in Rosemary Street. James Porter, the minister if Greyabbey in County Down, was hanged outside his meeting house, although his execution probably had more to do with the fact that he had satirised Lord Castlereagh than with any active part in the rebellion. About 20 Presbyterian ministers were involved or accused of involvement- some were imprisoned, others fled to America.