Croppies lie down
Published in 18th–19th - Century History, Issue 1 (Spring 1997), Letters, Letters, The United Irishmen, Volume 5Sir,—As a footnote to Alan Blackstock’s interesting article on theYeomanry (HI 4.4, Winter 1996) and their place in the tradition ofProtestant defence forces, it should be noted that in some placesYeomanry corps continued to exist on an unofficial basis after theirofficial disbandment. The Fermanagh novelist Shan Bullock (1865-1935)mentions in his autobiography After Sixty Years that as a boy hewitnessed church parades by a uniformed group calling itself a Yeomanrycorps which existed in the Crom Castle area under the patronage of theEarl of Erne. It was composed of local Protestant small farmers and ledby an ex-sergeant. He specifically mentions that they wore the motto‘Croppies lie down’, which I see in one of the illustrations to thearticle on the belt buckle of a Fermanagh Yeomanry corps. Might theCrom group have derived from this corps, and does anyone know if otherunofficial corps continued to exist?—Yours etc.,
PATRICK MAUME
Department of Politics
Queen’s University
Belfast
