The Origins & Background of the Ulster Covenant

In every day speech a covenant is a bargain or an agreement. Lawyers regard a covenant as an agreement under seal. Theologians and Biblical scholars point out that the concept of a covenant is one of the fundamental theological motifs of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, with divine promise on one hand and human obligations on the other. Interestingly, the Hebrew word for covenant seems to have the root meaning of ‘bond’ or ‘fetter’, denoting a binding relationship.
On 23 September 1911, at the huge anti-Home Rule demonstration in the grounds of Craigavon, James Craig’s house in east Belfast, Sir Edward Carson, the new Unionist leader, told his audience that he was entering into ‘a compact’, or bargain, with them. He continued, ‘with the help of God you and I joined together  – I giving you the best I can, and you giving all your strength behind me – we will yet defeat the most nefarious conspiracy that has ever been hatched against a free people’.

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