James Craig, later to become Lord Craigavon, was a seventh child and sixth son, born at The Hill, Lower Sydenham, Belfast on January 8th 1871. Shortly after his birth his father built a house called Craigavon, now on the Circular Road, Belfast and it was in this house that the boy grew to be a man. In its grounds when it became his property many eventful acts were performed, and much that was important to his country was said and done. It is now owned by the Somme Association, which developed out of the Farset Youth and Community Development Ltd, when I was its Chairman, on the Springfield Road in Belfast.

His father, also called James, was a distiller, forty-three years of age, when his seventh child was born, and his wife was thirty-six. They were warm-hearted Ulster people and their latest child was reared in wealthy conditions. However, he was just an ordinary boy, going about an ordinary boy’s business and was pre-eminent in nothing except candour and direct statement and truthfulness. He was merely James Craig who lived at Craigavon. Nearby was Little Lea, which became the childhood home of CS Lewis, which I helped save from development in 1992 (see Ben Lowry Belfast Telegraph Thursday, January 17, 2002), my interest having been stimulated by James O’Fee. We were less successful with Bernagh, the home of Lewis’s friend, Arthur Greeves, later that year.

As his successor John Millar Andrews said, “Lord Craigavon was a great Ulsterman, a great Irishman, a great imperialist. His love of country was innate, sincere and strong. It was the key to his whole career as soldier and statesman, parliamentarian and Premier.” James was to be reared in extraordinary political circumstances. In 1884 was formed the Gaelic Athletic Association which promoted Hurling and Gaelic football and forbade the playing of “foreign games”. In 1893 the Anglican, Douglas Hyde, founded the Gaelic League which had as its aim the de-Anglicisation of Ireland. From this sprang Gaelic Nationalism, “Ireland not free only but Gaelic as well, not Gaelic only but free as well”. Strangely enough a pseudo-Celtic twilight culture was created which not only bowlderised but Anglicised the old Gaelic literature out of all recognition.

The political manifestation of this Gaelic revival was the foundation of Sinn Fein (Ourselves Alone) in 1905. This movement was soon attracted to and taken over by the veteran Fenian Movement. At the same time there was a growth of Marxist philosophy and an active Socialist Movement was led by James Connolly and James Larkin. Connolly however, tried to use Gaelic Nationalism to further his own ideals, thus compromising the Labour Movement in both Ireland and Britain. The blending of Roman Catholic and Celtic mysticism created in people as diverse as Padraig Pearce and James Connolly the myth of the blood sacrifice which was to have lasting consequences. Confronted by such threats, the British Ulstermen formed the Ulster Unionist Council to resist Home Rule.

Civil war now seemed inevitable. In 1912 the Ulstermen signed a Covenant at Craigavon House and then in the City Hall, Belfast whereby they swore to “use all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland”. It was obvious that what they really feared was the form of government which was to follow Home Rule. 1913 saw the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force under Edward Carson and James Craig, who had fought with great distinction in the South African War. James Connolly set up the Irish Citizens’ Army and Eoin McNeill of the Gaelic League formed the Irish Volunteers. But the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 averted civil hostilities and Irishmen of all persuasions sailed to Europe to fight for the King and Empire and for the independent rights of small nations.

The Irish Republican (Fenian) Brotherhood leaders saw this as an opportunity for revolt and a Republican uprising was effected without success during Easter 1916. This insurrection and the subsequent execution of its leaders evinced a terrible beauty in the eyes of William Butler Yeats at a time when thousands of Irishmen were dying unsung in Flanders. On 1st July 1916 the 36th Ulster Division sustained 5500 casualties at the Battle of the Somme, a sacrifice greater by far, as were the losses of the mainly Catholic 16th Irish Division at Messines in June 1917 .CS Lewis arrived at the Front Line trenches on his nineteenth birthday 29th November 1917. His father Albert wrote to the now Colonel James Craig , his neighbour and MP for the East Division of County Down, to see if he could get Jack transferred to the Artillery but his son resisted this. Jack then came down with Trench Fever and the rest is history.

To be continued