Mc Guinness, Philip

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T H E  R E L E V A N C E  O F  J O H N  T OL A N D
T O U N I TE D  K I N G D OM  A N D  N OR T H E R N
I R E L A N D  P O L I T I C S  T O D AY
P H I L I P M C G U I N N E S S
(Dundalk Institute of Technology,
Dundalk, Co. Louth, Irish Republic)
1.
It is sadly appropriate that, just eighty kilometres from this con-
ference on the Enlightenment, the political dynamic of late seven-
teenth-century north-west Europe has not yet been superseded. In
this paper I discuss the resonances between Williamite politics and
current politics in Northern Ireland in particular and the U.K. in
general. I relate these both to Toland’s writings and his political ac-
tivities.
From the perspective of my subject matter, it is appropriate that
we are meeting here in Ireland in July. July is a difficult month in
the northern half of this island. Primæval tensions are dragged to
the surface in an all too familiar confrontational way between
Catholic and Protestant. At best, neighbours stop talking to each
other, or Orange lodges and churches of all denominations go up
in flames. At worst, children are burnt to death.
And yet, what is being celebrated and mourned? The victory of
Protestant William over Catholic James at the battle of the Boyne.
That military outcome had a huge significance over Europe. It ar-
guably established a more pluralist society in England, and safe-
guarded much of western Europe from the expansionist dynastic
ambitions of Louis XIV’s France. Although the war between
France and England continued until the Treaty of Rijswik in 1697,
the battle of the Boyne had a decisive role in shaping the geopolit-
ical reality of eighteenth-century Europe.
I l  t e m a
101
Mc Guinness, Philip (1999) 
The relevance of John Toland to United Kingdom and Northern Ireland politics today. 
I Castelli di Yale, IV (4). pp. 101-105. ISSN 1591-2353
One would imagine then, that it would make absolutely no his-
torical, political or religious sense to contest today the outcome of
that military engagement. Yet this is exactly what occurs in Northern
Ireland every summer. Consider a typical victory celebration, for ex-
ample V. E. (Victory in Europe) Day. V. E. Day is a celebration of the
end of a w a r. It is also a celebration of how much has changed since
1945. V. E. Day celebrates a c o n c l u s i v e turning point in history.
The Twelfth of July is a celebration in stark contrast to V. E. Day.
For it celebrates a battle, not a war. From the perspective of the rest
of Europe, the battle of the Boyne was a conclusive event. This has
not been the case in Ulster: the defeat of political Papism was in -
conclusive. No one in Northern Ireland knows yet whether The
Twelfth will be seen as a real victory in the struggle to stay British
in Ireland, or whether it will have been a phyrric victory, only stem-
ming the tide of confessional separatism in north-east Ireland for
the past three centuries. Thus the drama of Drumcree symbolises
further annual inconclusive battles in the struggle between
Catholic and Protestant in Ireland. Political unionism can, per-
haps, be summed up as an attempt to prevent the battle of the
Boyne from becoming a phyrric victory.
2.
It has often been said that it is unwise to write history until after
the dust has settled, when present and past have been clearly de-
marcated. I venture to suggest that the events of the late seven-
teenth-century cannot yet have a line drawn firmly under them in
Ireland. This would certainly be true in popular perceptions of his-
tory. Perhaps this can be advantageous in understanding the mind
of key personalities in Irish and British politics at that time, in that
their issues are also our issues. One such influential person was
John Toland.
We can trace the subversive ripples throughout the eighteenth
century from this Donegal gadfly: from the Commonwealthman
James Harrington, through Francis Hutcheson and on to the Unit-
ed Irishmen. Margaret Jacob – in her The Radical Enlightenment
P H I L I P M C G U I N N E S S
102
Mc Guinness, Philip (1999) 
The relevance of John Toland to United Kingdom and Northern Ireland politics today. 
I Castelli di Yale, IV (4). pp. 101-105. ISSN 1591-2353
(1981) – has argued that Toland was a key figure in the spread of
Freemasonry in the early eighteenth century. In his book A Deeper
Silence (1993), A. T .Q. Stewart proposed that Masonry played an
important role in the development of 1790’s republicanism in Ire-
land. It was Toland’s deconstruction of the use of mystery by reli-
gious of all denominations that resonated so strongly with eigh-
teenth-century radicals in Ireland. 
Yet Toland was no separatist. He was a passionate believer in
Ireland’s rule by the English Episcopalian party in Ireland. He sup-
ported the Irish Parliament, but only as a means of excluding
Catholics from power, as seen in his Reasons ... why ... An Act for
better Securing the Dependency of the Kingdom of Ireland upon the
Crown of Great Britain Shou’d not Pass into Law (1720). For ex-
ample, in that pamphlet Toland states:
Nothing shou’d be attempted that might bring about the possibility of
a Union of civil interests between the Protestants and Papists of Ireland,
whose antipathies and animosities all sound Politicians will ever labor
to keep alive (p. 23).
Ironically, the publication of Christianity not Mysterious ren-
dered Toland persona non grata among establishment Protes-
tantism in Ireland. By contrast, he had the ear of William of Orange
and many other influential persons in London. His many pam-
phlets reveal a skilled propagandist for the idea of a Protestant
Britain and a virulent anti-Papist sensibility.
3.
Irish republican separatists (Sinn Féin) are – in the aftermath of
the failure of the most recent bout of negotiations in Northern Ire-
land [July 1999] – waging a strong anti-unionist propaganda war at
present by saying that unionists don’t want to share power with
Catholics. This position is arguable, but I draw your attention to it
if only to show that the current political dynamic in Ulster – de-
pending on one’s politics – can seem to resonate with the same
T H E R E L E V A N C E O F J O H N T O L A N D T O P O L I T I C S T O D A Y
103
Mc Guinness, Philip (1999) 
The relevance of John Toland to United Kingdom and Northern Ireland politics today. 
I Castelli di Yale, IV (4). pp. 101-105. ISSN 1591-2353
overriding political dynamic throughout the British Isles from the
accession of James II in 1685 to the defeat of the Stuart Pretender
to the throne Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1745: that is, to
prevent Catholic rule in any part of these islands.
Can we argue that anti-Catholicism is confined only to the west-
ern extremity of the United Kingdom? No. Linda Colley has
shown in her book Britons: Forging the Nation (1992) how essen-
tial Protestantism was in creating the new nationality of Britishness
in the eighteenth century. Laws that are at the very core of the es-
tablishment of the British monarchy show a definite anti-Papist
bias. In both the 1688 Bill of Rights and the 1701 Act of Succession
the following passage occurs:
all ... persons that were or afterwards should be reconciled to or shall
communion with the see or church of Rome or should professe the
popish religion or marry a papist should be made ... forever uncapable
to inherit possess or enjoy the crown and government of this realm.
(I wonder does the inclusion of the word “government” imply that
Tony Blair is “forever uncapable” to be Prime Minister because his
wife is Catholic!) One would not be surprised to hear rhetoric such
as this from Ian Paisley three hundred years later. Yet John Toland
was one of the persons who were chosen to carry the Act of Suc-
cession – that guaranteed the Protestant nature of the English
monarchy – to Hanover in 1701.
I am not suggesting that John Toland would today be a Pais-
leyite, or even that Ian Paisley can be regarded as a freethinker! I
suggest that it is problematical to regard Toland simply as a radical
freethinker unambiguously on the side of tolerance.
We see other elements of Protestant – or should I say Anglican
– political supremacism in such laws as the Catholic “Emancipa-
tion” Act of 1829 (which forbids priests from taking seats in Par-
liament). The then Attorney-General Sir Michael Havers, writing
in Halsbury’s Statutes in the mid 1970s, suggested that Catholics
could not teach in such schools as Eton or Westminster, places
where members of the Royal Family are educated.
P H I L I P M C G U I N N E S S
104
Mc Guinness, Philip (1999) 
The relevance of John Toland to United Kingdom and Northern Ireland politics today. 
I Castelli di Yale, IV (4). pp. 101-105. ISSN 1591-2353
One of Winston Churchill’s most famous quotations is one he
made in 1922, as Ireland was being partitioned. He compares the
change in Europe after the first World War to the intractableness
of Ulster:
The whole map of Europe has been changed. The position of countries
has been violently altered. The modes of thought of men, the whole out-
look on affairs, the grouping of parties, all have encountered violent and
tremendous changes in the deluge of the world, but as the deluge sub-
sides and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh
and Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of their quarrel is one of
the few institutions that has been unaltered in the cataclysm which has
swept the world.
Perhaps I could dare to rephrase Winston Churchill and suggest
that if one examines the sectarian elements in U. K. law, it is the
dreary steeples of Anglican middle England rather than Ulster that
help to perpetuate the integrity of the quarrel between British and
Irish identities.
4.
John Toland had a foot in both camps. He was born in Planta-
tion Ulster of Gaelic lineage, and at various times of his life was
Catholic, Protestant, Irish and British. To attempt to come to grips
with Toland’s writings from three hundred years ago is to gain a
deeper understanding of present-day Ireland and Britain.
I will end on a note of caution. Perhaps in Ireland, it is not pos-
sible for us to draw the definitive portrait of Toland, for in a sense
we are all still undefined: trapped in the yawning gap between po-
litical reality and tribal aspiration. For Toland it was a case of po-
litical aspiration and tribal reality: an enthusiastic proponent of the
concept of Britain (which came into fruition 11 years after Chris -
tianity not Mysterious was published), yet doomed to marginality as
an outlandish person.
T H E R E L E V A N C E O F J O H N T O L A N D T O P O L I T I C S T O D A Y
105
Mc Guinness, Philip (1999) 
The relevance of John Toland to United Kingdom and Northern Ireland politics today. 
I Castelli di Yale, IV (4). pp. 101-105. ISSN 1591-2353
Mc Guinness, Philip (1999) 
The relevance of John Toland to United Kingdom and Northern Ireland politics today. 
I Castelli di Yale, IV (4). pp. 101-105. ISSN 1591-2353


The relevance of John Toland to United Kingdom and Northern Ireland politics today

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