Signed in Blood Myth
Contrary to popular belief, no signatures were signed in blood. The signature of Frederick Hugh Crawford was claimed by him to have been written in blood. However, based on the results of a forensic test that he carried out in September 2012, Dr. Alastair Ruffell of The Queen's University of Belfast has asserted that he is 90% positive that the signature is not blood. Crawford's signature was injected with a small amount of luminol; this substance reacts with iron in blood's haemoglobin to produce a blue-white glow. The test is very sensitive and can detect tiny traces even in old samples. Crawford's signature is still a rich red colour today which would be unlikely if it had been blood. Nevertheless, some Unionists are not convinced by the evidence.
In January 1913 the Ulster Volunteers aimed to recruit 100,000 men aged from 17 to 65 who had signed the Covenant, as a unionist militia.
A British Covenant, similar to the Ulster Covenant in opposition to the Home Rule Bill, received two million signatures in 1914.
Read more about this topic: Ulster Covenant
Famous quotes containing the words signed, blood and/or myth:
“I remember a very important lesson that my father gave me when I was twelve or thirteen. He said, “You know, today I welded a perfect seam and I signed my name to it.” And I said, “But, Daddy, no one’s going to see it!” And he said, “Yeah, but I know it’s there.” So when I was working in kitchens, I did good work.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
“My grandfather fell on Vinegar Hill,
And fighting was not his trade;
But his rusty pike’s in the cabin still,
With Hessian blood on the blade.””
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“Taste is more to do with manners than appearances. Taste is both myth and reality; it is not a style.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)