A joint Committee of the Unionist Associations of Ireland was therefore formed in the same year, the organisations represented on it being the two already named and the Ulster Loyalist Anti-Repeal Union.

The latter, which in earlier years had done excellent spade-work under the fostering zeal of Lord Ranfurly and Mr.William Robert Young, was before 1911 amalgamated with the Unionist Council, so that all rivalry and overlapping was thenceforward eliminated from the organisation of Unionism in Ulster.
The Council in the North and the Irish Unionist Alliance in Dublin worked in complete harmony both with each other and with the Union Defence League in London, whose operations were carried on under the direction of its founder, Mr.Walter Long.
The women of Ulster were scarcely less active than the men in the matter of organisation.

Although, of course, as yet unenfranchised, they took as a rule a keener interest in political matters--meaning thereby the one absorbing question of the Union--than their sex in other parts of the United Kingdom.

When critical times for the Union arrived there was, therefore, no apathy to be overcome by the Protestant women in Ulster.
Early in 1911 the "Ulster Women's Unionist Council" was formed under the presidency of the Duchess of Abercorn, and very quickly became a most effective organisation side by side with that of the men.

The leading spirit was the Marchioness of Londonderry, but that it was no aristocratic affair of titled ladies may be inferred from the fact that within twelve months of its formation between forty and fifty thousand members were enrolled.