(Redirected from Unionist (Ireland))
'Unionism', in
Ireland, is a belief in the desirability of a full constitutional and institutional relationship between Ireland and
Great Britain based on the terms and order of government of the
Act of Union 1800 which had merged both countries in 1801 to form the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (the successor entities being the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the
Irish Free State). The term owes its origins to the campaigns by opponents of Irish
home rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to prevent the creation of an all-Ireland home rule parliament within the United Kingdom. Because of their desire to maintain the ''Act of Union'' as created in 1800, without any system of
devolution, they came to be known as 'Unionists'.
Some believe that the unionist opposition to home rule was not simply based on a desire for a different structure for governance, but reflected a fundamental difference in perspective, beliefs, definition and culture between Irish Nationalists and Unionists. Whereas Nationalists were predominantly, but not exclusively,
Roman Catholic, Unionists were predominantly, but not universally,
Protestant. Almost all were descendants of
English and
Scottish settlers who arrived in the province of
Ulster, especially from the
Plantation of Ulster, in the early 17th century, onwards.
Sense of Britishness
Irish Unionism is centred on an identification with
Britishness, though not necessarily to the exclusion of a sense of Irishness. It originated in
Dublin in 1885, and was taken up through
Ulster later that same year. Whereas Irish Nationalists believed in the need for separation from the United Kingdom (whether the 19th century concept of
Repeal or
home rule, or the 20th century desire for complete independence), Unionists believe fundamentally in the need to maintain and deepen the relationship between the various nations of the United Kingdom, expressing a pride in symbols of their Britishness. A definition of their own Britishness does not prevent some Unionists from also perceiving themselves as Irish as well as British; some Unionists, for example former
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP)
Member of Parliament Ken Maginnis, openly supports the all-island
Irish rugby team.
A key symbol for unionists is the
Union Flag. Unionist areas of Northern Ireland often display one or more symbols, most often the red, white and blue of the Union Flag, to show the loyalty and sense of identity of the community.
Loyalism has tended to concern itself with other aspects of Britishness, such as ''loyalty'' to the British monarch. While this is the case for many loyalists, and for many unionists also, it is not a defining feature.
Unionism throughout Ireland
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries unionism had supporters throughout Ireland. As late as 1859 the Unionist
Irish Conservative Party was predominant, winning more seats than either the
Irish Liberal Party or the various Nationalist parties. By the early 20th century however unionism had become predominantly associated with a geographic area covering six of the nine counties of
Ulster in which settlers had settled during the
Plantation of Ulster. In 1920 the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the
Government of Ireland Act which partitioned Ireland into two jurisdictions, one of which,
Northern Ireland, came to be dominated by the
Ulster Unionist Party. Unionism in the newly-independent southern state, known from 1922 as the
Irish Free State, declined with many ex-Unionists opting to associate with Nationalist parties such as
Cumann na nGaedhael and the
Centre Party. Today unionism is largely associated simply with Northern Ireland, though some Unionists remain in what is now the
Republic of Ireland (''See Southern Irish Unionism/Neo-Unionism below'').
Religion
Though both Unionism and Nationalism attracted a number of supporters from outside their main religious faiths (Protestantism for the former, Roman Catholicism for the latter), whereas Nationalism did have a number of Protestant leaders (from
Henry Grattan to
Theobald Wolfe Tone and
Charles Stewart Parnell), Unionism was invariably led by Protestant leaders, with few prominent Catholics involved in the Unionist parties, even if they voted for the parties at election time. The lack of Catholic leadership led to accusations of
sectarianism, particularly during the period of Unionist leadership of
Northern Ireland (1921–1972), when only one Catholic served in government throughout the period. Dr. G.B. Newe was specially recruited to cabinet from outside the Ulster Unionist Party to boost cross-community relations in the last government under UUP
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Brian Faulkner. Ulster Unionist Leader and
Nobel Peace Prize winner
David Trimble conceded that Northern Ireland had been a "cold house for Catholics" in the past.
Terminology
The terms ''Unionist'' and ''
Loyalist'' are often used interchangeably, particularly by the media. However, the term 'loyalist' is now often used in recent times to describe extremists who are prepared to break the law to maintain the status quo or whose views are unusually hardline. Most unionists do not describe themselves as loyalists. Strictly speaking, the definition of 'unionist' incorporates everyone who supports the continued union between all parts of the
United Kingdom. The term 'loyalist' could therefore be interpreted as either loyalty to the union or loyal to the
British Crown.
On the opposite,
nationalist, side, the term ''
republican'' traditionally refers to the more extreme element which in the past advocated violence to achieve its ends (such as
Sinn Féin) or those who continue to do so to this day (such as
Republican Sinn Féin).
This violence was primarily aimed at the state of
Northern Ireland and its residents and security forces, though it has also been aimed at the independant Irish state (from the
Irish Free State to the present
Republic of Ireland) which has been considered just as illegitimate by various Republican groups, stemming from divisions of the
Irish Civil War era. The term ''nationalist'', on the other hand, traditionally describes the more moderate element, which has consistently supported constitutional politics (e.g., the
Social Democratic and Labour Party, or SDLP) in order to bring about a
United Ireland.
Development
Home Rule
The political union is symbolised by the Westminster Parliament
Prior to 1912, Unionists wished to see the
Act of Union 1800 (which had merged the Kingdoms of
Great Britain and
Ireland to form the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801) remain in place. They opposed Irish
Home Rule, which mainstream southern Irish
nationalists had sought since the
1860s as they thought that a self-governing Irish Parliament - dominated by southern-based nationalists - would be to their economic, social and religious disadvantage, and would move eventually towards total independence, thus threatening their natural British nationality and identity.
Home Rule would have involved Ireland having its own regional parliament while still remaining in the United Kingdom. This demand, the policy of nationalist leaders such as
Isaac Butt.
William Shaw,
Charles Stewart Parnell,
John Redmond and
John Dillon, became the aim of the
Nationalist Party, also known as the Home Rule League and later the Irish Parliamentary Party. The
Home Rule League/
Irish Parliamentary Party won the majority of Irish parliamentary seats in the Westminster parliaments from the 1870s until 1914.
While most Unionists outside Ulster were almost made up of the governing and landowning classes and the minor
gentry, Unionism had a broad popular appeal among
Protestants of all classes and backgrounds in the North-East which, in contrast to the rest of Ireland, had developed through the
Industrial Revolution and had an economy that closely resembled
Great Britain.
Various British governments introduced four successive Bills to set up an Irish Home Rule parliament in Dublin. The
Irish Home Rule Bill 1886 never made it through the
House of Commons but managed to destroy the
Liberal Party government, with Whig and Radical elements leaving to form the
Liberal Unionist Party in alliance with the
Conservative Party. Eventually the two parties merged, calling themselves the
Conservative and Unionist Party.
The
Irish Home Rule Bill 1893 passed in the Commons but succumbed to the veto of the
House of Lords. The House of Lords had far more Conservatives than the House of Commons. The
Home Rule Act 1914 passed (or at least passed all stages under the
Parliament Act, 1911, which curbed the veto power of the Lords) but never came into force, due to the onset of
World War I (1914 – 1918). The fourth Bill, known as the
Government of Ireland Act 1920, envisaged two Irish home rule states:
Southern Ireland which would have had a nationalist majority, and
Northern Ireland which would have a much smaller Unionist majority. The 1914 Act also envisioned such a partition as a "temporarily" measure, although how long this temporary solution would continue was left unstated. In the end, only Northern Ireland became a reality, the planned Southern Ireland was superseded by the Irish Free State.
Irish unionists opposed Home Rule for many reasons. Much of their support in southern and western Ireland (the provinces of
Munster,
Leinster and
Connacht) came from landed
gentry who feared that a nationalist assembly would introduce property and taxation laws more suitable to a small island than the laws imposed from Westminster, which were designed for a much larger area, the entire United Kingdom. Some also feared that they would experience a similar sort of discrimination that the
British monarchy up to 1800 had practised on
non-Conformists, namely the
Penal Laws, or the more subtle discrimination that followed, although this is hard to credit as Ireland would have remained part of the UK. Others identified strongly with the Crown and British rule, and wished to see both continue unchanged in Ireland. However, one should not presume that Irish unionist support came entirely from the landed gentry, or that all Protestants supported Unionism. Many
working-class and
middle-class Unionists and some gentrified Catholics supported the maintenance of the union, while many Protestants (most notably
Charles Stewart Parnell) supported home rule. Other unionists, particularly in Ulster, had economic fears, suspecting that a nationalist parliament in Dublin, on a predominantly agricultural island, would impose economic tariffs against industry.
For much of the period up until 1920, though the Unionist support base predominated in four of the nine counties of Ulster (where the Protestants outnumbered the Roman Catholics), the Irish Unionist Party's leadership came from the rest of Ireland. Its most prominent leader, the
Dublin-born barrister and politician Sir
Edward Carson, opposed not merely Home Rule but any attempt to
divide Ireland into two. Other southern Unionist leaders included the Earl of Middleton and the Earl of Dunraven.
When, following the curbs placed on the power of the
House of Lords in 1911 it became clear that home rule would come, Unionists, particularly in parts of Ulster, mounted a campaign that threatened to establish a Provisional Government of Ulster if Home Rule were to come about. They set up the
Ulster Volunteers, a militia, and imported 25,000 rifles from
Imperial Germany, to defend the Provisional Government should it ever become necessary.
90,000 men had joined by the middle of 1914. Irish Unionism received the support in the period from the 1880s until 1914 from leading
English Conservative politicians, notably
Lord Randolph Churchill and future British prime minister
Andrew Bonar Law. Slogans such as "Ulster Will Fight and Ulster Will Be Right" expressed the determination of unionists to oppose Irish Home Rule by whatever means it deemed necessary.
Northern Ireland
The
Union Flag represents England, Ireland and Scotland united together
St. Patrick's Cross represents Ireland in the Union Flag
The creation of
Northern Ireland, with a unionist majority, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and the later creation of the
Irish Free State, in the territory the above Act had called Southern Ireland, separated southern and northern unionists. Unionists were in the majority in four counties (
Antrim,
Londonderry,
Down and
Armagh) but insisted on control over the counties of
Fermanagh and
Tyrone as well.
As these counties had a large land area but were thinly populated compared to the other four, it was felt that the slight dilution of the pro-Union population was worth it for the extra territory. The exclusion of three Ulster counties,
Donegal,
Monaghan and
Cavan from Northern Ireland, and hence the United Kingdom, left
Ulster unionists there feeling isolated and betrayed. They established an association to canvass their fellow unionists to reconsider the border, but to no avail. Many assisted in the policing of the new region, serving in the
B-Specials, while continuing to live in the Free State. See (
external link).
Edward Carson had expressly urged the Northern Ireland Unionist prime minister,
Sir James Craig to ensure absolute equality in the treatment of Roman Catholics, to ensure the stability of the new entity. However, discrimination took place although its extent is debated.
Basil Brooke, whose son had been kidnapped by Irish republicans and was embittered and suspicious of the Catholic community, called for Protestants to employ only Protestants. Some boundaries demarcated electorates in such a way as to produce Unionist majorities in areas that would otherwise have produced nationalist councillors. However, there was also widespread poverty among Protestants and recovery operations in working class areas after the
Belfast Blitz in 1941 revealed that both communities were disadvantaged.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and former
Ulster Unionist Party leader,
David Trimble, has admitted that Northern Ireland was a 'cold house of Catholics' for most of the 20th century a process he said the
Belfast Agreement must change. Many unionists, particularly in the
Democratic Unionist Party, deny that organised discrimination took place and point to the poverty shared by many people in both communities due to wider economic conditions.
The Troubles
Main articles: The Troubles
By the 1960s, reforms by a moderate new
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland,
Terence O'Neill, to create a more equitable society between unionists and nationalists resulted in a backlash led by
fundamentalist Protestant preacher-politician,
Ian Paisley. There was considerable community tensions in which both sides were responsible. Nationalists launched a
Civil Rights movement and serious rioting took place in
Derry[1] and
Belfast in 1969.
With a collapse in law and order the British government sent troops to Northern Ireland to protect the Catholic community from violence and intimidation. The presence of British troops gave the IRA the opportunity to further involve the mainland British government in the violence and the IRA went about targeting British troops despite the reason for their deployment in the first place. Ultimately this led to the controversial killing of 13 unarmed civilians by the
British army Parachute Regiment in
Derry on
Bloody Sunday (
30 January,
1972) coincided with the emergence of extremist paramilitary groups on both sides. This led to the abolition of the
Stormont parliament and government (
30 March,
1972).
A power-sharing government between moderate nationalists and moderate unionists in 1974 was brought down by the
Ulster Workers' Council Strike. This was followed by a plan for ''rolling devolution'' through an assembly between 1982 and 1986 but this was boycotted by nationalists. Violence continued throughout this period.
After two decades of conflict, a ceasefire and intense political negotiations produced the '
Belfast Agreement' on
10 April,
1998 (also known as the "Good Friday Agreement"), which again attempted with mixed success to produce a power-sharing government for Northern Ireland with cross-community support. The
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) supported the agreement but it was opposed by the
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and other smaller parties.
Unionism in Northern Ireland today
British identity in Northern Ireland is expressed in a number of different ways through passive everyday preferences (some of which can be a combination of British and Irish) such as choice of newspaper or sports team, participation in a locally developed unionist culture or electoral support for unionist political parties and candidates. It is only through elections that unionism can be statistically analysed but surveys have studied trends of support for the union within the province's population.
Unionism and religious background
While some commentators regularly use the religious terms 'Catholic' and 'Protestant' interchangeably with 'nationalist' and 'unionist' in Northern Ireland, this is a simplification. Not all Catholics support nationalist causes, for example. The
Ulster Unionist Party has some Roman Catholic members, including
Sir John Gorman, who was one of its most respected
MLAs in the
Northern Ireland Assembly from
1998 to
2003.
Many Roman Catholics served in the
Royal Irish Constabulary, the
Royal Ulster Constabulary, and now serve in the
Police Service of Northern Ireland, and in the
British armed forces, despite opposition, threats and attacks from Irish republicans.
One of the strangest situations in Northern Ireland is that the Protestant
fundamentalist leader of the
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Rev.
Ian Paisley, claims to attract some Catholic votes in his constituency at elections to the House of Commons. That may be a personal quirk, due to his reputation as a constituency MP. However, his party, the DUP, has never had any openly Catholic members.
The nationalist
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), meanwhile, has often attracted sympathetic Protestants, some of whom have been elected. Sinn Féin has also has some Protestant members and elected officials, more often in the Republic .
'Current Public Support for Unionism in Northern Ireland [1]'| Indicator | Survey Date | Overall % | Protestant % | Catholic % | No religion % |
|---|
| Support for the union as long-term policy [2] | 2006 | 54 | 85 | 22 | 46 |
|---|
| Unionist personal identity [3] | 2006 | 36 | 69 | 3 | 17 |
|---|
| British personal identity [4] | 2006 | 39 | 63 | 11 | 35 |
|---|
| Support for unionist political party [5] | 2006 | 32 | 63 | 2 | 20 |
|---|
Northern Ireland has an increasing number of citizens who are neither Catholic or Protestant. Increasingly, the trend has been to ignore the question of religion, particularly as the numbers of practising church-goers, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, have been in decline. This led to a new question on the census form, asking residents to describe their religious background as well.
This decline does not mean that nationalists and unionists have equal numbers. Polls taken over the years have suggested that as many as one in three Catholics could be considered Unionists, regardless of what political party they may vote for at election times, although this percentage seems very high, and contradicts Sinn Féin's recent ascendance.
Furthermore, a strong decline in the Roman Catholic birth rate may slow down or even reverse the growth in the Catholic population. However, that may be balanced in turn by an increased rate of emigration of young Protestants, often to study and then work in Britain. How these changes will affect the long-term number of Protestants and Catholics is hard to assess. Recent influxes of immigrants from outside the British Isles are also having a signicicant effect on the demographic balance although it is too early to assess the long term effect of this.
The rapid pace of
economic growth in the Republic of Ireland in recent years If felt by many to have narrowed (or even closed) the economic gap between Ireland and the UK and hence weakened the economic case for Unionism. Although many Unionists insist that the Irish economic boom is exaggerated and there are still clear economic benefits from being part of the UK the worlds fourth largest economy.
While southern Unionism predominantly (though not exclusively) originated in Church of Ireland circles and the upper-middle to upper classes, northern unionism remains and has been predominantly (though not exclusively) associated with the working and middle classes and predominantly
Presbyterian.
Political Unionism
Northern Ireland currently has a number of pro-union political parties, the largest of which is the traditionalist
Democratic Unionist Party led by
Ian Paisley, followed by the more moderate
Ulster Unionist Party led by
Reg Empey. Both parties are active across
Northern Ireland.
On a smaller level, the
Progressive Unionist Party, which is political wing of the
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) paramilitary group, attracts some support in the greater Belfast area, while the
UK Unionist Party is centred on
North Down and the
United Unionist Coalition is a loose grouping of independent candidates across the province.
The pluralist
Conservative Party (officially named the Conservative and Unionist Party) also organises in the province. While the
Alliance Party supports the status quo position of Northern Ireland, it does not define itself as Unionist.
Moderate unionists who support the principle of
equal citizenship between Northern Ireland and Great Britain have campaigned for mainstream British political parties to organise and contest elections in the province. Equal citizenship pressure groups have included the
Campaign for Equal Citizenship (CEC),
Labour Representation Campaign,
Democracy Now and, currently,
Labour - Federation of Labour Groups. Momentum for this concept picked up after the
Conservative Party Conference voted in favour of working in Northern Ireland in 1989. The Conservatives currently have one councillor on
Down District Council, who was elected as an Ulster Unionist. No Conservative has been elected in Northern Ireland since the early 1990s.
Under legal pressure from local trade unionists,
Labour accepted members from the province in October 2002
[6] and in September 2006 agreed to organise through a forum
[7]. The
Liberal Democrats have a branch in Northern Ireland but do not contest elections
[8].
Pro-union parties and independents contest elections and represent their constituents at a number of different levels. There is a unionist presence at election time in all
parliamentary constituencies. A Unionist win is a virtual certainty in ten constituencies:
★
East Antrim
★
North Antrim
★
South Antrim
★
Belfast North
★
Belfast East
★
North Down
★
Lagan Valley
★
East Londonderry
★
Strangford
★
Upper Bann
Twenty peers in the
House of Lords owe their peerages to a direct connection with
Northern Ireland [10], usually through a political party. Of these eight
Ulster Unionists (sitting as
Cross-benchers) three
DUP, two
Conservative two
Labour and one
Liberal Democrat and the rest independent. As well as the two Unionist MEPs in the
European Parliament, DUP MP
Nigel Dodds is also an alternate member of the UK Parliament delegations to the
Council of Europe and
Western European Union [11] and Unionists also participate in the EU
Committee of the Regions [12].
Unionist candidates stand for election in most ''district electoral areas'' (small areas which make up district councils) in Northern Ireland. Exceptions, in 2005, were Slieve Gullion in South Armagh, Upper and Lower Falls in
Belfast, Shantallow, Northland and Cityside in
Derry - all of which are strongly nationalist. Likewise, nationalist parties and candidates did not contest some areas in
North Antrim,
East Antrim,
East Belfast,
North Down and the
Strangford constituency which are strongly unionist and therefore unlikely to return a candidate.
Local government in Northern Ireland is not entirely divided on nationalist-unionist lines and the level of political tension within a council depends on the district that it represents and its direct experience of the Troubles.
Future elections
Strategically,
South Belfast and
Fermanagh and South Tyrone will be the key target seats for unionism in the
next general election, but previous experience indicates that neither seat can be won without an electoral pact between the DUP and the UUP. Both seats were lost, in 2001 and 2005 respectively, due to a divided Unionist vote.
Unionism and Republicanism
Some unionists are
British republicans. No accurate statistical information is available for how much actual support for the current
monarchy or an alternative British republic within unionism, there is. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that, while support for the monarchy amongst unionists is not perhaps as universal as is commonly assumed, the attitude among unionists who don't support the monarchy is mainly one of indifference rather than outright hostility towards the institution.
Many unionists express loyalty to the
monarchy and three members of the current Royal Family hold titles with roots in Northern Ireland:
The Duke of York (Baron Killyleagh),
The Earl of Ulster and
Baron Downpatrick.
Previous royal Irish titles included
Lord of Ireland,
Duke of Connaught and Strathearn,
Earl of Athlone and
Baron Arklow. The Queen is still technically
Sovereign of the Order of St. Patrick, the highest Irish order of chivalry, and the
Norroy and Ulster King of Arms is an officer in the
College of Arms,
London. All other royal links with Ireland were broken as the
Republic of Ireland gained its independence and
Irish peerages disappeared when the
House of Lords was reformed.
Southern Irish Unionism/Neo-Unionism
''See Also "Unionism throughout Ireland" above''
After 1890 and particularly during the period from the start of the
First World War to the mid 1920s the number of Unionists in what is now the
Republic of Ireland declined to a point where their numbers were widely regarded as almost insignificant. This is attributed to a number of factors.
# World War I: A higher rate of participation in World War I amongst Irish Unionists than among Nationalists (who were split on the issue of Irish participation in World War I) combined with the very high casualty rate amongst Irish regiments in the conflict. (Note: military
conscription did not apply in Ireland)
# Irish war of Independence: An alleged campaign of murder and
ethnic cleansing in parts of the country, by some members of the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) of Protestants and Unionists particularly during and after the
Anglo-Irish War, particularly in Cork where the Protestant community was largely working class. The Cork Protestant community was famous for being unrepentantly Loyalist and became a target for an equally fanatical Republican movement. Cork Loyalists were set a part from Protestants in the rest of the country due to their large concentrated numbers and that fact they were in the most part working-class, unlike the richer Protestants in Dublin. However their numbers were not large enough to defend themselves or to make a large stand like Protestants in Ulster. Many simply migrated or were forced into migration. There is disagreement among historians whether such murders were ''part of a widespread organised campaign'' or ''just a handful of isolated incidents''.
# Emigration: Large numbers Unionists leaving the Republic (voluntarily or otherwise) in the years before and after Irish independence mainly for
Northern Ireland,
Great Britain and
Canada.
# Assimilation: Many of those remaining to some degree underwent a gradual process of
Cultural assimilation into Irish society and culture. This was encouraged (some would claim enforced) by the
Free State government and was largely accepted as it was generally perceived that the issue of Unionism had (as far as the South was concerned) become "a lost cause" also during the
Irish Civil War most Unionists found themselves supporting the Pro-treaty government (if only as "the lesser of two evils"). -On the other hand to some extent the process of assimilation had begun even prior to Irish independence with many
Protestants playing leading roles in the
Irish Nationalist and
Gaelic revival movements.
# Intermarriage and the Ne Temere decree: The decline in the numbers of Unionists reflected the decline in the Protestant Population in the Republic (Unionists were/are largely, though not exclusively Protestant) Much of which was down to the fact that In most areas of the Free state Protestants were a small minority of the population and the widespread practice of bringing children of mixed (
Protestant/
Roman Catholic) marriages up as Roman Catholics (often because of community/family pressure and the
Ne Temere decree).
Some Unionists in the south simply adapted and began to associate themselves with the new southern Irish regime of
W. T. Cosgrave and
Cumann na nGaedhael. On
January 19,
1922, leading Unionists held a meeting and unanimously decided to support fully the government of the new Free State. Many gained appointment to the
Irish Free State Senate, including the Earl of Dunraven as a Senator when Thomas Westropp Bennett an Anglo-Irish Catholic was Cathaiorleach (pronounced 'ka-here-loch'). One Unionist political family, the Dockrells, joined and became
TDs (MPs) over a number of generations for
Cumann na nGaedhael and its successor party,
Fine Gael (the governing party in the 1920s, the main opposition from 1932 onwards).
However since the late 1920s there have been few actual Unionists elected to the Dáil or Senate. The Dublin borough of
Rathmines had a unionist majority up to the late 1920s, when a local government re-organisation abolished all Dublin borough councils.
Having lost their privileged status, most Irish Unionists simply withdrew from public life. The number of Protestants declined in the
Irish Free State and in its
successor state, the
Republic of Ireland.
IRA attacks in the 1920s drove away many who assisted the British in the
Anglo-Irish War, in the process burning many historic homes as reprisals for the Crown forces' destruction of the homes and property of
republicans, suspected or actual.
Others had suffered disproportionately in
World War I, losing their sons and heirs on the bloodied fields of
Flanders and the
Somme. Some that remained became victims of the Roman Catholic Church's ''
Ne Temere'' decree imposed by
Pope Pius X, which required Catholics in mixed marriages to ensure that all children of the marriage were brought up to follow the
Roman Catholic Church. This decree contributed greatly to the religious divide in Ireland, and is still in force, but not followed as much as before, and Protestants have greater options nowadays, even in southern Ireland.
As a result, many eligible Protestant women, who because of the deaths of Protestant men in World War I were denied the availability of Protestant husbands, either married Catholics or remained unmarried, either way ending the Protestant family line. This reversed an earlier trend of Catholics becoming Protestant to avoid discrimination.
Furthermore,
land reform from the 1870s to the 1900s broke up many of the large estates. Protestant families, who had owned most of the land, saw it returned to their largely Catholic tenantry. Many chose in the 1920s to use their compensation money to settle in Britain, often in other estates they owned there.
In addition, the disestablishment of the
Church of Ireland from 1871 by an Act of Parliament led that Church to sell many of its estates and bishops' palaces, in the process laying off many Protestant workers who themselves then moved away. (Previously, the Church had had considerable wealth thanks to
tithes (mandatory taxes) which the local Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and
Methodist communities had to pay to the (Anglican) Church of Ireland. The loss of this money underlined the economic vulnerability of the Church of Ireland.)
However, it is widely (though not universally) accepted that little evidence of widespread discrimination against Protestants in the Irish Free State/
Éire exists. The first
President of Ireland,
Douglas Hyde (1938 – 1945), and the fourth,
Erskine Hamilton Childers (1973-74), belonged to the
Church of Ireland, though Childers was one of only two senior Irish politicians to attend Hyde's Church of Ireland funeral.
Mary Robinson, nee Mary Bourke, the seventh President has both Catholic and Protestant branches in her family, and is married to a Protestant, Nicholas Robinson, although her children were raised as Roman Catholics and her parents boycotted her wedding.
Leading ex-Unionists like the Earl of Granard and the Provost of
Trinity College Dublin gained appointment to the President of Ireland's advisory body, the
Council of State.
Some people draw a distinction between membership of the "Unionist tradition" (those with a strong cultural or ethnic identification with Britain) and actually advocating Unionism as a political philosophy. There is also a distinction drawn between "Partitionist" Unionism (i.e., not desiring a
United Ireland) and Neo-Unionism (the aspiration for Southern Ireland to reunify with Britain). The extent of support for which is widely regarded as negligible.
Southern Irish Unionists are sometimes referred to as
"Anglo-Irish", an often incorrect term as many Irish of English descent were staunch nationalists, for example Wolfe Tone, Casement etc (or sometimes in the case of Ulster "Scots-Irish" or in America, "Scotch-Irish") or (often disparagingly) "
West British".
The study of Irish history from a Unionist perspective is known in The
Republic of Ireland as
revisionist history, although some Catholic writers are regarded as revisionists, such as
Kevin Myers and
Eoghan Harris Indeed a (Southern) Irish Unionist is as likely to be Catholic (or of "other"/no religion) as Protestant.
However, many historians have come to view that the ''accepted'' and traditional view of the history of the British Isles, particularly that of the history of the Gaels, was already subject to historical revisionism (for example, in the
''Book of the Taking of Ireland'', known as ''The Book of Invasions'').
While Southern Unionists in many ways identify with their Northern counterparts one respect in which they differ is describing themselves as "''Irish'' Unionists". Some Northern Unionists no longer like to regard themselves as Irish at all because, while the term may be geographically correct, it is often perceived as being synonymous with ''Gaelic'' culture and Irish Nationalist views (with which Ulster Unionists ''ipso facto'' do not identify) and prefer the term ''Ulster'' Unionist. Southern Unionists however contend that "Irish” does not necessarily imply "
Gaelic” and the term "
Ulster Unionist" is both geographically incorrect (part of Ulster is in the Republic of Ireland) and excludes Unionists from the other three Irish provinces (
Leinster,
Munster and
Connaught).
Today,
the Reform Movement, the Irish Unionist Alliance, and the
Loyal Irish Union are active Irish Unionist or Neo-Unionist organisations in the Republic of Ireland.
References
1. Due to the complexities of language between the two main communities in Northern Ireland, the city is known to Unionists as ''Londonderry'' and Nationalists as Derry. Wikipedia uses ''Derry'' to refer to the city and ''Londonderry'' to refer to the county, reflecting current official usage.
See also
Unionism in Northern Ireland
★
Catholic Unionist
★
The Border
★
Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland
★
Government of Ireland Act 1920
★
The News Letter
★
Scots-Irish
★
Ulster Loyalist
Southern/Neo-Unionism
★
Act of Union 1800
★
1918 Irish General Election
★
Anglo-Irish
★
Donegal Progressive Party
★
Stan Gebler Davies
★
Ireland Act 1949
★
Irish Unionist Alliance
★
Loyal Irish Union
★
Language Freedom Movement
★
Reform Movement
★
West Brits
Wider interests
★
Commonwealth
★
European Union
★
Falkland Islands
★
Gibraltar
★
The Scots-Irish in North America
★
Scottish Unionism
Unionist political parties
Contemporary
★
Conservative Party (1830-)
★
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP 1905-)
★
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP 1971-)
★
Progressive Unionist Party (PUP 1979-)
★
UK Unionist Party (UKUP 1995-)
★
United Unionist Coalition (UUC 1998-)
Historic
★
Irish Conservative Party (mid 19th century)
★
Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society (1836-1859)
★
Irish Unionist Party (late 19th century / early 20th century)
★
Ulster Unionist Labour Association (1917-c.1974)
★
Northern Ireland Labour Party (1922-1987)
★
Ulster Liberal Party (c.1929-c.1985)
★
Ulster Progressive Unionist Association (1938-c.1943)
★
Commonwealth Labour Party (1942-1947)
★
Protestant Unionist Party (1966-1971)
★
Ulster Constitution Party (early 1970s)
★
Loyalist Coalition (1973)
★
Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party (1973-1978)
★
Volunteer Political Party (1974)
★
United Ulster Unionist Council (1974-1977)
★
Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (1974-1981)
★
United Ulster Unionist Party (1977-1984)
★
Ulster Popular Unionist Party (1980-1995)
★
Ulster Loyalist Democratic Party (1981-1989)
★
Ulster Democratic Party (1989-2001)
★
Northern Ireland Unionist Party (1999-2003)
Resources
Articles
★
Anonymous (2005) Obelus.org "Ulster Unionism: dead but not gone"
★
Coulter, J. (2005) Open Republic "Revolutionary Unionism"
★
Hastings, M. (2005) The Guardian "The last writhings of a society left beached by history"
★
Langhammer, M. (2005) The North Belfast News "Analysis of the Malaise in Protestant Heartlands."
★
Peacocke, D. (2003) The Observer "A job to be done"
★
Christopher D (2006) "The fate of Cork unionists 1919-1921"
★
Wheatcroft, G. (1998) New Statesman "Ethnic cleansing in the Free State - Protestants in the Republic of Ireland"
Books and reports
★
Alcock, A. (1994) Understanding Ulster (chap 2) The Unloved, Unwanted Garrison - The Unionist Community in Northern Ireland. Lurgan : Ulster Society
★ Buckland, Patrick ''Irish Unionism I: The Anglo-Irish and the New Ireland, 1885-1922'', Dublin: 1972.
★ Buckland, Patrick ''Irish Unionism II: Ulster Unionism and the Origins of Northern Ireland, 1886-1922'', Dublin: 1973.
★ Farrington, C. (2006) ''Ulster Unionism and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland.'' Palgrave Macmillan.
★
Cochrane, F. (1997) ''Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism since the Anglo-Irish Agreement''. Cork : Cork University Press.
★
Fealty, M., Ringland, T. & Steven D. (2003) ''A Long Peace? The Future of Unionism in Northern Ireland''
★ Jackson, Alvin ''Colonel Edward Sanunderson: Land and Loyalty in Victorian Ireland'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
★ Jackson, Alvin ''The Ulster Party: Irish Unionists in the House of Commons, 1884-1911'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
★ McCartney, R. (2001) ''Reflections on Liberty, Democracy and The Union''. Dublin : Maunsel.
★ McDonald, H. (2000) ''Trimble''. Bloomsbury.
★
Porter, N. (1996) ''Rethinking Unionism: an alternative vision for Northern Ireland''. Blackstaff : Belfast.
★
Shirlow, P. & McGovern, M. (1997) ''Who Are The People?Unionism, Protestantism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland.'' Pluto : London
★ Walker, G. (2004) ''A History of the Ulster Unionist Party''. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Manifestos
The following Unionist parties have contested at least one election in Northern Ireland since 2001 and produced online manifestos (all PDF format):
;Conservative and Unionist Party
★
Westminster 2001
★
Assembly 2003
★
Westminster 2005
;Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
★
Westminster 2001
★
Assembly 2003
★
Westminster 2005
;Progressive Unionist Party (PUP)
★
Assembly 2003
;Ulster Unionist Party (UUP)
★
Westminster 2001
★
Assembly 2003
★
Westminster 2005
Speeches
★
Donaldson, J. (2004) The Bruges Group "The European Union - an Unionist/Ulster perspective"
★
HM The Queen (2002) Golden Jubilee Address to the Northern Ireland Assembly
★
Robinson, P. (2006) The Planter and The Gael
★
Trimble, D. (1998) Nobel Peace Prize
★
Trimble, D. (2001) Conservative Party Conference
Websites
Analytical
Analytical sites do not necessarily imply support for political causes:
★
Act of Union 1800 Archive
★
British Council : website on Anglo-Irish relationships
★
Cadogan Group
★
Devolution and Constitutional Change Project
★
Irish Association
★
Ulster Covenant 1913 Archive
Cultural
Lambeg Drum competition in Tyrone on 12 July
Cultural sites do not necessarily imply support for political causes:
★
Apprentice Boys of Derry
★
Belfast Newsletter
★
Belfast Proms in the Park
★
Glasgow Rangers Football Club (largely unionist following)
★
Independent Orange Order
★
Orange Order
★
Royal Black Institution
★
Ulster Scots Agency
★
Ulster Society
Integrationist (with Great Britain)
★
British Republic Campaign
★
Conservative Party in Northern Ireland
★
Friends of the Union (archive)
★
Labour in Northern Ireland Campaign
Legal
A number of Acts of Parliament and other laws provide a legal framework for the union:
★ Act of Union 1800
★ Government of Ireland Act 1920
★
Ireland Act 1949
★
Northern Ireland Act 1998
★
Memorandum of Understanding (Devolution)
★
Concordat between NIO and Northern Ireland Executive
Political parties
★
Conservative and Unionist Party
★
Democratic Unionist Party
★
Progressive Unionist Party
★
Ulster Unionist Party
Southern Ireland/Neo-Unionist
★
Border Minority Group
★
Dublin Glasgow Rangers Supporters Club
★
Irish Unionist Alliance
★
Loyal Irish Union
★
Reform Movement
★
Trinity College Unionist Association (archive)
Structural
Some official agencies and organisations at a national level have developed specific structural links as part of the union. These links reflect the responsibilities of the agency or organisation to the citizens of
Northern Ireland and the other UK regions. However, they do not indicate support for political unionism as the UK Civil Service is regulated by strict laws on impartiality. In addition, Northern Ireland is nowadays part of a web of co-operative links with the
Republic of Ireland (north-south), the whole
British Isles (east-west), the
European Union and the
United States.
''Ceremonial''
★
Privy Council
★
The Queen
''Central Government''
★
10 Downing Street
★
Government Internet Portal
★
Government News Network (GNN)
★
Northern Ireland Office
★
Scotland Office
★
Wales Office
''Co-operation''
★
North-South Ministerial Council
★
British Isles Council
★
Office of the Northern Ireland Executive, Brussels
★
Northern Ireland Bureau, Washington DC
''Devolution''
★
Northern Ireland Assembly
★
Northern Ireland Executive
★
Northern Ireland Internet Portal
★
Scottish Executive
★
Scottish Parliament
★
Welsh Assembly
''Parliament''
★
Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
★
Northern Ireland Grand Committee 2005/2006
★
Scottish Affairs Committee
★
Welsh Affairs Committee
★
Welsh Grand Committee 2005/2006
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
![Last Minute Travel Deals: Make Sure You\](images/articles/thumbs/klastminutethumb.jpg "Last Minute Travel Deals: Make Sure You\")
![Walking in Waikiki: The Sauce-erer\](images/articles/thumbs/waikikidrinkumbrellathumb.jpg "Walking in Waikiki: The Sauce-erer\")
