Henry Patterson | University of Ulster (original) (raw)
Papers by Henry Patterson
Dissident Irish Republicanism
An examination of the emergence of dissident republicanism which relates this to the contradictio... more An examination of the emergence of dissident republicanism which relates this to the contradictions of the mainstream republican movement's involvement in the peace process and the devolved structures of government in Northern Ireland
Éire-Ireland, 2004
The Limits of "New Unionism": David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party* Éire-Ireland 39: 1 & 2... more The Limits of "New Unionism": David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party* Éire-Ireland 39: 1 & 2 Spring/Summer 2004 The Limits of "New Unionism" 164 . James W. McCauley, "Mobilising Ulster Unionism: new directions or old?" Capital and Class (Spring ), -. . In the Assembly elections the UUP won . percent of the vote and twenty-eight seats to the DUP's percent and twenty seats: Paul Mitchell, "Transcending an Ethnic Party System?" in Rick Wilford, ed., Aspects of the Belfast Agreement (Oxford, ), . In the November election the respective figures were UUP: . percent and twenty-seven seats; DUP: . percent and thirty seats (Irish Times, Nov. ).
Dictionary of Irish Biography
Politics and the Irish Working Class, 1830–1945, 2005
William Walker was born into Belfast’s skilled working class in 1871. His father worked in the Ha... more William Walker was born into Belfast’s skilled working class in 1871. His father worked in the Harland and Wolff shipyard and was a trade union official.1 The first 30 years of Walker’s life coincided with two processes whose intertwining would dominate his experiences as a trade unionist and political activist. The first was the major expansion of its shipbuilding and engineering industries, which, together with its already substantial linen and engineering industries, would make Belfast the industrial heartland of Ireland. The Harland and Wolff yard, which had a workforce of 1,500 in the 1860s, when it was the only yard in Belfast, employed 9,000 people by 1900.2 In the 1ate 1870s, another shipbuilding enterprise was set up by Frank Workman, a local businessman, who was joined by George Clark from Glasgow in the Workman Clark ‘Wee Yard’. Clark, like Edward Harland and Gustavus Wolff, would become involved in Conservative and Unionist politics and Walker was to challenge him for the North Belfast parliamentary seat in 1907.
Choice Reviews Online, 1998
Ireland's Violent Frontier, 2013
The collapse of the Executive opened a new phase in British policy towards the North characterise... more The collapse of the Executive opened a new phase in British policy towards the North characterised by ambiguity and uncertainty, which increasingly alarmed Dublin. Galsworthy believed that the collapse of the Executive and the way it came about, through an assertion of loyalist paramilitary and industrial muscle, represented the gravest threat yet to relations with Dublin. Although he noted that Cosgrave’s statement in the Dail had been ‘helpful and encouragingly free from recrimination against us’, he feared a backlash in the media ‘where old-fashioned republican-style nationalism is much more widespread and strongly entrenched’. He also expected Lynch’s difficulties with his republicanminded TDs to increase:
Ireland's Violent Frontier, 2013
According to Michael Lillis, the DFA official who was to play an important role in negotiating th... more According to Michael Lillis, the DFA official who was to play an important role in negotiating the Anglo-Irish Agreement, ‘There was literally no Anglo-Irish political dialogue on Northern Ireland and little prospect of it when Dr FitzGerald became Taoiseach.’1 The question which he raises but does not give a satisfactory answer to is ‘How did the Anglo- Irish Agreement, facilitating the most intrusive role for Dublin in the affairs of Northern Ireland of any Anglo-Irish arrangement before or since, come about?’2 His answer reflects bureaucratic amour propre in its emphasis on the central role of senior officials on both sides, but particularly, the British, in persuading Margaret Thatcher of the benefits of this radical reconstruction of the governance of Northern Ireland. There is, however, a tangential reference to Thatcher’s core concern when he refers to a proposal from the British for a ‘security band’ to be established along the border to be jointly policed by the Garda and the RUC under a joint security commission.3 The Irish rejected the proposal but it is clear from the accounts of some of the British participants in the negotiations that Thatcher’s willingness to sanction the ongoing talks was based on her strong conviction that stronger action from the Republic on security co-operation was the key to defeating the Provisionals. According to Douglas Hurd, Thatcher’s ‘main aim in negotiation was to shame and galvanise Dublin into effective anti-terrorist action.’4 Geoffrey Howe claimed that her security concerns were used by some on the British side to persuade her of the virtues of a new deal with Dublin:
Irish Historical Studies, 2015
psychiatry. This background ensures that the author provides a revealing history of psychiatry wh... more psychiatry. This background ensures that the author provides a revealing history of psychiatry while examining English's career in Ballinasloe. This includes the modernisation of lunatic asylums in Ireland as well as medical developments such as the use of electroconvulsive therapy and the introduction of occupational therapy. English was dedicated to the improvement of the psychiatric system in Ireland and was devoted to her patients. At her own request, when English died in 1944 she was buried in Creagh cemetery beside the Ballinsloe hospital where she had worked for so many years. English died without recording her own experiences. She did not leave behind diaries or even a body of letters which a historian could draw from. There is no witness statement from English amongst the resources of the Bureau of Military History; English died before the State began gathering such information in 1947. It is a credit to Brendan Kelly that he has exhausted the records of organisations, the personal papers of others, as well as newspaper accounts and State papers to reconstruct such an engaging and important life history of Ada English, a woman who may have remained overlooked and would surely have been forgotten by the next generation.
The chapter argues against the notion that the Anglo-Irish Agreement was the progenitor of the Be... more The chapter argues against the notion that the Anglo-Irish Agreement was the progenitor of the Belfast Agreement by focussing on the Provisional IRA's response to the Agreement. It points to the intensification of violence in the aftermath of the Agreement and argues that violence continued to be seen by the leadership of the Provisionals as a form of leverage on any future political negotiations
Terrorism and Political Violence, 2010
... 31 A farmer and local unionist councillor I interviewed in the area produced a copy of a rece... more ... 31 A farmer and local unionist councillor I interviewed in the area produced a copy of a recent biography of a leading IRA figure who had organised raids into south Fermanagh in 1922:Fearghal McGarry, Eoin O'Duffy A Self-Made Hero (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). ...
Small Wars & Insurgencies, 2013
ABSTRACT Using hitherto largely unexplored governmental archives from London and Dublin, this art... more ABSTRACT Using hitherto largely unexplored governmental archives from London and Dublin, this article focuses on the security challenges arising from the existence of the land frontier between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the significance of issues of cross-border security cooperation for Anglo-Irish relations from the beginning of the Troubles until the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. It argues that the relatively safe haven of the Republic was essential to the longevity of the IRA's campaign and that successive Irish governments exploited British security concerns to expand their political influence on Northern Ireland.
Irish Political Studies, 2013
Contemporary British History, 2012
ABSTRACT The IRA's exploitation of the land frontier between the Irish Republic and the U... more ABSTRACT The IRA's exploitation of the land frontier between the Irish Republic and the UK was a major challenge to the British state throughout the Troubles. This article examines how this challenge affected and was influenced by the broader context of Anglo-Irish relations during the early years of the Troubles. It considers British criticisms of the response of the government of Jack Lynch to border security challenges and the ideological and strategic factors that influenced that response. It argues that Lynch established a dualistic response: a tough line against any IRA challenge to Irish state while claiming only radical political reform could deal with the IRA in the North.
Community Development Journal, 2009
Henry Patterson, along with co-author Eric Kaufmann, has returned to explore a topic he and co-au... more Henry Patterson, along with co-author Eric Kaufmann, has returned to explore a topic he and co-authors analyzed so many years ago: the Unionist ruling class and the Northern Irish state. Unlike The State in Northern Ireland, 19211972, which Patterson published along ...
Synthesizing a vast body of scholarly work, Henry Patterson offers a compelling narrative of cont... more Synthesizing a vast body of scholarly work, Henry Patterson offers a compelling narrative of contemporary Ireland as a place poised between the divisiveness of deep-seated conflict and the modernizing - but perhaps no less divisive - pull of ever-greater material prosperity. Although the two states of Ireland have strikingly divergent histories, Patterson shows more clearly than any previous historian how interdependent those histories - and the mirroring ideologies that have fuelled them - have been. With its fresh and unpredictable readings of key events and developments on the island since the outbreak of the second world war, "Ireland Since 1939" is an authoritative and gripping account from one of the most distinguished Irish historians at work today.
Marxism Today, 1982
The eruption of Protestant anger in November over the Provisional IRA's killing of the Union... more The eruption of Protestant anger in November over the Provisional IRA's killing of the Unionist MP for South Belfast was given its most strident and disturbing expression by Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party. Together with the emergence of the 'Third Force' to supposedly give ...
New Left Review, 1994
In the last two years, a series of events has occurred which, taken together, seemed to signify d... more In the last two years, a series of events has occurred which, taken together, seemed to signify developments of such importance that even those observers of Irish politics most prone to relish or lament its apparent barren continuities have begun to contemplate the possibility of a ...
Irish Studies Review, 2011
... 48. McKittrick, Kelters, and Feeney, Lost Lives, 821. ... 2007. The Peace Process as Arkhe-Ta... more ... 48. McKittrick, Kelters, and Feeney, Lost Lives, 821. ... 2007. The Peace Process as Arkhe-Tainment?. Irish Studies Review , 15(4): 50720. [Taylor & Francis Online] View all references, 'The Peace Process as Arkhe-Tainment?', 507. 4. Lehner9. Lehner, Stefanie. 2007. ...
Dissident Irish Republicanism
An examination of the emergence of dissident republicanism which relates this to the contradictio... more An examination of the emergence of dissident republicanism which relates this to the contradictions of the mainstream republican movement's involvement in the peace process and the devolved structures of government in Northern Ireland
Éire-Ireland, 2004
The Limits of "New Unionism": David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party* Éire-Ireland 39: 1 & 2... more The Limits of "New Unionism": David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party* Éire-Ireland 39: 1 & 2 Spring/Summer 2004 The Limits of "New Unionism" 164 . James W. McCauley, "Mobilising Ulster Unionism: new directions or old?" Capital and Class (Spring ), -. . In the Assembly elections the UUP won . percent of the vote and twenty-eight seats to the DUP's percent and twenty seats: Paul Mitchell, "Transcending an Ethnic Party System?" in Rick Wilford, ed., Aspects of the Belfast Agreement (Oxford, ), . In the November election the respective figures were UUP: . percent and twenty-seven seats; DUP: . percent and thirty seats (Irish Times, Nov. ).
Dictionary of Irish Biography
Politics and the Irish Working Class, 1830–1945, 2005
William Walker was born into Belfast’s skilled working class in 1871. His father worked in the Ha... more William Walker was born into Belfast’s skilled working class in 1871. His father worked in the Harland and Wolff shipyard and was a trade union official.1 The first 30 years of Walker’s life coincided with two processes whose intertwining would dominate his experiences as a trade unionist and political activist. The first was the major expansion of its shipbuilding and engineering industries, which, together with its already substantial linen and engineering industries, would make Belfast the industrial heartland of Ireland. The Harland and Wolff yard, which had a workforce of 1,500 in the 1860s, when it was the only yard in Belfast, employed 9,000 people by 1900.2 In the 1ate 1870s, another shipbuilding enterprise was set up by Frank Workman, a local businessman, who was joined by George Clark from Glasgow in the Workman Clark ‘Wee Yard’. Clark, like Edward Harland and Gustavus Wolff, would become involved in Conservative and Unionist politics and Walker was to challenge him for the North Belfast parliamentary seat in 1907.
Choice Reviews Online, 1998
Ireland's Violent Frontier, 2013
The collapse of the Executive opened a new phase in British policy towards the North characterise... more The collapse of the Executive opened a new phase in British policy towards the North characterised by ambiguity and uncertainty, which increasingly alarmed Dublin. Galsworthy believed that the collapse of the Executive and the way it came about, through an assertion of loyalist paramilitary and industrial muscle, represented the gravest threat yet to relations with Dublin. Although he noted that Cosgrave’s statement in the Dail had been ‘helpful and encouragingly free from recrimination against us’, he feared a backlash in the media ‘where old-fashioned republican-style nationalism is much more widespread and strongly entrenched’. He also expected Lynch’s difficulties with his republicanminded TDs to increase:
Ireland's Violent Frontier, 2013
According to Michael Lillis, the DFA official who was to play an important role in negotiating th... more According to Michael Lillis, the DFA official who was to play an important role in negotiating the Anglo-Irish Agreement, ‘There was literally no Anglo-Irish political dialogue on Northern Ireland and little prospect of it when Dr FitzGerald became Taoiseach.’1 The question which he raises but does not give a satisfactory answer to is ‘How did the Anglo- Irish Agreement, facilitating the most intrusive role for Dublin in the affairs of Northern Ireland of any Anglo-Irish arrangement before or since, come about?’2 His answer reflects bureaucratic amour propre in its emphasis on the central role of senior officials on both sides, but particularly, the British, in persuading Margaret Thatcher of the benefits of this radical reconstruction of the governance of Northern Ireland. There is, however, a tangential reference to Thatcher’s core concern when he refers to a proposal from the British for a ‘security band’ to be established along the border to be jointly policed by the Garda and the RUC under a joint security commission.3 The Irish rejected the proposal but it is clear from the accounts of some of the British participants in the negotiations that Thatcher’s willingness to sanction the ongoing talks was based on her strong conviction that stronger action from the Republic on security co-operation was the key to defeating the Provisionals. According to Douglas Hurd, Thatcher’s ‘main aim in negotiation was to shame and galvanise Dublin into effective anti-terrorist action.’4 Geoffrey Howe claimed that her security concerns were used by some on the British side to persuade her of the virtues of a new deal with Dublin:
Irish Historical Studies, 2015
psychiatry. This background ensures that the author provides a revealing history of psychiatry wh... more psychiatry. This background ensures that the author provides a revealing history of psychiatry while examining English's career in Ballinasloe. This includes the modernisation of lunatic asylums in Ireland as well as medical developments such as the use of electroconvulsive therapy and the introduction of occupational therapy. English was dedicated to the improvement of the psychiatric system in Ireland and was devoted to her patients. At her own request, when English died in 1944 she was buried in Creagh cemetery beside the Ballinsloe hospital where she had worked for so many years. English died without recording her own experiences. She did not leave behind diaries or even a body of letters which a historian could draw from. There is no witness statement from English amongst the resources of the Bureau of Military History; English died before the State began gathering such information in 1947. It is a credit to Brendan Kelly that he has exhausted the records of organisations, the personal papers of others, as well as newspaper accounts and State papers to reconstruct such an engaging and important life history of Ada English, a woman who may have remained overlooked and would surely have been forgotten by the next generation.
The chapter argues against the notion that the Anglo-Irish Agreement was the progenitor of the Be... more The chapter argues against the notion that the Anglo-Irish Agreement was the progenitor of the Belfast Agreement by focussing on the Provisional IRA's response to the Agreement. It points to the intensification of violence in the aftermath of the Agreement and argues that violence continued to be seen by the leadership of the Provisionals as a form of leverage on any future political negotiations
Terrorism and Political Violence, 2010
... 31 A farmer and local unionist councillor I interviewed in the area produced a copy of a rece... more ... 31 A farmer and local unionist councillor I interviewed in the area produced a copy of a recent biography of a leading IRA figure who had organised raids into south Fermanagh in 1922:Fearghal McGarry, Eoin O'Duffy A Self-Made Hero (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). ...
Small Wars & Insurgencies, 2013
ABSTRACT Using hitherto largely unexplored governmental archives from London and Dublin, this art... more ABSTRACT Using hitherto largely unexplored governmental archives from London and Dublin, this article focuses on the security challenges arising from the existence of the land frontier between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the significance of issues of cross-border security cooperation for Anglo-Irish relations from the beginning of the Troubles until the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. It argues that the relatively safe haven of the Republic was essential to the longevity of the IRA's campaign and that successive Irish governments exploited British security concerns to expand their political influence on Northern Ireland.
Irish Political Studies, 2013
Contemporary British History, 2012
ABSTRACT The IRA's exploitation of the land frontier between the Irish Republic and the U... more ABSTRACT The IRA's exploitation of the land frontier between the Irish Republic and the UK was a major challenge to the British state throughout the Troubles. This article examines how this challenge affected and was influenced by the broader context of Anglo-Irish relations during the early years of the Troubles. It considers British criticisms of the response of the government of Jack Lynch to border security challenges and the ideological and strategic factors that influenced that response. It argues that Lynch established a dualistic response: a tough line against any IRA challenge to Irish state while claiming only radical political reform could deal with the IRA in the North.
Community Development Journal, 2009
Henry Patterson, along with co-author Eric Kaufmann, has returned to explore a topic he and co-au... more Henry Patterson, along with co-author Eric Kaufmann, has returned to explore a topic he and co-authors analyzed so many years ago: the Unionist ruling class and the Northern Irish state. Unlike The State in Northern Ireland, 19211972, which Patterson published along ...
Synthesizing a vast body of scholarly work, Henry Patterson offers a compelling narrative of cont... more Synthesizing a vast body of scholarly work, Henry Patterson offers a compelling narrative of contemporary Ireland as a place poised between the divisiveness of deep-seated conflict and the modernizing - but perhaps no less divisive - pull of ever-greater material prosperity. Although the two states of Ireland have strikingly divergent histories, Patterson shows more clearly than any previous historian how interdependent those histories - and the mirroring ideologies that have fuelled them - have been. With its fresh and unpredictable readings of key events and developments on the island since the outbreak of the second world war, "Ireland Since 1939" is an authoritative and gripping account from one of the most distinguished Irish historians at work today.
Marxism Today, 1982
The eruption of Protestant anger in November over the Provisional IRA's killing of the Union... more The eruption of Protestant anger in November over the Provisional IRA's killing of the Unionist MP for South Belfast was given its most strident and disturbing expression by Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party. Together with the emergence of the 'Third Force' to supposedly give ...
New Left Review, 1994
In the last two years, a series of events has occurred which, taken together, seemed to signify d... more In the last two years, a series of events has occurred which, taken together, seemed to signify developments of such importance that even those observers of Irish politics most prone to relish or lament its apparent barren continuities have begun to contemplate the possibility of a ...
Irish Studies Review, 2011
... 48. McKittrick, Kelters, and Feeney, Lost Lives, 821. ... 2007. The Peace Process as Arkhe-Ta... more ... 48. McKittrick, Kelters, and Feeney, Lost Lives, 821. ... 2007. The Peace Process as Arkhe-Tainment?. Irish Studies Review , 15(4): 50720. [Taylor & Francis Online] View all references, 'The Peace Process as Arkhe-Tainment?', 507. 4. Lehner9. Lehner, Stefanie. 2007. ...
It establishes the crucial importance of the border to the IRA campaign and shows why successive ... more It establishes the crucial importance of the border to the IRA campaign and shows why successive British governments considered the Republic a 'safe haven' for terrorists/
First book based on unprecedented access to archives of party and Orange Order . Shows how precar... more First book based on unprecedented access to archives of party and Orange Order . Shows how precarious the position of Unionist and Orange elites was as they struggled to conflicting demands of working class Protestants for British standards of welfare and wages, of industrialists who opposed the welfare state and populist Protestantism who denounced Stormont government for 'appeasement'
The history of Belfast's Protestant working class has raised many problems for socialists and lab... more The history of Belfast's Protestant working class has raised many problems for socialists and labour historians . Why should the most industrially developed part of Ireland, far from being the centre of class conflict have been what James Connolly called 'the happy hunting ground of the slave driver and the home of the least rebellious slaves in the industrial world.' The book examines the interplay between economic class consciousness, Labourism, sectarianism and Unionism in the formative period of both the labour movement and the mass mobilisations of Unionism and Nationalism.
Given to a conference on 'Labour and Northern Ireland : Foundation and Development' 5 October 201... more Given to a conference on 'Labour and Northern Ireland : Foundation and Development' 5 October 2019 in The Mac, Belfast
This formed the basis for my address to the 50th anniversary Civil Rights Festival in the Guild H... more This formed the basis for my address to the 50th anniversary Civil Rights Festival in the Guild Hall, Derry, 6 October 2018