Southern Unionism in pre- and post-revolutionary Ireland (original) (raw)
Related papers
Nationalism and Unionism in Ireland: Economic Perspectives
2015
Ireland´s political and constitutional dilemma is that two competing nationalisms emerged in the nineteenth century on the one small island. One was Irish nationalism which harked back to an ancient Gaelic civilization and was infused with Catholic culture and sometimes Anglophobic sentiment. The other was a regional dialect of British nationalism which took on a distinctly confessional character in Ulster. The aim of this paper is to identify the role of economic forces and the experience of economic change - a rather more subjective notion - in the development of nationalist and unionist movements in recent centuries. A fundamental part of the story, it is argued, lies with deep economic structures as well as temporally-bound and changing economic forces. The economic mattered but not only the economic.
Ex-Unionists and Irish Politics in 1922-3
The Unionist community in the newly independent Ireland tend to be overlooked in accounts of the creation of the Irish Free State. For many scholars, they represent a relic of an old Irish order which either emigrated or gradually died off over time and lacked any sense of purpose after the loss of their connection to Britain. FSL Lyons famously went so far as to describe their significance was that they were invisibile, nicknaming them the "dog that hasn't barked" on account of their seeming irrelevance in many accounts of the era. 1 This depiction has persisted, and the remnants of what was the ex-Unionist community are most often discussed in relation to a narrative of demographic decline amongst Irish Protestants and the history of Trinity College Dublin, with direct participation in politics treated as an aside.
Divided Loyalties: A Reassessment of ex-Unionists in the early politics of the Irish Free State
Whilst those who explicitly identified as “Unionists” in what is now the Republic of Ireland may have represented a numerically small minority by 1922, they were nevertheless an influential faction within Irish society with a strongly visible presence in the media, the world of business and amongst the professional classes. With this in mind, the experience of those who chose to remain in the Irish Free State and participate in its public life despite the clear Catholic and nationalist influence on the policies adopted by the early governments of the new state provide a fascinating example of an identity and culture in transition, as well as an insight into the formative years of politics in the modern Irish state. The members and institutions of the Southern minority who stayed in Ireland underwent a transition from “Unionists” to “ex-Unionists”, in the process redefining themselves as a political community despite the absence of any electorally significant political parties identifying as “ex-Unionist” or “Protestant”. Ex-Unionist politicians and institutions adapted sufficiently through participating in Irish public life in the early years of the Free State to influence the politics and culture of the new Free State throughout the decade of constitutional and social changes Ireland experienced under the Cumman na nGaedhal governments led by William Cosgrave, in the process demonstrating the necessity of an inclusive idea of Irish citizenship and the accommodation of minority concerns in government policy. The ex-Unionist faction in Irish public life, despite their eventual decline into a tiny and electorally insignificant minority, are of great importance to understanding the emergence and development of a political movement rooted in civic nationalism and a broadly conservative outlook on social and economic questions in Irish public life from the disparate pro-Treaty supporters, most famously represented by the foundation of Fine Gael after the rise to power of Fianna Fáil. In this study, I intend to understand and explain the significance of ex-Unionists and institutions which had previously publicly identified as Unionist, such as The Irish Times and the Church of Ireland, to the predominantly conservative social and economic policies that characterised the early years of the Irish Free State as well as the character of the political parties that went on to dominate Irish politics.
Irish Nationalism and Unionism Between State, Region and Nation
Region and State in Nineteenth-Century Europe, 2012
Within the debate on the origins of modern nationalism the Irish could be put forward as an ironclad case by the proponents of the primordialist camp, which argues that nations were essentially already present in the middle ages. Ireland has after all a long history of separateness, both politically as well as culturally. Although never really united in one state before the English kings extended their control over Ireland, it had its own parliament from the late middle ages until 1800 and shared a common language and culture distinct from the English, Scots or Welsh well before and right into the nineteenth century. For movements trying to prove the existence of an Irish nation, there were therefore sufficient common and distinct features to tap into even apart from the mere existence of a separate geographical entity. Although as was the case for many other European peoples the existence of a cultural distinctiveness was largely mythical by the nineteenth century, the argument for the creation of a separate Ireland could nevertheless easily be supported in perceived fact and indeed occasionally found resonance with large sections of the population when combined with other concerns.
Ulster Loyalism, Ulster Unionism and the Irish State, 1972-1982
"This paper examines the relationship between Ulster Loyalism, Ulster Unionism and the Irish state over a ten year period, with particular emphasis on the Irish Constitution and how prominently loyalists featured in the Irish government’s policy of all-Ireland unity and the end to partition by consent. This is extended to the ways in which the existence of Ulster Protestants and the expediency of conflict in the North forced Southern politicians, and in particular the Labour-Fine Gael Coalition which took office in 1973, to reconsider the partisan and unilateral political culture of the Irish state, which had hitherto excluded unionists and unionism. This lead to a re-examination of the Irish constitution and a scrutiny of how obliging the Irish state could be to the Northern majority and their fears adjoining unity, which sought to make unity by consent more improbable. Attention is also given to the Irish government’s interpretation of loyalism after the Ulster Workers’ Council strike and how loyalists featured in their emergency contingency planning. Central tenets of this argument are that the Coalition differed greatly in their benevolent approach towards unionism than the Fianna Fáil administrations it fell between and that loyalist resistance to Irish unity came mostly from the fear of it rendering Protestantism and Unionism defunct. Further, that while extensive treatment was undertaken to remedy Southern Ireland for Protestant inclusion, it failed to rectify what loyalists saw as the terminal article of Ireland; the authoritarianism of the Catholic Church and its assertive influence over public opinion. "
Irish Nationalism, Labour and the Unionist Working Class
The history of the labour movement in Ireland has been documented by a number of academics. However, it is a relatively neglected subject when one considers the plethora of books and articles on general Irish history, particularly those covering the conflict of nationality and religion. In addition, most of the published work on the labour movement has been written from an Irish nationalistic perspective. Consequently, these historians have tended to undermine Ulster’s unionist working class. This book aims to redress the balance by writing about the major currents of Irish history that shaped Irish nationalism and Ulster unionism, and caused so many difficulties for labour. In writing from a working-class unionist perspective, my principal aim is to dispel some myths and portray a much-maligned (and consequently bitter) community in a more favourable light.
3. Irish Trade Unions and Politics, 1830–50
The Historical Journal, 1961
The extent and influence of political and economic organizations among the lower classes was a marked feature of Irish life in the early nineteenth century. Trade unions flourished among the workers of many trades and were bitterly resented by manufacturers.1 These unions were primarily concerned to protect the living standards of their members against the encroachments of the employers. However, matters of national importance also excited their attention. Tradesmen all over Ireland supported the agitation for Repeal of the Act of Union (1801). A number of Dublin tradesmen took part in the revolutionary disturbances in 1848. In Ireland organization for political and economic ends in opposition to the dominant orthodoxy was a familiar and honoured tradition.
2008
Cet article repose sur le postulat selon lequel les principales ideologies politiques propres a l’Irlande que sont le nationalisme et l’unionisme, constituent deux formes antinomiques de nationalisme : le premier se caracterisant par sa nature « autochtone », le second par sa dimension supranationale, sur le modele britannique du nationalisme imperial. Si leurs origines profondes remontent indubitablement aux annees 1790, leur rivalite n’apparut sur le devant de la scene politique irlandaise que vers la fin du XIXe siecle. Des lors, le nationalisme « autochtone » et l’unionisme devaient faconner l’histoire de l’Irlande, au moins jusqu’au milieu des annees 2000, en fonction d’un antagonisme politique et ideologique, unique en Europe occidentale.