Ulster Unionism

Ulster Unionism as an ideology first found prominence as far back as the Ulster Plantation in the early seventeenth century when Scottish and some English colonists travelled to six counties in Ulster to establish communities, towns and farms. They mainly settled in Tyrone, Donegal, Armagh, Fermanagh, Derry and Cavan. The new colonists did not integrate into the indigenous culture like the previous wave of invaders had done and they left a legacy of loyalty to the crown in an otherwise rebellious island.

Origins

Ulster Unionism as a political force has its origins rooted in opposition to the Home Rule Movement, which Charles Stewart Parnell had organised throughout the country with his Home Rule party and which had swept through Ireland and even took a seat in Liverpool in the 1885 elections. The concerted aims of the Home Rule Party was a form of national self determination. The Home Rule movement wished to have an independant parliament capable of legislating for Irish interests, and although they had won the balance of power several times in the Liberal Parties British House of Commons with whom they had an on and off alliance with, their Home Rule Bill never progressed further than the Conservative parties House of Lords.

Unionists throughout the country detested the thought of Irish Home Rule, considering it to be Rome Rule, as in, rule of the Catholic

Leading Unionists, circa 1912

majority as well as worrying about economic costs. This all culminated in a series of rallies in Ulster. 237,368 men, and 234,046 women signed the Ulster covenant on 28 September 1912 in opposition to Home Rule which made the region much more volatile and eventually the formation of the Ulster Volunteer force in 1913. Eoin O' Neill and many other leading Nationalists then found the Irish Volunteers in November 1913 in retaliation. Both sides smuggled arms into the country, but the Ulster Volunteer force was able to exploit an old statute which allowed citizens to drill and train with weapons so long as it was in the expressed defence of the monarchy. The Irish Volunteers, on the other hand, had no such luxury and any weapons they imported, such as at the Howth gun running, were strictly illegal. The Civil War that many predicted however didn't happen, largely because of the advent of World War I in 1914, which caused hundreds of thousands of Unionists and Nationalists to go and fight for Britain. This also stalled John Redmonds third Home Rule Bill from progressing into law until the end of the war.

The Easter Rising of 1916 however ensured that Home Rule would not be enough for the now radicalised Irish population, as many Irish Catholics now regarded complete independance as being the only viable result of any dealing with Britain. At the height of the Irish War of Independance the British parliament passed the Government of Ireland act, 1920 which officially partitioned the island into Southern Ireland (Eire) and Northern Ireland. The war continued on nonetheless, and the rebels largely ignored the act as being unimportant to their war effort. The ensuing years saw the beginning of the Irish Troubles a conflict that had its roots in the pre-World War II era but is considered to have lasted from 1969-1998.

Ulster Unionist political theory

Ulster Unionism as an ideology or political theory possesses three archs - Political, economic and religious.

Political

Contemporary caricature of an Irishman, a great source of ridicule for Unionists

One of the key arguments made by Ulster Unionists is that they are citizens of the United Kingdom and that they share a British or Ulster-Scots identity. Scotland is within visual distance all along the Northern Ireland coastline and some of the islands are only a few kilometres away from the Irish mainland. They relate their identity with the United Kingdom and the British monarchy the same way that Irish nationalists and Republicans relate their identity with an independant, sovreign republic. They also feared that their rights as a people would be under-represented in a majority Catholic parliament.

Economic

North east Ireland was traditionally the most industrialised area of Ireland. Most of the island escaped the industrial revolution and employed an agrarian economy based largely on large landholders (usually British in ethnicity) and poor peasants who rented farmland from landlords. Belfast was a major centre of the textile and shipbuilding industries, with Harland and Wolff employing many thousands in the shipyards. This argument was further reinforced with the advent of the Welfare State in Britain following World War II, with Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants receiving much superior benefits than their southern conterparts.

Southern Ireland has however exploded in the last two decades with the Celtic Tiger economy, and now is more developed than the North and the Unionist economic argument has stagnated.

Religious

Many Unionists fear a Roman Catholic majority legislating against Protestant interests in a united Republic. They summed this up with the old adage; 'Home Rule is Rome Rule'. As the South gained its independance it quickly legislated accordingly, introducing contraceptive bans, illegalising divorce and recognised the Catholic Church in a special position in its 1937 constitution. They also feared the widespread dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in Irish society and the political power it possessed. For example, the Mother and Child scheme was discontinued in the 1950s largely at the behest of the Church's protests. The Irish Republic has however gradually become more secular in recent years, with contraception and Divorce now legalised. Religion has begun to play a much lesser role in people's lives, as the number of nominal Catholics prove.

Modern Ulster Unionism

Modern day Ulster Unionism has reached a consensus favouring dialogue and peace with Republicans. Many of Northern Irelands most famous Unionists, such as Ian Paisley have advocated negotiations with Sinn Fein. In a recent Assembly election, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein agreed to go into government together, with Ian Paisley as first minister and Martin Mc Guinness, a former IRA bomber who served at her majestys pleasure in a British jail as the Deputy Minister. The Cabinet is a mixed Republican/Unionist one.

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The First Minister and Deputy Minister answering questions together

In the runup to the 2007 Assembly elections, both parties campaigned on issues such as water charges and business development, issues that could appeal to both sides of the community. Sectarianism and partisan politics, usually a frequent occurance in a Northern Irish election were minimised and in some case avoided. Since the IRA had decommissioned her weapons years earlier and Sinn Fein had recognised the PSNI, the Democratic Unionist Party reluctantly agreed to consider going into government with Sinn Fein, who won a considerably large minority in the election.

The early months of the government has seen frequent shows of unity between First Minister Paisley and Deputy First Minister Mc Guiness. Both men have appeared at many sites and places and are trying to rebuild Northern Ireland following generations of sectarian warfare. Parallels to this have been drawn with the South African Peace and reconciliation tribunals following the end of Apartheid.

List of Unionist Political and social organisations

• Democratic Unionist Party
• Ulster Unionist Party
• Progressive Unionist Party
• United Kingdom Unionist Party
• Orange Order
• Grand Black Lodge Orange Order

Bibliography

• Martin Mc Guinness's 'reformation'
• The Northern Ireland Assembly
• Mitchel, Patrick; Evangelicalism and National Identity in Ulster, 1921-1998
• Bew, Paul; Ideology and the Irish Question: Ulster Unionism and Irish Nationalism 1912-1916
• Hostettler, John; Sir Edward Carson: A Dream Too Far