Unionists (Ireland)

In the context of Irish politics, Unionists are people in Northern Ireland, who wish to see the continuation of the 1801 Act of Union, as amended by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, under which Northern Ireland, created in that latter Act, remains part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Unionists are mostly, but not exclusively, from Protestant backgrounds in terms of religion. In the context of Irish history, the term refers to those who opposed home rule for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Partition

The creation of the Unionist-dominated Northern Ireland 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, Derry, 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

Related Topics:
Irish Free State - Antrim - Derry - Down - Armagh - Fermanagh - Tyrone - Donegal - Monaghan - Cavan - Ulster - B-Specials

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Some unionists in the south simply adapted and began to associate themselves with the new southern Irish regime of William T. Cosgrave and Cumann na nGaedhael. On January 19th 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, where the Earl of Dunraven became speaker or Cathaoirleach (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). The single Ulster Protestant in the current Dáil is a member of Fine Gael. 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. (A new Irish Unionist Alliance in addition to the Reform Movement emerged in the late 1990s in the Republic of Ireland, but as yet they have no political representation.)

Related Topics:
William T. Cosgrave - Cumann na nGaedhael - Irish Free State - TDs - Fine Gael - 1920s - 1932 - Ulster - Protestant - Dáil - Rathmines - Irish Unionist Alliance - Reform Movement - Republic of Ireland

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However, 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 Church of Rome. This decree contributed greatly to the religious divide in Ireland, and is still in force. 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. A disingenuous tactic used by the British in the Anglo-Irish conflict was to draw attention to the religion of IRA victims if they were Protestant, and to play it down if they were Catholic. This was a crude but effective device, used to great effect in the press in Ireland and Britain, to portray the IRA as sectarian. In reality, the IRA killed anyone they believed was aiding the Crown forces, regardless of religion, and had many Protestant volunteers. In Castlederg in Tyrone, Protestants outnumbered Catholics in the local IRA at the time.

Related Topics:
Irish Free State - Republic of Ireland - IRA - Anglo-Irish War - Republicans - World War I - Flanders - Somme - Ne Temere - Pope Pius X - Rome - Sectarian - Tyrone - Protestants - Catholics

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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 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.)

Related Topics:
1870s - 1900s - Church of Ireland - Tithe - Methodist

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However, little evidence of widespread discrimination against Protestants in the Irish Free State/Éire exists. The first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde (1938–45), and the fourth, Erskine Hamilton Childers (1973-74), belonged to the Church of Ireland. Mary Robinson, the seventh had both Catholic and Protestant branches in her family and was married to a Protestant. 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.

Related Topics:
Éire - President of Ireland - Douglas Hyde - 1938 - 45 - Erskine Hamilton Childers - Church of Ireland - Mary Robinson - Trinity College Dublin - Council of State

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In contrast, anti-Catholic discrimination was widespread and actively encouraged at the highest level of government in Northern Ireland, even though Sir Edward Carson (now raised to the peerage as Lord 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. (Craig openly encouraged discrimination against Catholics.) Boundaries demarcated electorates in such a way as to produce Protestant majorities in areas that would otherwise, by a fair drawing of boundaries, have produced nationalist councillors. Decades later, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, openly described the Northern Ireland of most of the twentieth century as a 'cold house of Catholics', a process he said the Belfast Agreement must change. Many unionist leaders, particularly in the DUP, continue to deny that discrimination ever took place.

Related Topics:
Edward Carson - Sir James Craig - Ulster Unionist Party - David Trimble - Belfast Agreement - DUP

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By the 1960s, belated attempts by a moderate new Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill to create equality created a backlash led by fundamentalist Protestant preacher and politician, the Rev. Ian Paisley. Nationalists launched a Civil Rights movement under John Hume, Austin Currie and Ivan Cooper. A collapse in government control, the controversial killing of 13 unarmed civilians by the British army Parachute Regiment in Derry/Londonderry on Bloody Sunday (30 January, 1972) and the emergence of the Provisional IRA, alongside Protestant paramilitary groups like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force, led to the suspension, then abolition, of the unionist-dominated Stormont parliament and government (1972). After two decades of brutal killing by paramilitary groups on both sides of the political divide in Northern Ireland and the police and British army, a ceasefire and inter-community negotiations produced the Belfast Agreement (also known as the "Good Friday Agreement"), which attempted with mixed success to produce a power-sharing government for Northern Ireland, to which both the unionist and nationalist communities could give allegiance.

Related Topics:
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland - Terence O'Neill - Fundamentalist - Rev. Ian Paisley - Civil Rights - John Hume - Austin Currie - Ivan Cooper - British army - Parachute Regiment - Bloody Sunday - 30 January - 1972 - Provisional IRA - Ulster Defence Association - Ulster Volunteer Force - Stormont parliament - Police - Belfast Agreement

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While some commentators regularly use the religious terms 'Catholic' and 'Protestant' as interchangeable with 'nationalist' and 'unionist' in Northern Ireland, some differences do exist between them. Not all Catholics support nationalist causes, for example. The Ulster Unionist Party has Catholic members; one of its most respected MLAs (Member of the power-sharing Legislative Assembly) is Catholic. Many Catholics served in the former and current Northern Ireland police forces, the Royal Irish Constabulary and in the British army, although at no time did any of these organisations enjoy widespread support among Ulster Catholics. The Catholics who joined were often unionist, as all of these organisations opposed republicanism, sometimes violently. This put these people at odds with sentiment in their communities. One of the strangest events in Northern Ireland is that the anti-Catholic right-wing Protestant leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the Rev. Ian Paisley, attracts some Catholic votes in his constituency in elections to the British and European Parliaments (he serves in both). That may be a personal quirk, due to his reputation as a good constituency MP who will help anyone, irrespective of their religion. In contrast his party, the DUP, has never had any Catholic members.

Related Topics:
Ulster Unionist Party - MLA - Former - Current - Royal Irish Constabulary - British army - Democratic Unionist Party - DUP

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The mildly nationalist SDLP, on the other hand, has often attracted sympathetic Protestants and had them elected. Sinn Féin has also had some Protestant members and elected officials, more often in the Republic. However it highlights the sheer nature of the complexity of Northern Ireland politics, and of the dangers of drawing simplistic 'Catholic = nationalist' 'Protestant = unionist' definitions in trying to understand Northern Ireland politics.

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Today, except for the minuscule Irish Unionist Alliance founded in the 1990s, southern Irish Unionism no longer exists as a political movement. Northern Ireland has a large number of unionist parties. The largest is now the right-wing Democratic Unionist Party led by the Rev. Ian Paisley, MP.

Related Topics:
Irish Unionist Alliance - 1990s - Democratic Unionist Party - Ian Paisley

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When Northern Ireland was formed in 1921, Protestants dominated the state. Recent census data shows that Protestants now account for less than half the population of Northern Ireland for the first time, with Catholics only a few per cent less. (Though few abroad realise it, Northern Ireland has citizens who are neither Catholic or Protestant. The third biggest group, interestingly, are the Chinese, and the province also has a small but long-standing Jewish community, with significant numbers of Hindus and Muslims of Indian and Pakistani birth or descent as well.)

Related Topics:
Chinese - Jewish - Hindus - Muslims - India - Pakistan

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This does not mean that nationalists and unionists have equal numbers; some suggest that up to one fifth of Protestants harbour sympathies towards nationalism (even if they still vote for the mainstream Unionist parties or the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland), while as many as one-third of Catholics could be called 'soft unionists' (i.e., if given a choice and guarantees against discrimination, they'd prefer Northern Ireland to remain in the United Kingdom rather than join with the Republic of Ireland, though they may vote for nationalist parties like the Social Democratic and Labour Party or the middle-of-the road Alliance Party.) Furthermore, a strong decline in the Catholic birthrate (through smaller family size, use of contraception or abortion, etc.) 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. These young people are more likely to remain in the lands of their ancestors (England and Scotland) than nationalists. How these changes will affect the long-term number of Protestants and Catholics remains currently impossible to assess. Furthermore, until the issue is put to the test in a vote, it remains impossible to calculate with certainty how many Protestants in reality endorse nationalism and how many Catholics in reality endorse unionism (see Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland).

Related Topics:
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland - Social Democratic and Labour Party - England - Scotland - Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland

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One final historical point of interest: 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.

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