Nationalism and Sectarian Violence in Liverpool and Belfast, 1880s–1920s

Abstract

AbstractThis article focuses upon the local cultures of Liverpool and Belfast, two cities wracked by recurrent communal sectarian strife. My analysis contributes to a growing appreciation of the locality and region as sites of accommodation, negotiation, and resistance to “nationalizing forces.” I argue that in Liverpool secularization and democratization contributed to local Tory Democracy's loss of control over popular sectarianism and to the subsequent development of a dynamic working-class movement that generated sustained Protestant-Catholic violence. In contrast, Ulster Unionism largely contained and controlled sectarian violence in Belfast. With the national threat of Irish Home Rule, the movement intervened, drawing Protestant working-class activity away from the street into “representative” structures, which were designed to harness and “police” popular sectarianism. Consequently, I examine whether the growing nationalization of British political culture from 1880 to the 1920s exacerbated or contributed to the resolution of entrenched sectarian strife within the two cities.