The Conservative Right, Ulster Unionism, and the Partition of Ireland

Abstract

The partition of Ireland is often laid at the door of an unholy alliance of Ulster Unionists and right-wing Conservatives. It is undeniable that Conservatives, especially on the right of the party, were among the shrillest cheerleaders of Ulster Unionist militancy before the First World War. There were echoes of this in 1921, during the negotiations that culminated in the Anglo-Irish Treaty, when the ‘diehards’ marshalled opposition in the Conservative party to the coercion of the recently established government of Northern Ireland. And again in 1924, the diehards threatened to lead a revolt at Westminster in solidarity with the Ulster Unionists’ refusal to co-operate with the Boundary Commission. These examples present a compelling but incomplete picture. The Ulster Unionists and the Conservative Right were the products of different contexts and endowed with contrasting organisational forms and objectives. At specific moments and on specific issues the political interests of Ulster Unionists and the Conservative Right could align, but it was also possible that they could be pulled in two different directions. This chapter demonstrates that the most striking and sustained example of this was their parallel approaches to the policy of partition as it emerged and evolved between 1914 and 1925.