North Of Ireland Research Articles

Contemporary Anti-Colonial Self-Determination Claims and the Decolonisation of International Law

The most prominent engagement of self-determination was in the decolonisation era, when the right facilitated the emergence to independence of formerly colonised ‘peoples’. The newly decolonised states met the ‘salt-water’ test of colonialism. Some contemporary commentators argue that self-determination’s mission of decolonisation is now complete. Self-determination is less frequently asserted today; however, contemporary ‘hard cases’ remain. Some of these cases involve peoples who can demonstrate a continuing colonial experience. For varying reasons, these claimants do not pass the ‘salt-water’ colonial test, and their claims have not adequately been addressed by the international community. Instead, claimant groups are abandoned to the political whims of their administering states. This article examines the significance of the colonial experience for two contemporary claimant peoples; Indigenous peoples in Australia and Irish nationalists in the North of Ireland. Data gathered through qualitative research interviews, and analysed according to a grounded theory approach, demonstrate that the self-determination claims of these peoples are stifled by the denial of their contemporary colonial experiences. The current failure of international law to consider these claims through a colonial lens is inhibitive of creative self-determination solutions in multi-ethnic states. Self-determination, as a universal human right, retains the potential to meet the needs of these contemporary, anti-colonial claimants. In this article, I demonstrate how international legal approaches to self-determination may be decolonised in order to facilitate the full and fair evaluation of contemporary anti-colonial claims.

Confessionalization and Clan Cohesion: Ireland’s Contribution to Scottish Catholic Renewal in the Seventeenth Century

The story of the relationship between Ulster and Scotland during the seventeenth century has long been dominated by the flow of people and ideas from Scotland to the north of Ireland. This, however, belies the prominent role that Ireland had in the social and cultural history of the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland during that century. This paper argues that of even greater importance to the resurgence of Catholicism in the ScottishGaidhealtachdthan a Rome driven Counter-Reformation were the financial support and personnel provided by Ulster Catholics. In the face of aggressive Stuart policies, Catholicism was rejuvenated and became an ideological justification for asserting traditional rights in the face of government sanctioned, Protestant blessed, incursions in the Western Isles. Moreover, in the face of historiography that has argued for the continual disintegration of ClanDonald throughout the seventeenth century, this article explores the ways the clans and their neighbours inspired, funded and facilitated the revival of Catholicism in theGaidhealtachd.

Incremental Cholecalciferol Supplementation up to 15 μg/d Throughout Winter at 51–55° N Has No Effect on Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Risk in Healthy Young and Older Adults1–5

Two separate, identical, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled intervention studies were carried out in the south and north of Ireland (51–55°N). Men and women aged 20–40 y (n = 202) and ≥64 y (n = 192) received cholecalciferol at doses of 0 (P), 5 (D3–5), 10 (D3–10), or 15 (D3–15) μg/d (0–600 IU) during wintertime. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [s25(OH)D], intact parathyroid hormone, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting lipids, glucose and insulin, HOMA-IR, high-sensitivity CRP, matrix metalloproteinase-9, and its inhibitor (tissue inhibitor metalloproteinase-1) were measured at baseline (October) and 22 wk later at endpoint (March). Vitamin D receptor Fok I and Taq I genotypes were analyzed and dietary intakes of vitamin D and calcium were assessed. In young adults, s25(OH)D decreased from baseline to endpoint (P < 0.001), except in the D3–15 group, who maintained the baseline concentration of ~70 nmol/L. Older adults had lower s25(OH)D at baseline (median, 54.2 nmol/L) and concentrations increased in the D3–10 and D3–15 groups (P < 0.001). There were no significant effects of supplementation on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk biomarkers in either age group. Fasting glucose and total and HDL cholesterol were lower (P < 0.05) in older adults with the Fok 1 ff genotype than in those with FF or Ff. Putative effects of vitamin D on cardio-metabolic health will only be evident at higher intakes than the current RDA and possibly in individuals at particular risk of low s25(OH)D and/or CVD risk.

Soil erosion on agricultural land in the north of Ireland: past, present and future potential

Abstract Soil erosion in Ireland is a considerable environmental problem with respect to the ‘off-site’ transport of sediment and pollutants out of fields and into nearby water courses and the neighbouring environment. This paper examines this important issue by presenting evidence for past and present-day soil erosion in Ireland through the use of secondary documentary and primary observational evidence. An original modelling-based study is also conducted at six locations across the north of Ireland in order to project future soil erosion rates for Ireland under a changing environment. Results reveal that numerous incidences of soil erosion occur across Ireland in the present day, and that past erosion was more widespread due to increased cultivation to support a growing pre-famine population. Projected rates of soil erosion under the impacts of future climate change reveal the potential for increased erosion and indicate that off-site impacts associated with declining water quality and ‘muddy flooding’ of infrastructure and property may become more widespread in the future. This illuminates the need to begin monitoring the problem in the present day in order to better manage a problem projected to escalate in the coming decades.

The Ulster Revival of 1859: Causes, Controversies and Consequences

The Protestant portion of the population of the north of Ireland experienced an extraordinary outburst of religious fervour in 1859. This article provides a critical overview of some of the interpretations of the revival offered by scholars and suggests a number of hitherto ignored themes under three headings: causes, controversies and consequences. The first section moves beyond questions of social and economic determinism to outline the sense of expectancy for revival that was created through the Evangelical reform movement amongst Presbyterians in the north of Ireland. The second considers the controversies of the revival, especially the various physical phenomena that accompanied some conversions, and the Evangelical critique of the revival offered by William McIlwaine and Isaac Nelson. The final section shows how the revival consolidated religious identities in Ulster and contributed to obscuring the dominance of conservative Evangelicalism within the Presbyterian Church.

Submarine geomorphology and glacial history of the Sea of the Hebrides, UK

The Sea of the Hebrides is an island-studded region of complex bathymetry on the UK continental shelf, west of the Scottish mainland. An extensive area (2200km2) of recently collected multibeam bathymetry data, combined with seismic reflection profiles reveal this part of the shelf to have been extensively modified by both glacial and modern processes. Our new geomorphological evidence strongly supports the contention that an ice stream drained ice from western Scotland and the Inner Hebrides towards the Barra Fan at the continental shelf break at the height of the last glaciation (Marine Isotope Stage 2–3). Convergent seabed glacial lineations and other subglacially streamlined features eroded in bedrock around the Islands of Canna and Rum preserve the direction of ice sheet movement, and strongly suggest the onset of ice streaming in a southwesterly direction on the continental shelf in the Sea of the Hebrides region. This fast-flow zone formed part of a larger convergent ice stream system draining much of western Scotland and the north of Ireland — the southern part of which has been postulated already. A number of rock basins, linear troughs and deeps west and south of Muck, kept sediment-free by the dominant modern tidal regime, are interpreted as being at least partly subglacial in origin. Similarly, a large complex of buried deeps between Eigg and Arisaig are interpreted as an overdeepened glacial drainage network. It is suggested that intense bedrock erosion by focused subglacial abrasion and subglacial meltwater discharge over multiple glacial advance and decay cycles led to significant modifications of the pre-Quaternary bedrock surface. Other features such as moraines are only found in shallower water (typically <50m), west of Canna, west of Rum and south of Skye. Their relative paucity indicates that the modern tidally dominated environment of the area may have removed much of the localised geomorphological evidence of offshore glacial limits within the Sea of the Hebrides, or alternatively that the ice sheet margin was floating and retreated predominantly by calving leaving little geomorphological evidence of its retreat.

The Big House in the North of Ireland: Land, Power and Social Elites, 1878–1960 (review)

Reviewed by: The Big House in the North of Ireland: Land, Power and Social Elites, 1878–1960 Mary McCulley The Big House in the North of Ireland: Land, Power and Social Elites, 1878–1960, by Olwen Purdue, pp. 297. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2009. $105 (cloth) $50; (paper). Distributed by Dufour Editions, Chester Springs, PA. Olwen Purdue’s The Big House in the North of Ireland: Land, Power, and Social Elites, 1878–1960 adds to the ongoing recent critical work that has begun to uncover differences (though sometimes subtle ones) between the Six Counties and the rest of Ireland. Purdue seeks to rectify a historical perspective that fails to distinguish the extent of devastation to the homes of the Ascendancy between most of Ireland and the large estates in northeast Ireland, which have for the most part been ignored in previous studies of the Big Houses as exceptions to the story. The book does not construct a divergent history of the decline of the landed elite in Northern Ireland; in fact, much of Purdue’s research supports the conclusion that the Northern experience was a pattern of decline parallel to that occurring elsewhere in Ireland. But Purdue does argue, with attentive use of primary sources, for a more sympathetic view of the northeastern landlords. Her research undoes a sweeping vilification of Irish landlords, traditionally seen as powerful absentees who mismanaged their estates, and describes Ulster landlords as determined, noble survivors. Each chapter traces one major force in the economic and political decline of the Irish landed elite, including the Land Acts, the tenant rights movement, the government’s purchase of lands, the struggles against Home Rule, and the rise of a mercantile middle class. In the North, however, many of the landowners managed to retain their estates through 1960. The northeastern landlords faced the same political and economic turmoil that affected their counterparts elsewhere; Purdue attributes their prolonged survival to several factors. She argues first, that in the northeast the landed class and the rising middle class tended to be linked by shared Protestant and Unionist sympathies, which enabled the landlords to keep much of their prestige and social influence even as their economic and political influence dwindled. She also notes that many of the land owners of large estates were successful because of careful management and creative economic ventures, including mining and sea exploits. The upper class’s insistence on maintaining an active social life, and on preserving key places in the political [End Page 152] and social organization, helped the landlords to save their name and prestige—even as the demands of survival forced them to sell off more and more of their belongings and to change their lifestyles drastically. If Purdue’s project is in part to rescue those residents of the North’s Big Houses from a large-scale demonization of landlords, then Chapter Five is the most successful in accomplishing this goal. There, Purdue introduces the most human of her arguments as she tells the story of one “determined survivor,” Lady Mabel Annesley, who inherited her property and retained the estate through economic decline, a commitment stemming from a clear emotional attachment. Purdue details her fiery determination in excerpts from letters and journals in which Lady Annesley discusses in detail how she altered her routines and habits, including the symbolically charged measure of eating only potatoes for supper—a measure that might have been more than familiar for her tenants, but which to Annesley appeared draconian. Purdue employs extensive and detailed charts and figures throughout the book to set up, objectively, the difference in the extent of decline between the northeastern landlords and the rest of Ireland. But the appeal of the book lies in the small anecdotes from letters and journals which offer insight into both the mindset and the rhetoric of the upper class. Purdue’s project might well spawn feminist rhetorical recovery, as she documents the ways in which women were involved in social activities and organizations. These activities played a large part in sustaining the resilience of the upper class’s symbolic prestige, enabling them to foster the respect of the rising mercantile class in the midst of economic downfall...

The Big House in the North of Ireland: Land, Power and Social Elites, 1878-1960, by Olwen Purdue

The Big House in the North of Ireland: Land, Power and Social Elites, 1878-1960, by Olwen Purdue

The Hekla 1947 tephra in the north of Ireland: regional distribution, concentration and geochemistry

AbstractA cryptotephra layer from the eruption of Hekla in 1947 has recently been discovered in Irish peatlands. This tephra layer represents the most recent deposition of volcanic ash in the UK prior to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. Here we examine the concentration and geochemistry of the Hekla 1947 tephra in 14 peat profiles from across Northern Ireland. Electron probe microanalysis of individual tephra shards (n = 91) reveals that the tephra is of dacitic–andesitic geochemistry and is highly similar to the Hekla 1510 tephra, although spheroidal carbonaceous particle profiles can be used for successful discrimination of the two layers. The highest concentrations of Hekla 1947 are found in western sites, probably reflecting the pathway of the ash fall event due to the prevailing wind direction. Comparable tephra concentrations from two cores (1 km apart) from a single bog and from nearby sites may suggest that tephra shard concentrations in peat profiles reflect ash fallout densities across a specific region, rather than site‐specific factors associated with peatlands. This paper firmly establishes Hekla 1947 as a useful chronostratigraphic marker for the twentieth century, although within a restricted zone. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Rights, responsibilities and equity in land use planning

Planning is about places, real and particular places; and Belfast - the venue for the 2012 conference of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights (IAPLR) - is a very special place. That is why this report begins with the sub-plot of this conference: Northern Ireland is emerging out of the terrible years of the troubles and inter-sectarian violence, and its people are proudly building rules, practices and bonds - including new planning laws and local government reform - in order to create a society which does not tear itself to pieces.This sub-plot shed a warm glow over the rather wet and grey centre of Belfast and over the conference itself, shaping its common, plenary, parts. The conference was organised by the School of the Built Environment, University of Ulster and they gave it the locally very appropriate theme 'Rights, responsibilities and equity in land use planning'. The meetings took place in the very smart Europa Hotel (the most bombed hotel in Europe!), a reception was held and dinner served in the magnificent and bombastic City Hall, and a second reception and guided tour were given in the grand and formidable Stormont parliamentary buildings.To those of us with chilling memories of bomb scares and - worse - explosions, it was not necessary to make that sub-plot explicit; others, however, might have found it more difficult to understand some of the plenary sessions. Peter Roberts (University of Leeds) gave a presentation - 'Big government in hard times' - about the distribution of government powers between central government, local government and communities. Remember that much of the government of Northern Ireland, including town and country planning, had been exercised by London since 1972, because Britain could not trust the public bodies in Northern Ireland to do that impartially. Now, those powers are back with the Northern Ireland Assembly, but not yet with the local authorities.Jenny Pyper, Deputy Secretary in the NI Department of Social Development, talked about urban regeneration and the spatial dimension of social services. Politicians must learn to take responsibility and to adopt shared agendas, she said. That statement is born out of much suffering and injustice. Richard Barnett, vice-chancellor of the University of Ulster, talked of the plans for a new campus, to the north of the city centre, not separated from the local (deprived) community and encouraging access to all. Cathal Boylan, member of the Legislative Assembly and from Sinn Fein, talked to us of the inter-party cooperation on planning and environmental issues and on local government reform. He refers to Northern Ireland, expressly, as 'the north of Ireland', but works with everyone who wants to improve conditions in that province.Even the guides who showed us round the City Hall and Stormont presented - lively, witty and informative, in the best Irish fashion - the same message: 'we are going forward, constructively and inclusively'. My taxi driver said that it was good that such international conferences could once again be held in Belfast. However, even though Belfast and Northern Ireland are moving forward, local particularity is never far away. Diana Fitzsimons (Turley Associates), who during the opening reception talked us through the ambitious plans for Titanic Quarter, emphasised that the local council was aiming for an area that is not only mixed-use but also mixed-population. Where in other places this would imply a social-economic or ethnic mix, here - and strikingly for the visitors - it meant a mix of Protestants and Catholics, of Loyalists/ Unionists and Republicans/Nationalists. We learned also that history is not only a burden, something to be borne in mind and acted upon continuously; it can also be a source of irony and laughter. We were assured by more than one person that the Titanic was OK when it leftBelfast. Or as someone said: 'it was built by the Irish and sunk by the English'. …

Alan F. Parkinson and Éamon Phoenix, eds. Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900–2000. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010. Pp. 288. €50.00 (cloth).

Alan F. Parkinson and Éamon Phoenix, eds. Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900–2000. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010. Pp. 288. €50.00 (cloth).

The Dilemma of Democracy: Collusion and the State of Exception

In what sense might the authoritarian practices and suspension of legal norms as means to combat the supposed threat of “terrorism,” within and by contemporary western democratic states, be understood as a problem of and not for democracy? That question lies at the heart of this article. It will be explored through the theoretical frame offered in the work of Giorgio Agamben on the state of exception and the example of British state collusion in non-state violence in the North of Ireland. The North of Ireland provides a particularly illuminating case study to explore how the state of exception—the suspension of law and of legal norms and the exercise of arbitrary decision—has increasingly become a paradigm of contemporary governance. In so doing it brings into question not only the traditional conceptualization of the “democratic dilemma” of liberal democratic states “confronting terrorism” but also challenge dominant paradigms of transitional justice that generally fail to problematize the liberal democratic order. After outlining Agamben’s understanding of the state of exception the article will chart the development of “exceptional measures” and the creation of a permanent state of emergency in the North, before critically exploring the role of collusion as an aspect of counter-insurgency during the recent conflict. The paper will argue that the normalization of exceptional measures, combined with the need to delimit the explicitness of constitutional provision for the same, provided a context for the emergence of collusion as a paradigm case for the increasing replication of colonial practices into the core activity of the contemporary democratic state.

Conflicts in the North of Ireland 1900-2000: Flashpoints and Fracture Zones. Edited by Alan F. Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix.

Conflicts in the North of Ireland 1900-2000: Flashpoints and Fracture Zones. Edited by Alan F. Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix.

Regional climate change from peat stratigraphy for the mid- to late Holocene in central Ireland

At the millennial scale bog surface wetness (BSW) records show a clear Holocene climate event stratigraphy, with major phases comparable with other regional climate proxies such as chironomid inferred temperature records. Moving towards the centennial scale, however, and towards the limits of chronological certainty within the records, regional differences are apparent which likely reflect the more heterogeneous precipitation patterns which occur on shorter timescales. The BSW data presented in this paper are reconstructed from testate amoebae assemblages from central Ireland and are compared with other regional records. The results suggest that this region is in phase with the North of Ireland in terms of timings and durations of climate change, but the comparisons are less clear with a stacked and tuned record from Northern Britain that shows an apparent offset compared to the Irish records. This may reflect variations in past regional precipitation or be a function of the tuning and stacking process. The broad phases of comparison between the Irish records, and the extension of the central Irish record back to 6000 cal BP, allow comparisons with low frequency temperature reconstructions from chironomids, which also show a broad level of correlation, with cooler temperatures relating to wetter BSW at centennial to millennial timescales.

Economic modelling of an integrated grazed and conserved perennial ryegrass forage production system

AbstractThe Grange Feed Costing Model was modified to simulate the economic implications of grassland management strategies for a grass‐based suckler beef calf‐to‐weanling system at the whole‐farm level. The modified model enabled costing of annual grass consumed as grazed grass and silage when the farm grazing and conservation areas are integrated. Grass growth data from sites in the south, east and north of Ireland were used. Sixty‐three scenarios were simulated, enabling analysis of site, stocking rate and silage strategy effects on total annual feed cost for the grass forage production system. Total annual feed cost (of grazed grass and grass silage) ranged from €96 to €111 per 1000 UFL (Unité Fourragère Lait) and €411 to €456 per beef cow unit (CU). The silage strategy with respect to the number of harvests and whether the silage area was grazed in the spring had negligible impact on annual total feed cost per CU. However, a tendency towards reduced annual feed cost under a two harvest, relative to a one harvest, silage strategy was observed. The lowest cost stocking rate was 2 CU ha−1. Site‐specific differences such as seasonal growth distribution and nitrogen fertilizer response rate had the greatest influence on the annual cost of the grass‐based feeding system.

Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900–2000: Flashpoints and Fracture Zones. Edited by Alan F. Parkinson and Éamon Phoenix. Pp x, 277. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2010. €50.

Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900–2000: Flashpoints and Fracture Zones. Edited by Alan F. Parkinson and Éamon Phoenix. Pp x, 277. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2010. €50.

Initial studies on the occurrence of cyanobacteria and microcystins in Irish lakes

We report the results of a synoptic survey at 14 sites across the north of Ireland undertaken to determine the occurrence of cyanobacteria and their constituent microcystin cyanotoxins. Seven microcystin toxins were tested for, and five of which were found, with MC-LR, MC-RR, and MC-YR being the most prevalent. Gomphosphaeria spp and Microcystis aeruginosa were the most dominant cyanobacterial species encountered. Together with Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, these were the cyanobacteria associated with the highest microcystin concentrations. The occurrence of several microcystin toxins indicates that there may potentially be more than one cyanobacteria species producing microcystins at many sites. Total microcystin concentrations varied over three orders of magnitude dividing the sites into two groups of high (>1000 ngMC/μgChla, six sites) or low toxicity (<200 ngMC/μgChla, eight sites).

Territoriality and Order in the North of Ireland

This article draws on the recent academic literature on territoriality and power to analyse territorial strategies for the maintenance of public order in the north of Ireland. It argues that these strategies were shaped decisively by the distinctive relationship between the informal internal ethnonational boundaries that were a central focus of Frank Wright's work and the external boundary of the Northern Ireland state. As a consequence, the ‘internal’ issue of policing was immediately and inextricably bound up with the outer boundary of the state, even at the level of everyday policing practices. It traces the way in which the state in Northern Ireland adopted particular territorial strategies to secure the external border and adapt to internal territorial unevenness from the outset. It argues that order was necessarily maintained through a limited recognition of the distinctive ethnonational character of particular areas within the state, and by distinctive territorial strategies for the maintenance of order in such areas. Internal unevenness in sovereign control strictly limited the possibilities for internal territorial homogenisation and hindered the related naturalisation of the external boundary and the state itself.

Grammatical variation in Irish English

Irish English (IrE) was initially learned as a second language as a result of the successive colonizations of Ireland by speakers of English and Scots dialects that began in the Middle Ages and reached a peak during what is termed ‘The Plantation Period’ of Irish history. The scheme persuaded English and Scottish settlers to colonize the island of Ireland, hailing from urban centres like London as well as more rural areas like Norfolk and Galloway. This intensive colonization process created the possibility that a novel type of English could emerge. This new variety is characterized by: (i) innovative forms; (ii) the incorporation of features drawn from Irish, the indigenous language prior to colonization, and (iii) other characteristics caused by the mixing of Irish with the regional Scots and English vernaculars of the new settlers. Interestingly (and not uncommonly when migratory movements of these kinds arise), modern varieties of IrE still retain this mixed heritage. Moreover, the colonization is preserved culturally – particularly in the north of Ireland – by ethnic divisions between the descendants of the migrant and indigenous populations. Thus, Catholics, who reflect the latter group, celebrate events like ‘St Patrick's Day’ while their Protestant neighbours commemorate ‘The Glorious Twelfth’ each July, celebrating the day in 1690 when King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne ensured the ultimate success of the Plantation scheme in which their forefathers participated. The linguistic consequences of this contact permeate all aspects of the speech used within these communities (accent, grammar and vocabulary). Moreover, some of the grammatical features that are the focus of this article have travelled to regions that have been intensively settled by Irish migrants. Hence, these features also have important implications for the study of transported dialects, which has recently become very topical and is the focus of a new strand of research in English variation studies typified by the publication of Hickey (ed. 2004).

Revising Robert Burns and Ulster: Literature, Religion and Politics, c. 1770-1920 (review)

Reviewed by: Revising Robert Burns and Ulster: Literature, Religion and Politics, c. 1770-1920 Barry Sloan (bio) Revising Robert Burns and Ulster: Literature, Religion and Politics, c. 1770-1920, edited by Frank Ferguson and Andrew R. Holmes; pp. 198. Dublin and Portland: Four Courts Press, 2009, £45.00, $65.00. This volume, published to coincide with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Robert Burns's birth, contributes to the exploration of one aspect of what the historian Roy Foster called "varieties of Irishness" in his Cultural Traditions in Northern Ireland (1989). It focuses on the literary and cultural interaction between writers in Scotland and the north of Ireland, particularly those of Protestant stock, in which Burns occupies a place of signal importance because his poetry enjoyed unique popularity in Ulster in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is therefore "used as a symbol of the larger relationship in the north of Ireland to Scottishness and Scottish culture before, during and after his lifetime," and the aim of the contributors is to re-evaluate "how Burns was imagined" by northern Irish writers, and "to explore the more general inflection of Scottish themes in an Ulster context and the permeation of Scottish culture into Ireland" (11). The principal Irish writers upon whom Burns's influence has customarily been regarded as greatest include the rhyming weaver poets of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as James Campbell and James Orr, and the schoolmaster Samuel Thomson, whose work initially received critical attention in John Hewitt's Rhyming Weavers and Other Country Poets of Antrim and Down (1974). In probing the nature of this influence, John Erskine recalls the long history of cultural and [End Page 736] intellectual links that already existed between Scotland and Ulster before the time of Burns: generations of candidates for the Presbyterian ministry were trained in the University of Glasgow; the works of Scottish writers were often published in Ulster; and Scotland gave points of reference to a Hiberno-Scots community in Ulster which did not easily align itself culturally, religiously, or politically with either Dublin or London. Burns achieved particular popularity because many of his Ulster readers identified with his rural background, his social origins, and his use of a recognisable vernacular language. It is, however, both an error and an oversimplification, Erskine argues, to regard the Ulster vernacular poets who published after Burns as mere imitators or bardolaters. Aligning himself with critics such as Linde Lunney and Liam McIlvanney, he proposes that Burns was important to the Ulster poets as a fellow writer and as an inspirational example of the potential of vernacular rural verse. Oversimplification has also characterised the view commonly taken of Presbyterian culture and its relevance to the principal rhyming weaver poets; Andrew Holmes provides a welcome corrective to this in his discussion of "Presbyterian Religion, Poetry and Politics in Ulster, c. 1770-1850." While acknowledging the contribution of Hewitt, Ivan Herbison, and others in restoring Ulster vernacular poetry to the cultural history of the period, he questions the extent to which their emphasis on the influence of religion as "a means of reaffirming community, providing a source and discourse for political ideas, or alleviating stress in a changing society" underestimates "the sincere piety of the politically uninterested or the conservative theology and politics of others" (45, 46). Holmes develops two important lines of enquiry in support of his point. First, he demonstrates that vernacular poetry was not the exclusive preserve of writers who favoured New Light theology and political radicalism, such as Orr and Campbell, but was also written by conservatives in religion and politics, such as Francis Boyle. Likewise, in the political sphere, he locates the ideals of James Hope, one of the leaders of the '98, in his father's "ultra-orthodox Covenanter" faith and his exposure to "the influence of conservative Reformed theology" as well as "the priorities of the Enlightenment" (49). Such differing responses both reflect the divisions within contemporary Presbyterianism itself and point to "a complex religious culture in which religious principle and political outlook could be combined in a variety of ways" (54). By extension, they also show the value of a more sophisticated...