Ulster Unionist Research Articles

A fresh start? The Northern Ireland Assembly election 2016

ABSTRACTAs voters across Northern Ireland went to the polls on 5 May 2016, it was by no means obvious that they were participating in a landmark election. The preceding campaign was largely lacklustre, voters were left uninspired, and competition for votes was primarily conducted along predictable ethno-national lines. The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin retained their positions as the dominant unionist and nationalist parties respectively, while the Ulster Unionist Party and Social Democratic and Labour Party struggled to retain their existing support, let alone expand it. The cross-community Alliance Party remained stagnant in fifth place. However, these ostensive signs of continuity with previous elections mask deeper signs of substantive change. The establishment of Northern Ireland’s first official opposition within current structures and the publication of a draft Programme for Government framework within a month of the election are indicative of a new era in consociational power sharing. Meanwhile, the growth in support for smaller parties, a further fall in voter turnout and an audible debate around social issues suggest at least a partial decline in the salience of the ethno-national dimension in the electoral arena.

Partition, postal services and Ulster unionist politics 1921–27

This article examines the origins and development of the notion of an “all-red” mail route policy in Northern Ireland in the years 1921–27 and what it reveals about the fractious nature of Ulster Unionism, its attitude to partition, and the construction of a separate Ulster identity. It explores the effects of partition on the notions of space and identity in Ireland, as well as how it affected the notion of a state under siege. Drawing on the largely untapped material in the British Postal Museum Archives, cabinet papers, parliamentary debates and local and national newspapers, it aims to contribute to current historiography of Northern Ireland and Ulster unionism in the 1920s by looking at the ways local and sectional interests affected official policy, its attitudes to the Irish Free State and partition, and the more tangential debate concerning both unionist and nationalist perceptions of Northern Ireland's identity. Finally, it examines the role of post and communications in and its relation to state building in Ireland during this transitional period which has hitherto largely been ignored in Irish history.

The Ulster Crisis in Transnational Perspective: Ulster Unionism and America, 1912–14

The Ulster Crisis in Transnational Perspective:Ulster Unionism and America, 1912–14 Lindsey Flewelling (bio) “The Ulster breed has never known defeat,” proclaimed Andrew Long Horner, Member of Parliament for South Tyrone, at the second reading of the Home Rule bill in 1912. He expounded: We are scoffed at as a minority. We admit inferiority in numbers, but nothing else. In a miserable minority in former times, we yet changed the dynasty of this country. In a miserable minority our race played the most conspicuous part against the mad legislation of the British government that led to the foundation of the American republic. Take care where this mad legislation of yours today will lead you. We have done more as pioneers and colonists than any part of the United Kingdom. Do you think the men who are of our blood and race, controlling, as they do, the greatest interests in our colonies, will stand by and see you coerce us, your oldest colony, by force to leave the shelter of the imperial parliament and accept the government of men whose whole careers have been abuse and hatred of us and you?1 Through examples of historical and colonial influence Horner emphasized the power of the Ulster “race,” which he portrayed as “plain, blunt, practical people” responsible for the material welfare and industry of Ireland. He drew on their connections to the American colonial and revolutionary periods. Like the American colonists in the lead-up to the War of Independence, Horner asserted that the Ulster people faced “mad legislation” and coercion from the British government. The Home Rule legislation, forced upon Ulster, was a betrayal by the British—an instance of the British turning their most loyal subjects over to the domination of men who had abused and hated them. [End Page 118] In his speech Horner described the “secret, bitterly sectarian,” American-dominated Ancient Order of Hibernians as poised to rule in a new Irish parliament, imperiling the civil and religious liberties of Protestants and ravaging commerce and industry in Ireland. He emphasized the themes of liberty, coercion, betrayal, dangers from Irish nationalists, and the loyalty of Ulster unionists in order to lend legitimacy to his threats of violence and defiance of the British government policy of Home Rule. He avowed that people of Ulster descent abroad would come to the aid of unionists if called upon and would join in war with those already actively participating in armed drills. “We have close to 200,000 men enrolled in our unionist clubs,” he asserted. “Ordinary drilling is actively carrying on. … In two years’ time a passive resistance movement can readily be transformed to an active one, and this is your message of peace. I tell you it is a declaration of war.”2 From the time of Horner’s speech in 1912 to the passage of Home Rule in 1914, Ulster unionists’ threats of militancy intensified, pushing the United Kingdom to the brink of civil war. The crisis unfolded on the ground in Ulster with volunteers drilling and amassing arms in anticipation of defiance of Home Rule’s implementation. As Patricia Jalland, Gary Peatling, and others have shown, the crisis also played out in the high political realm, with the Liberals under the leadership of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith attempting to navigate a path to defuse the opposition of Edward Carson and the Ulster unionists while maintaining the support of John Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP).3 British unionists, under the leadership of Andrew Bonar Law, threw their support behind the Ulstermen, [End Page 119] endorsing their threats of militancy and attempting to use the issue of Irish Home Rule to unite the Tory factions and return the party to office.4 In the sphere of popular politics Daniel Jackson has highlighted the ways in which unionist leaders orchestrated anti–Home Rule agitation so as to achieve high levels of support from the British public, particularly by drawing upon religious sentiments and British imperial patriotism.5 Ulster unionists were also attuned to the potential of support from the dominions, surrounded as they were by images of empire in every aspect of their daily lives in...

Activism and the Academy in Ireland: A Bridge for Social Justice

This article is concerned with the working relationships between progressive academics, students, left activists, and trade unionists in Ireland, and with the apparent division between theory-led and action-led perspectives. We reflect on our efforts to draw progressive forces in Ireland together through a number of initiatives: reading groups, conferences, educational seminars, workshops, the publication of a quarterly paper, and the organization of precarious workers in higher education. We argue that although activism and academia are sometimes treated as separate spheres, there are spaces for academia in activism and for activism in academia. Finding and filling those spaces means resisting efforts to limit academia to interpreting the world, and finding ways to demonstrate the emancipatory potential of education among activists whose time is taken up with struggling against immediate structural inequalities and attempting to mobilize people into a political force. We argue that scholar-activists should play an important role helping to assemble the collective resources of the working class, as well as organising for longer-term social transformation. We call on scholar-activists to collaborate in constructing a counter-hegemonic narrative and developing a collective strategy for social justice.

Austerity and consociational government in Northern Ireland

This article examines the institutional crisis of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2015 as a case study on the impact of austerity on multiculturalism in Ireland. I make a case for viewing the Assembly as a multicultural institution through pointing to the historical role of community relations policy, which was directed at reconciling “sectarian” Irish nationalists and Ulster unionists. It did so through shifting from an understanding of the conflict as one based on the struggle for Irish national self-determination to one based on conflicting identities. I argue that Sinn Féin’s embracing of multiculturalism is a product of its accommodation to British rule in Ireland. Sinn Féin has made a virtue out of its political volte-face by becoming the strongest advocate of ethnic Irish nationalism in Northern Ireland. The ethnic power politics of Sinn Féin has found its unionist equivalent in the political manoeuvrings of the Democratic Unionist Party. Austerity measures imposed by the Westminster government have created problems for the parties in the power-sharing Assembly, problems that threaten the collapse of the Assembly. It is because of, rather than in spite of, the multicultural mechanisms embedded in the Assembly that the institution has got to crisis point. This is an institutional crisis, not a crisis of multiculturalism.

Irish language education and the national ideal: the dynamics of nationalism inNorthernIreland

AbstractSince the beginning of theNorthernIreland conflict in the late 1960s,Irish nationalism has been identified as a prominent force in the political culture of the state. Recent studies have suggested, however, that the ‘Nationalist’ population has become increasingly content within the new political framework created by the peace process and the aspiration for Irish unity diminished. In placing theNorthernIreland situation within the theoretical framework of nationalism, this paper will analyse how these changing priorities have been possible. Through an analysis ofIrish language study inNorthernIreland's schools, the paper will examine how the political ideals espoused by the nationalistSinnFéin Party reflected the priorities of the ‘nationalist community’. It will be contended that the relationship between the ideology and ‘the people’ is much more complex than is often allowed for and that educational inequalities are a significant contributing factor to this.

Northern Ireland: Devolution as an Electoral Issue in the 2015 UK General Election

The 2015 General Election in Northern Ireland was set in the particular context of the Stormont House Agreement, which was reached on December 23, 2014, in a renewed attempt to make devolution in Northern Ireland, as defined in the 1998 “Good Friday” Agreement, operate more smoothly. On top of tackling the inescapable issues of finance and welfare in a still sluggish post-financial crisis economic context, the Stormont House Agreement indeed addressed several dividing issues, such as flags, identity, culture and tradition, dealing with the past and institutional reform. This article analyzes the stands taken during the electoral campaign by the five main parties in Northern Ireland (the Democratic Unionist Party, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social and Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Féin and the Alliance Party) on the various issues raised in the Stormont House Agreement, underlining their convergences and divergences. It also briefly looks at the results and challenges ahead, in the particular context of the so called “post-conflict” Northern Ireland.

Not quite as British as Finchley: the failed attempt to bring British Conservatism to Northern Ireland

In a previous issue of Irish Studies Review I examined the unanticipated emergence in the late 1980s of a series of Conservative associations in Northern Ireland. In this follow-up article, I will seek to account for the subsequent swift and ignominious decline in the early 1990s of the Northern Irish Conservatives. While the fortunes of the Ulster Tories were undermined by a number of contingencies – the vagaries of parliamentary arithmetic and their own lack of political judgement foremost among them – their fate was sealed primarily by certain rather more structural concerns. In particular, the rapid decline of the Conservative associations in Northern Ireland owes its origins to the historically “loveless marriage” between Ulster unionists and the British state. The unionist community simply refused to vote in meaningful numbers for a political party at the centre of a Westminster establishment deemed hostile to the cause of the Union. In addition, the Conservative hierarchy would inevitably prove unwilling to nurture their own party associations in Northern Ireland as this “integrationist” project ran precisely counter to their own longstanding political ambitions for the region. This conflict of interests and intentions would in short order ensure the demise in all but name of the Northern Irish Conservatives. There can be few more dramatic illustrations of the mutual distrust that conjoins Ulster unionists and the British state than the string of lost deposits incurred by Conservative candidates running for office in Northern Ireland.

Another Communal Headcount: The Election in Northern Ireland

The Westminster election in Northern Ireland attracted more interest beyond the region than is normally the case. This was not because of healthy new attention being paid to the polity's regular communal (to critics, sectarian) bloc headcount. Rather, it was because the contest's outcome might influence the formation of a minority government at Westminster. This possibility was actively discussed even into election night results programmes, after the exit poll predicted the Conservatives to fall just short of an overall majority, with 316 seats. As that seat tally rose, Northern Ireland's election slid back to its default positions of obscurity and parochial communalism. Religious community background remained easily the most important voting determinant. Unionist electoral pacts in four constituencies heightened the prevailing sense of a traditional Orange versus Green contest, one in which the Alliance Party, aligned to neither bloc, lost its solitary representative. Turnout was a very modest 58%, well below the UK average. Only Sinn Fein, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Alliance contested all 18 constituencies. Nonetheless, the contest was not entirely bereft of interest. There were significant arguments over a disparate array of topics ranging from welfare reform to that of same-sex marriage, still banned in Northern Ireland. Four seats changed hands and the once-dominant Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) recovered some recent lost ground to regain Westminster representation.

Plus Ça Change: The 2014 Local Elections in Northern Ireland

The local government elections of 22 May 2014 in Northern Ireland were the first to be held under revised district boundaries, with 11 ‘super councils’ replacing the 26-council model used since 1973. Despite the structural reform, little changed in terms of political party support. Although they suffered some losses, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin remained firmly entrenched as the two dominant players at local government level in Northern Ireland. The Ulster Unionist Party enjoyed only a marginal increase in its vote share, while the Social Democratic and Labour Party recorded one of the worst electoral performances in its history. Elsewhere, the Traditional Unionist Voice enjoyed a ‘breakthrough’ election and the Alliance Party defied widely held predictions that it would suffer at the polls as a result of its role in the Union flag crisis. The campaign was overshadowed by both the concurrent European Parliament contest and several crises of power-sharing at Stormont. As a result, distinctly local government issues received scant and fleeting attention. The contest saw the lowest local election turnout in Northern Ireland's history, continuing a general trend of increasing voter apathy in the province.

Work-Related Stress Experiences of Academics in the Institutes of Technology Sector Ireland

This study reports on research undertaken by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland which explored the levels of work-related stress experienced by members working in the institute of technology sector. The study utilised an online survey instrument which measured seven recognised Stressors developed by the Health & Safety Executive and included a section on distinct factors relevant to the institutes of technology sector. Over 1,100 members responded to the survey, representing a response rate of 30%. Respondents reported risk levels for work-related stress with the different Stressors as: High Risk for ‘Change,’ ‘Demand’ and ‘Managers’ support,’ Medium Risk for ‘Control’ and Low Risk for ‘Role,’ Relationships’ and ‘Peer support.’ In terms of third level factors, the high level of risk was associated with the following factors: ‘Flex hours,’ ‘Consultation,’ ‘Increased student numbers’ and ‘Reduced funding.’ The results clearly associate increased levels of risk of work-related stress in circumstances of poor consultation, lack of engagement with staff, excessive workload, demanding task with unrealistic deadlines and lack of support provided by management. Low risk levels are associated with peer support and relationships. The social dynamic between colleagues seems to assist in the alleviation of the risk. It would seem from the results and the general research into work-related stress, developing positive working environments and work cultures can greatly assist in the reduction of the associated risk levels. This study is the preliminary phase of a campaign on work-related stress seeking to inform members, advise branches and seek employers to fulfil their obligations. The survey results will be used as baseline data for comparative analysis with further annual survey results to ascertain whether risk levels have changed in the intervening periods. The results will be used to inform members, employers and other agencies of the levels of work-related stress experienced by members in their sector and individual workplaces.

The Northern Ireland government and the welfare state, 1942–8: the case of health provision

Abstract Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom’s only self-governing region, recorded year-on- year the worst statistics on health and poverty. However, it was far from certain that the Unionist government in Belfast would enact the kind of sweeping post-war reform that occurred in England and Wales. The raft of legislation governing health and social care introduced in 1948 was, therefore, the product of conditions and circumstances peculiar to Northern Ireland. The government in Belfast needed to overcome the conservative instincts of Ulster Unionism as well as suspicions regarding Clement Attlee’s Labour administration. Although the process was somewhat blighted by sectarianism, the government of Sir Basil Brooke enacted what amounted to a revolution in health and social care provision.

The Conservative Party and Ulster Unionism: A Case of Elective Affinity

This article engages with the perennial matter of the relationship between ideas and interests in British party politics, in particular that relationship within Conservative and Unionist politics. After a preliminary consideration of the contemporary understanding of ideology as complex and fluid rather than fixed and settled, the article examines a way of capturing paradoxical aspects of ideological thinking—that it is self-chosen or the result of a changing perspective and yet also apparently natural or in Conservative terms, ‘common sense’. It does so by exploring the intellectual lineage of ‘elective affinity’ and assesses its value for understanding how political identities not only endure but also how those identities change. An attempt is made to give some substance to that understanding by viewing through that lens of elective affinity the association between Conservatives and Ulster Unionists in its historical, ideological and institutional contexts.

‘The shouts of vanished crowds’: Literacy, Orality, and Popular Politics in the Campaign to Repeal the Act of Union in Ireland, 1840–48

The movement to repeal the Act of Union that gathered steam in Ireland in the 1840s relied on the creation of a politicized reading public in a society in which a majority of the population was illiterate, and newspapers were expensive to purchase. This article seeks to examine the manner in which nationalist activists of the pre-Famine period relied on a developing and vibrant literary culture, which interacted on a day-to-day basis through the dissemination of newspapers in dedicated reading rooms in an increasingly literate and anglicized society. It seeks to draw attention to the interaction of literacy and orality, and the reliance of both the Loyal National Repeal Association and ‘Young Ireland’ on both a democratization of communication, and the establishment of ‘Repeal reading rooms’, which, it argues, were as close to a nationwide network of constitutional nationalist organizational infrastructure as had yet existed in Ireland.

‘The right flower to stick to’: the Unionist Party's questionable choice in 1959

In 1959 the Ulster Unionist Party (U.U.P.) abandoned the idea that relations between the government in Belfast and the two main parties in Westminster should be maintained with a semblance of impartiality. Hitherto, although the Unionist M.P.s at Westminster had taken the Conservative whip, overt criticism of Labour had remained comparatively muted, if only to ensure that those with socialist sympathies would remain under the Unionist umbrella rather than defect to the Northern Ireland Labour Party (N.I.L.P.). In the run-up to the 1959 Westminster general election, however, the U.U.P. not only made offers of unconditional support to the Conservatives, but accompanied them with disparagement of Labour policies and objectives. The logic of that choice was not only contrary to the experience of inter-governmental relations with London since 1945, it also carried a high risk at a time when key areas of the Northern Ireland economy were becoming dependent on support from the British government, and a Conservative victory in the election was by no means certain. It therefore raised the inter-related questions of whether relations with the Labour party had been so toxic, and whether the attitude of the Conservatives, who had been in government in Westminster for most of the decade, had been so benevolent as to justify abandoning the approach which formerly had prevailed. Support for the Conservatives was the U.U.P. default setting, but unless carefully managed, that support carried with it the danger of alienating the Labour party which, given the rotation of power at Westminster, was bound someday to form the government with which Northern Ireland ministers would have to work.

The Irish Parliamentary Party and the third home rule crisis

But for the 1916 Rising, self-governing Ireland’s founding political generation would have been drawn not from Sinn Fein and the IRA, but from among the ranks of John Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party. This book makes the imaginative leap back to the time of the Third Home Rule Bill, arguing that the outlook of Irish Nationalist MPs was conditioned by their belief that George V would shortly be opening the Dublin parliament in College Green, thereby heralding the creation of so-called 'promised land'. From this perspective, far from being politically enervated or on the back foot, the Redmondites fought tooth and nail for self-government at Westminster, while in Ireland they went toe-to-toe with their critics, whether they were Sinn Feiners, Gaelic Leaguers, O’Brienites, Larkinists, Ulster Unionists or Irish separatists.

“For a colleen's complexion”: soap and the politicization of a brand personality, 1888-1916

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine how the “colleen” archetype was used in the creation of a successful brand personality for a range of soap manufactured in Ireland during the early twentieth century. It reveals the commercial and political agendas behind this move and the colleen's later application to Ulster unionist graphic propaganda against Home Rule between 1914 and 1916. Design/methodology/approach – This case study is based on an analysis of primary and secondary sources; the former encompassing both graphic advertising material and ephemera. Findings – This paper demonstrates how contemporary pictorial advertising for colleen soap was suffused with text and imagery propounding Ulster's preservation within the UK. It also suggests that the popularity of this brand personality may have been a factor in the colleen's appropriation for propaganda purposes by certain strands within Ulster unionism. Originality/value – This paper is based on original research that expands the historical corpus of Irish visual representation, while also adding notably to discourses within the History of Marketing and Women's History.

John Bew. Castlereagh: A Life.

Viscount Castlereagh stood at the center of the most momentous events in Irish, British, European, and world history during the Age of Revolutions, the Napoleonic Wars, and their aftermath. He was the engineer of the Irish union with Britain in 1801. As war secretary and foreign secretary, he implemented William Pitt the Younger's strategic plans, and then became the architect—along with Prince Klemens von Metternich—of a peace settlement that lasted for a century and marked the beginning of the end of the Atlantic slave trade. His career has deservedly received much attention from scholars, and his reputation as a skilled politician and masterful statesman is secure. It is hard to see what John Bew has added to our understanding of Castlereagh's career that was not already addressed by previous biographers. The best of these, John Derry (Castlereagh [1976]) and Wendy Hinde (Castlereagh [1981]), have covered the ground skillfully and judiciously. Nor does Bew seriously challenge or overturn the celebrated work by Charles Webster (The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1812–1815 [1931]) or Henry Kissinger (A World Restored [1954]) on Castlereagh's foreign policy. We learn more about the statesman's intellectual hinterland here, and the Irish elements of his character are sketched in more fully. But these gains hardly justify nearly six hundred pages. Bew's assertion that there are still those who see Castlereagh as a knee-jerk reactionary (as many of his contemporary opponents did) is unsubstantiated. Castlereagh has always been regarded by historians as an opponent of Tsar Alexander I's delusional aspirations, and it is well understood that he was a voice for moderation and maintaining the balance of power in European politics in the years after Waterloo. It is, perhaps, worth reminding us about Castlereagh's support for Catholic emancipation and his opposition to slavery, but these positions are generally known.

Dindsenchas, Mr Deasy, and the nightmare of partition in Ulysses

In creating the character of Garrett Deasy, James Joyce exploits the significance of his surname in the dindsenchas tradition, unknown to Deasy himself, if not to Stephen Dedalus. Drawing on the divergent meanings of Déisi according to James Henthorn Todd, Marie-Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville and Whitley Stokes, Joyce comments obliquely on Deasy's provenance and politics. Deasy is not an Ulsterman or necessarily an Orangeman, as commonly assumed, but typical of Dublin's unionist bourgeoisie, and representative of an older, Tory tradition of southern unionism, growing progressively more enervated. By contrast, Stephen's internal monologue, allied to Deasy's treatment in ‘Circe’, point to the increasingly militant, separatist direction of Ulster unionism leading up to the Great War and partition. Although Deasy is not anti-Catholic, he is anti-Semitic, but due to his ignorance of the meaning of his name, he fails to see the implicit irony in his loathing of Jews as a subject, fugitive, wandering people.

<em>Dindsenchas</em>, Mr Deasy, and the nightmare of partition in <em>Ulysses</em>

<em>Dindsenchas</em>, Mr Deasy, and the nightmare of partition in <em>Ulysses</em>