Ulster Unionism

Ulster Unionism as an ideology first found prominence as far back as the Ulster Plantation in the early seventeenth century when Scottish and some English colonists travelled to six counties in Ulster to set up communities, towns and farms. They mainly settled in Tyrone, Donegal, Armagh, Fermanagh, Derry and Cavan. The new colonists did not integrate into the indigenous culture like the previous wave of invaders had done and they left a legacy of loyalty to the crown in an otherwise rebellious island.

Origins

Around the time of the Home Rule Movement, Charles Stewart Parnell had organised his Home Rule party into a national force which swept through Ireland and even took a seat in Liverpool in the 1885 elections. The concerted aims of the Home Rule Party was a form of national self determination. The Home Rule movement wished to have an independant parliament capable of legislating for Irish interests, and although they had won the balance of power several times in the Liberal Parties British House of Commons, their Home Rule Bill never progressed further than the Conservative parties House of Lords.

Unionists throughout the country detested the thought of Irish Home Rule, considering it to be Rome Rule, as in, rule of the Catholic majority as well as worrying about economic costs. This all culminated in a series of rallies in Ulster which made the region much more volatile and eventually the formation of the Ulster Volunteer force in 1913. Eoin O' Neill then found the Irish Volunteers in 1913 in retaliation. Both sides smuggled arms into the country, but the Ulster Volunteer force was able to exploit an old statute which allowed citizens to drill and train with weapons so long as it was in the expressed defence of the monarchy. The Irish Volunteers, on the other hand, had no such luxury and any weapons they imported, such as at the Howth gun running, were strictly illegal. The Civil War that many predicted however didn't happen, largely because of the advent of World War I in 1914, which caused hundreds of thousands of Unionists and Nationalists to go and fight for Britain. This also stalled John Redmonds third Home Rule Bill from progressing into law until the end of the war.

The Easter Rising of 1916 however ensured that Home Rule would not be enough for the now radicalised Irish population, as many Irish Catholics now regarded complete independance as being the only viable result of any dealing with Britain. At the height of the Irish War of Independance the British parliament passed the Government of Ireland act, 1920 which officially partitioned the island into Southern Ireland (Eire) and Northern Ireland. The war continued on nonetheless, and the rebels largely ignored the act as being unimportant to their war effort. The ensuing years saw the beginning of the Irish Troubles a conflict that had its roots in the pre-World War II era but is considered to have lasted from 1969-1998.

Ideology of Ulster Unionism

Ulster Unionism as an ideology or political theory possesses three archs - Political, economic and religious.

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