Loyalism in Transition: Southern Loyalists and the Irish Free State, 1921–37

Abstract

In 1995 the former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland wrote a book entitled A Precarious Belonging: Presbyterians and the Conflict in Ireland. John Dunlop’s primary intention was to provide information on the history and the culture of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, in order that the church’s current position on the situation in Northern Ireland and the political views of its members might be better understood. Attempting to explain why Ulster Presbyterians, and northern Protestants in general, are so resistant to the idea of a united Ireland, Dunlop examines Protestant fears that they would be ‘overwhelmed’ in a society where the majority of the population subscribed to a Gaelic, Catholic culture.