The Modernisation of Unionism, 1892–1914?

Abstract

The roots of Irish Unionism are long. Countering O’Connell in 1834, C. D. O. Jephson declared, ‘we are all divided now into Repealers and unionists’.¹ Parliament agreed, and for the next fifty years approved of the Union as both an essential imperial defence and as an umpire between the Irish parties. However, the organisation of various Unionist bodies between 1884 and 1886 represented a new situation. A Liberal government at Westminster threatened to pass a bill granting self-government to Ireland. Unionists believed this threatened a Catholic Nationalist hegemony in all aspects of Irish society. Thus, a myriad of anti-Nationalist factions were brought together. Protestant class and denominational differences were subsumed by a simple desire to preserve the Union with Great Britain and, as a result, Protestant security.