The Northern Irish Parties: the Background

Abstract

Constitutionally, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. Yet the politics of the province have been different in some fundamental ways from British politics; so, traditionally, has been its two-party system. Historically, the parties did not share a basic loyalty to the state itself; on the contrary, their main division was over whether the Northern Ireland regime should exist at all. The Unionists stoutly defended the Border and the British link: the Nationalists demanded Irish unification. Secondly, the electorate was divided on religious rather than class lines — most Protestants voted for the Unionist Party, most Catholics for the Nationalist Party. Thirdly, stability did not result from competitiveness or the alternation of parties in government. Such stability — or stagnation — as existed resulted from the fact that the Protestants were in a permanent two-thirds majority. Fourthly, the parties did not see themselves as national groups competing for the ‘middle-ground’ vote among all sections of the population. Parties stood for one religious community, made no attempt to win votes from the other, and had little faith that such an attempt would succeed. There was no ‘middle-ground’ to appeal to anyway — what little existed voted for third parties, such as the Northern Ireland Labour Party.