 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ulster nationalism" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| This article is part ofa series within the Politics of the United Kingdom on the |
 |
|---|
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland |
Ulster nationalism is a minor school of thought in thepolitics of Northern Ireland that seeks the independence ofNorthern Ireland from theUnited Kingdom without joining theRepublic of Ireland, thereby becoming anindependentsovereign state separate from both.
Independence has been supported by groups such asUlster Third Way and some factions of theUlster Defence Association. However, it is a fringe view in Northern Ireland. It is neither supported by any of the political parties represented in theNorthern Ireland Assembly nor by thegovernment of the United Kingdom or thegovernment of the Republic of Ireland.
Although the termUlster traditionally refers to one of the four traditionalprovinces of Ireland which contains Northern Ireland as well as parts of the Republic of Ireland, the term is often used withinunionism andUlster loyalism (from which Ulster nationalism originated) to refer to Northern Ireland.
In November 1921, during negotiations for theAnglo-Irish Treaty, there was correspondence betweenDavid Lloyd George andSir James Craig, respective prime ministers of the UK and Northern Ireland. Lloyd George envisaged a choice for Northern Ireland between, on the one hand, remaining part of the UK under theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920, while what had beenSouthern Ireland became aDominion; and, on the other hand, becoming part of an all-Ireland Dominion where theStormont parliament was subordinate to a parliament in Dublin instead ofWestminster.[1] Craig responded that a third option would be for Northern Ireland to be a Dominion in parallel with Southern Ireland and the "Overseas Dominions", saying "while Northern Ireland would deplore any loosening of the tie between Great Britain and herself she would regard the loss of representation at Westminster as a less evil than inclusion in an all-Ireland Parliament".[2]
Ulster nationalism has its origins[disputed –discuss] in 1946 whenW. F. McCoy, a former cabinet minister in thegovernment of Northern Ireland,[citation needed] advocated this option.[3] He wanted Northern Ireland to become adominion with a political system similar toCanada,New Zealand,Australia and the thenUnion of South Africa, or theIrish Free State prior to 1937. McCoy, a lifelong member of theUlster Unionist Party, felt that the uncertain constitutional status of Northern Ireland made theUnion vulnerable and so saw his own form of limited Ulster nationalism as a way to safeguard Northern Ireland's relationship with the United Kingdom.
Some members of theUlster Vanguard movement, led byBill Craig, in the early 1970s published similar arguments, most notably ProfessorKennedy Lindsay. In the early 1970s, in the face of the British government prorogation of the government of Northern Ireland, Craig, Lindsay and others argued in favour of aunilateral declaration of independence (UDI) fromGreat Britain similar to that declared inRhodesia a few years previously. Lindsay later founded theBritish Ulster Dominion Party to this end but it faded into obscurity around 1979.
Whilst early versions of Ulster nationalism had been designed to safeguard the status of Northern Ireland, the movement saw something of a rebirth in the 1970s, particularly following the 1972 suspension of theParliament of Northern Ireland and the resulting political uncertainty in the region.Glenn Barr, aVanguard Unionist Progressive Party Assemblyman andUlster Defence Association leader, described himself in 1973 as "an Ulster nationalist". The successfulUlster Workers Council Strike in 1974 (which was directed by Barr) was later described by theSecretary of State for Northern IrelandMerlyn Rees as an "outbreak of Ulster nationalism". Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan also thought an independent Northern Ireland might be viable.
After the strike loyalism began to embrace Ulster nationalist ideas, with the UDA, in particular, advocating this position.[4] Firm proposals for an independentUlster were produced in 1976 by theUlster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee and in 1977 by the UDA'sNew Ulster Political Research Group. The NUPRG document,Beyond the Religious Divide, has been recently republished with a new introduction.John McMichael, as candidate for the UDA-linkedUlster Loyalist Democratic Party, campaigned for the1982 South Belfast by-election on the basis of negotiations towards independence. However, McMichael's poor showing of 576 votes saw the plans largely abandoned by the UDA soon after, although the policy was still considered by theUlster Democratic Party underRay Smallwoods. A short-livedUlster Independence Party also operated, although the assassination of its leader,John McKeague, in 1982 saw it largely disappear.
The idea enjoyed something of a renaissance in the aftermath of theAnglo-Irish Agreement, with theUlster Clubs amongst those to consider the notion.[5] After a series of public meetings, leading Ulster Clubs member, ReverendHugh Ross, set up theUlster Independence Committee in 1988, which soon re-emerged as theUlster Independence Movement advocating full independence of Northern Ireland from Britain. After a reasonable showing in the1990 Upper Bann by-election, the group stepped up its campaigning in the aftermath of theDowning Street Declaration and enjoyed a period of increased support immediately after theGood Friday Agreement (also absorbing theUlster Movement for Self-Determination, which desired all ofUlster as the basis for independence, along the way). No tangible electoral success was gained however, and the group was further damaged by allegations against Ross in aChannel 4 documentary on collusion,The Committee, leading to the group reconstituting as aginger group in 2000.
With the UIM defunct, Ulster nationalism was then represented by theUlster Third Way, which was involved in the publication of theUlster Nation, a journal of radical Ulster nationalism. Ulster Third Way, which registered as a political party in February 2001, was the Northern Ireland branch of the UK-wideThird Way, albeit with much stronger emphasis on the Northern Ireland question. Ulster Third Way contested theWest Belfast parliamentary seat in the2001 general election, although candidate and party leaderDavid Kerr failed to attract much support.
Northern Irish independence is still seen by some members of society as a way of moving forward in terms of the political crisis that continues to hauntNorthern Irish politics even today. Some economists and politicians see an independent state as viable but others[who?] believe that Northern Ireland would not survive unless it had the support of theUnited Kingdom or theRepublic of Ireland. Although it is not supported by a political party, around 533,085 declared in the 2011 census to beNorthern Irish. This identity does not mean they believe in independence, however in a poll based upon what the future policy forNorthern Ireland should be, 15% of the poll voters were in favour of Northern Irish independence.[citation needed]
Ulster nationalism represents a reaction from within unionism to the perceived uncertainty of the future of the Union by theBritish government.[6] Its leadership and members have all been unionists and have tended to react to what they viewed as crises surrounding the status of Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom, such as the moves towards power-sharing in the 1970s or theBelfast Agreement of 1998, which briefly saw the UIM become a minor force. In such instances it has been considered preferable by the supporters of this ideological movement to remove the British dimension either partially (Commonwealth realm status) or fully (independence) to avoid aunited Ireland.
However, whilst support for Ulster nationalism has tended to be reactive to political change, the theory also underlines the importance of Ulster cultural nationalism and the separate identity andculture of Ulster. As such, Ulster nationalist movements have been at the forefront of supporting theOrange Order and supporting contested12 July marches as important parts of this cultural heritage, as well as encouraging the retention of theUlster Scots dialects.
Outside traditional Protestant-focused Ulster nationalism, a non-sectarian independent Northern Ireland has sometimes been advocated as a solution to the conflict. Two notable proponents of this were the ScottishMarxistTom Nairn[7] and theIrish nationalistLiam de Paor.[8]
...It is possible to reconcile these conflicting aspirations [Unionist and Nationalist] through a compromise that would involve a new constitution for Northern Ireland: a devolution that would create a self-governing state...
Media related toUlster unionism at Wikimedia Commons| Organisations |  | |
|---|---|---|
| People | ||
| Related topics | ||
