White, A. (2007) Is contemporary Ulster unionism in crisis? Changes in unionist identity during the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Irish Journal of Sociology, 16 (1), pp. 118-135

Irish Journal of Sociology, 1996

This paper attempts to analyse and understand loyalist reactions to the 'peace process' in Northern Ireland since the summer of 1994. It highlights the strategically insecure position of the Unionist community and the variety of attempts which have been produced from within this community to respond to a changing political context -albeit on the basis of a political philosophy not free from internal contradictions. These attempts are based on re-statements of Unionist fundamentals; while there are indications of new forms of self-questioning within the Unionist community, particularly in its working class, these are vulnerable to etoliation by the dominant Unionist discourse.

1990

This undergraduate independent study examined Unionist political reaction to developments of British Government policy towards Northern Ireland. Namely, Nationalist representatives achieved redress with the British Government, both directly and vis-a-vis the Irish Government, which should have compelled Unionists to pursue a more accommodationalist policy. Regardless, there was a paradoxical drive by integrationists in Northern Ireland for direct electoral candidacy by the Conservative Party in the regional constituency. This paper makes a defence in favour of this campaign, as a means of improving the accountability of British Government policy affecting those in its jurisdiction.

Irish Political Studies

"This paper examines the relationship between Ulster Loyalism, Ulster Unionism and the Irish state over a ten year period, with particular emphasis on the Irish Constitution and how prominently loyalists featured in the Irish government’s policy of all-Ireland unity and the end to partition by consent. This is extended to the ways in which the existence of Ulster Protestants and the expediency of conflict in the North forced Southern politicians, and in particular the Labour-Fine Gael Coalition which took office in 1973, to reconsider the partisan and unilateral political culture of the Irish state, which had hitherto excluded unionists and unionism. This lead to a re-examination of the Irish constitution and a scrutiny of how obliging the Irish state could be to the Northern majority and their fears adjoining unity, which sought to make unity by consent more improbable. Attention is also given to the Irish government’s interpretation of loyalism after the Ulster Workers’ Council strike and how loyalists featured in their emergency contingency planning. Central tenets of this argument are that the Coalition differed greatly in their benevolent approach towards unionism than the Fianna Fáil administrations it fell between and that loyalist resistance to Irish unity came mostly from the fear of it rendering Protestantism and Unionism defunct. Further, that while extensive treatment was undertaken to remedy Southern Ireland for Protestant inclusion, it failed to rectify what loyalists saw as the terminal article of Ireland; the authoritarianism of the Catholic Church and its assertive influence over public opinion. "

Eire-Ireland 39:1&2, 2004

Irish Studies in International Affairs, 2021

"This paper scrutinises the role of sectarianism in the development and expression of Ulster Unionism as a political ideology, especially in its pronouncements against all-Ireland unity, and how the prerogative of sectarianism was used by both the British and Irish Governments to dismiss and de-politicise Ulster Loyalism. The main subject of the paper is the transient concept of power-sharing, and whether Unionist objections to it were sectarian, intent on the continued suppression of Catholics, or political, galvanised by Catholics’ nationalism and the threat it posed to the dissolution of the Union, or at least Ulster’s ejection from it. Analysis is oriented on how the British and Irish governments de-politicised Ulster Loyalism and the U.W.C. strike of May 1974 by embellishing it as an embryonic form of fascism, unwilling to admit that they had grievously miscalculated the political prudency of the Sunningdale Agreement and the Council of Ireland. The question thus remains; if rejection of power-sharing was ideological, why was unity considered so ruinous for Unionism? How compelling is the Unionist explanation to this argument, that the South had developed into a monolithic and sectarian state which was itself inhospitable to the habits of Protestantism? Is sectarianism a useful term to help understand the ethos of the document which Unionists cited as a forceful impediment to Irish unity; the Irish Constitution of 1937? "

Unionisms and the challenges of change 1 Unionisms and the Challenges of Change. 1 1 Acknowledgements to Michael Keating and the participants at the panel on unionisms at PSAI meetings, Limerick, October 2018, and at CES meetings, Madrid, June 2018, and to Dawn Walsh, Michael Keating and John McGarry for very valuable comments. Unionisms and the challenges of change 2 Unionisms and the Challenges of Change.

Following the re-establishment of local governance institutions in 2007, the NI Executive and Westminster have collaborated in a hitherto unseen fashion, to promote the region as a site ripe for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The “silencing of the guns” invited a cacophony of corporate interests and tourist activity, whilst carving out a new space for the native middle classes to inhabit. Such groupings are associated with modernity, liberal democracy and cosmopolitanism and a distinct ‘post-conflict’ narrative for Northern Ireland. In order for these interests to be fruitfully accommodated, a Northern Ireland of ‘Northern Irishness’, not Britishness, must be forged/encouraged. This essentially neoliberal project understands Britishness as an ethnic, rather than civic, identity and seeks to limit the demonstrations of such an identity in the city centre, the gentrified hub of the successful post-conflict region. The low ‘return on investment’ offered by British Loyalism makes it an uncompetitive player and it is excluded as an agent of cultural, political and economic progress. The fundamental tensions produced by the misaligned agendas of British and Northern Irish identity architects represent a substantial threat to the peace process. This paper argues that attempts to transform Northern Ireland into an attractive site for FDI have led to the valorising and privileging of a neutral, ‘Northern Irish’ identity, at the expense of Britishness, and, to a lesser extent, Irishness. It does so via a critical analysis of the cultural-economic battlefield of the union flag protests from December 2012. The paper argues that establishing and maintaining NI as a successful international model of conflict transformation, policymakers must sideline troublesome cultural attachments, such as expressions of Britishness and loyalism, which are markers of the past.

2015

This article provides an overview and analysis of how unionism (the movement to remain within the United Kingdom) evolved between 1914 and 1932 in what would become the Republic of Ireland.