Meticulously Crafted Ambiguities
The Confused Political Vision of Ulster Vanguard
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6074161 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Garry Watson (Queen's University Belfast, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 536-562 |
| Publication date | 2013-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Irish Political Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0790-7184 • E-ISSN: 1743-9078 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/07907184.2012.726986 |
| OpenAlex | W2058319266 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 6 |
In his insightful ‘intellectual history’ of the modern Irish troubles, Richard Bourke, reflecting upon the fated implosion of William Craig's Vanguard Unionist Party, identified a set of ‘meticulously crafted ambiguities’ (Bourke (2003 Bourke, R. (2003) Peace in Ireland: The War of Ideas (London: Random House). [Google Scholar]) Peace in Ireland: The War of Ideas, p. 227 (London: Random House)) as crucial factors in that movement's abortive attempt to capture the political soul of Protestant Ulster. Through a close reading of Vanguard's ideological development, from its origins as a Unionist ‘ginger group’ through to its marginalisation from the authoritative centre of Unionist politics in September 1975, this essay sets out to recover a sense of that internal dissonance which, from the movement's inception in February 1972, threatened to undermine the cohesion of the Vanguard project. Though it was to be Craig's inability to reconcile a majority of his party's elite to the idea of Nationalist participation in government that would prove decisive in precipitating his political downfall, as this article will attempt to demonstrate, a conspicuous failure to address these so-called ‘meticulously crafted ambiguities’ and resolve the numerous internal contradictions of Vanguard's ‘post-Unionist’ ideology tended to underscore the improbability of its acting as a unifying locus for the realignment of populist forces within contemporary Unionism
Ancient history · Elite · Ideology · Irish · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vanguard · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |