Ulster Liberalism, 1778–1876

In attempting to resolve the conflict that had long troubled people in Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 recognised the ‘diversity of their identities and traditions’, but adopted a reductive interpretation of this diversity by institutionalising a ‘parity of esteem between the two main communities’. The overarching model of ‘two traditions’, an emergent Catholic-nationalism confronting an entrenched Protestant-unionism, has come under increasing criticism by historians for its disregard of a varied range of alternative identities and political affiliations, as well as its inability to account for the many subtle interactions that have taken place between communities over time. In contrast to the standard binary dichotomy, Gerald Hall offers a detailed study of Ulster liberalism, which he labels ‘The Middle Path’. Although the term ‘liberal’ began appearing prevalently in political discourse around 1825, Hall begins his survey with an exploration of liberalism avant la lettre in the late eighteenth century. He argues that ‘nascent liberals’ (not just local exponents of Whiggism) can be found among the Volunteers, who paraded in uniform in the 1770s and early 1780s and demanded legislative reforms. Their rhetoric, notable for its ‘concern for the ideals of private conscience and rationality and its relationship with community and nation’ (p. 27), bears the influence of the Scottish Enlightenment, in particular the ideas of the philosopher John Millar. These intellectual currents were channelled through pamphlets authored by local commentators, such as the Letters of Owen Roe O’Nial (1779) by Joseph Pollock, a captain in the first Volunteer company of Newry. In this analysis, Ulster liberalism emerged in the aftermath of the failed 1798 rebellion out of a coalescence of Whigs, Presbyterian covenanters and former civic republicans. The latter, who included such luminaries as the poet William Drennan, were distinguished from revolutionary republicans, who mostly emigrated to the United States, by their embracing of evolutionary constitutional reform and their reconciliation with the newly established union between Britain and Ireland. However, support of the union would be a bone of contention with liberal supporters of Daniel O’Connell’s repeal campaign

Criticism · Enlightenment · Liberalism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Rhetoric · Sociology · Theology · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies