Ulster Unionist Political Thought in the Era of the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968–1998
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9739372 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Corthorn (Queen's University Belfast, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 137 |
| Issue | 589 |
| Pages | 1760-1791 |
| Publication date | 2022-12-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The English Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ehr/cead005 |
| OpenAlex | W4362597362 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 16 |
This article examines Ulster Unionist political thought, in its widest sense, against the backdrop of the Northern Ireland Troubles. During this period, Ulster Unionists sought to resist nationalist and republican arguments for the unification of Ireland and to articulate their position to supporters and wider audiences. As Direct Rule from London followed the suspension of the unionist-dominated Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont in 1972 and its abolition the following year, internal unionist debate intensified over the constitutional future of Northern Ireland. Defining Ulster Unionism broadly, at a time when its organisational forms were proliferating, the article considers the Ulster Unionist Party and its offshoot Vanguard, as well as the Democratic Unionist Party and the paramilitary organisations, the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association, and their affiliated political bodies. The article analyses, in turn, the four competing unionist visions of the future: a return to majority-rule devolution; independence; closer integration with Great Britain; and power-sharing devolution. Not attempting a detailed consideration of the policy proposals, the article instead explores the connections forged between Ulster Unionist political ideas, some of them of long pedigree, and wider debates. It shows that, at a time of considerable change for the United Kingdom, Ulster Unionist argument reflected—much more than is currently understood, and sometimes in a pronounced form—a wide range of interconnected contemporary British disputes. These not only concerned the constitution, nationality and sovereignty, but also permissiveness, political parties, decline, the end of empire, Thatcherism and European integration
Constitution · Devolution (biology · Exceptionalism · Home rule · Nationalism · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Referendum · Sociology · Sovereignty · Vanguard · History · Irish and British Studies · Law
Ulster Unionism and Loyalty to the Crown of the United Kingdom, 1912–74
Ulster and the British Problem
No solution
State of the Union
The golden age of economic growth in Western Europe, 1950-1973
Ever Reliable Friends
The Edge of the Union
Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Devolution, 1945–1979
The Democratic Unionist Party
Losing the peace
Two traditions in unionist political culture
Conservative dissidents and the Irish question
Ulster unionist political divisions in the late twentieth century
An Experiment in Constructive Unionism
Languages of Conflict and the Northern Ireland Troubles
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |