Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, 1920-1932: A Comparative Study
problematic, reflecting the fact that the religious minority were thought
valuable rather than burdensome, and that nationalist political dissenters
were, in reality, culturally indistinguishable. The Irish Free State’s retention of proportional representation and Northern Ireland’s adoption of
first-past-the-post illustrates the contrasting political outlook between the
two States in terms of tolerating minority political involvement (Kissane
2011: 73). The entrenched intransigence of grassroots Ulster unionism
and the sheer size of the religious minority (by implication branded a
political threat) in Northern Ireland prevented even the most tentative
attempt at assimilation (Buckland 2001: 219). Consequently, the policies of the Northern Ireland Parliament differed in tone from that of the
Oireachtas as they were implemented not with future rapprochement in
mind, but to consolidate the hegemony of the ruling political party and
of unionist governance in Northern Ireland. Nevertheless the difference
between unionism and nationalism in the 1920s, in a governmental sense
at least, was more style than substance.
Bibliography
Bielenberg, A. (2013) ‘Exodus: the emigration of Southern Irish Protestants during the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War’ Past and
Present 218(1): 199-233.
Brown, T. (1981) Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922-1985.
London: Fontana Press.
Buckland, P. (2001) ‘A Protestant State: Unionists in Government, 192139’ in Boyce, D.G. and O’Day, A. (eds.) Defenders of the Union. London: Routledge, 211-226.
Farrell, M. (1980) Northern Ireland: the Orange State. London: Pluto
Press.
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