Protestant Irish nationalists

A Protestant Nationalist, in the context of the situation in Northern Ireland, is a Protestant supporter of a pro-Irish Nationalist political party, or simply one who would vote to reunify Ireland as a single, political nation state.

History

In Irish history, Protestants, as seems ironic to some, actually led the way for Irish nationalism. Protestants such as Wolfe Tone, Thomas Russell, Henry Joy McCracken and others led the United Irishmen movement. In fact, at its first meeting on October 14, 1791, all attendees, minus Tone and Russell (two Anglicans) were Presbyterians. Presbyterians, led by McCracken, James Napper Tandy and Neilson would later go on to lead Protestant and Catholic Irish rebels in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Tone would later go on to try to get French support for the rising.

Also it should be noted that at this time it was not nearly the movement of the liberal Protestant intellectual. The disarming of Ulster saw several hundred Protestants, tortured, murdered and imprisoned for their United Irish sympathies.

In 1803 there was another Irish rebellion. This time it was also led by a Protestant, Robert Emmett, brother to another United Irish Protestant. He was joined by other Protestants such as James Hope. He was later executed for his part in the rising.

Home Rule

One of the most famous Protestant nationalists was Charles Stewart Parnell founder of the Irish Parliamentary Party, whom Herbert Henry Asquith called one of the most important men of the nineteenth century and Lord Haldane called him the most powerful man that the United Kingdom Parliament had seen in 150 years. Parnell led the Gladstonian constitutionalist Home Rule movement and for a time dominated Irish and British affairs. However he was to be destroyed by the O'Shea divorce affair and died soon afterwards.

At the turn of the century Horace Curzon Plunkett of Unionist background was founder of the Irish agricultural co-operative movement and re-oriented himself to becoming an active Irish nationalist.

Several Protestant figures in the early Northern Ireland Labour Party were nationalists. These included MPs Jack Beattie, Sam Kyle and William McMullen and labour leaders James Baird and John Hanna. Meanwhile, trade unionist Victor Halley was a member of the Socialist Republican Party.

Easter Rising

The Easter Rising was lead largely by James Connolly and Patrick Pearse (both Catholics). Of the paramilitarys that took part some of the creators ?? of the paramiltarys were Protestant.

The Irish Volunteers were a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by Irish Nationalists including Sir Roger Casement, Bulmer Hobson and Robert Erskine Childers, all Protestant Irish nationalists. The Irish Volunteers were formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers by Edward Carson and James Craig. The Ulster Volunteers were a Unionist paramilitary movement who feared a Catholic dominated Home Rule parliament in Dublin under the Home Rule Act 1914.

The Irish Citizen Army were created and ran from 1913-1947. Of the creators of the group was Jack white who was a known Protestant and also was the son of George Stuart White. On Monday April 24, 1916, 220 of the group (including 28 women) took part in the Easter Rising.

Both paramilitarys took part in the Easter Rising along side The Irish Republican Brotherhood. Although the rising failed it is also widely remembered as a great example of Catholics and Protestants working together for a United Ireland.

Prominent Protestant signatory to the Anglo Irish Treaty was Robert Barton. In the subsequent Irish Free State governments Ernest Blythe a Protestant and former member of the Volunteers, held various ministerial posts. First President of Ireland in 1938 was the Protestant Douglas Hyde.

Today

A group of Protestants in Belfast joined the Irish Republican Army in the 1940s. These included John Graham, George Gilmore and George Plant.

Later figures included Ronnie Bunting and Noel Lyttle, both leading members of the Irish National Liberation Army, who were murdered by the Ulster Defence Association. Both men came from Protestant backgrounds, with Bunting the son of a close associate of Ian Paisley [1]. John Turnley, also killed in 1980, was the Protestant Chairman of the Irish Independence Party.

Today in Northern Ireland most Ulster Protestants oppose the reunification of Ireland, traditionally supporting continued union with Great Britain. However there are some who do support reunification, though it is a small percentage. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) has some Protestant councillors, the most famous recent leader of Protestant Nationalism being Ivan Cooper. And one SDLP Protestant councillor recently defected to Sinn Féin.

In contrast, Protestants in the Republic of Ireland (largely Church of Ireland) mainly support Irish re-unification in accordance with the majority of the southern Irish population. The Republic's chief acclaimed spokesman for Protestant interests north and south of the border is Martin Mansergh, previously senator, in 2007 elected TD to the 30th Dáil.

See also

• Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
• Catholic Unionist
• Irish Nationalism
• Unionism in Ireland
• Irish Unionist Party