The Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union (ILPU) was a unionist political organisation in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, established to oppose the

Irish Home Rule movement The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...

. The Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union was formed in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

in May 1885 by a small number of southern businessmen, landowners and academics. It sought to unite Liberals and

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

in the three southern

provinces of Ireland There have been four Provinces of Ireland: Connacht (Connaught), Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. The Irish language, Irish word for this territorial division, , meaning "fifth part", suggests that there were once five, and at times Kingdom_of_ ...

on a common platform of maintenance of the union between

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and Ireland. In doing so, it undermined the Conservative

Loyal Irish Union {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The Loyal Irish Union was a unionist group formed in 1885 in Ireland.Jackson, AlvinThe Ulster Party: Irish unionists in the House of Commons, 1884-1911,p40 /ref> The organisation was founded by Thomas Bateson, Lord ...

, which shut down as a result of the ILPU's founding. From its inception, the ILPU's main opponent was the

Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish national ...

. The ILPU published pamphlets, leaflets and a news sheet, ''Notes from Ireland'', which were distributed widely in Ireland.James H. Murphy, ''The Oxford History of the Irish Book'', Volume IV (Oxford University Press, 1 Sep 2011), 71. The organisation had some success in preventing rivalry between Liberals and Conservatives, and in a number of cases candidates came forward in the 1885 general election simply as ‘loyalists’. A total of 54 of the southern seats were contested by anti-home rule candidates. The success of the organisation led its leaders to found the

Irish Unionist Alliance The Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA), also known as the Irish Unionist Party, Irish Unionists or simply the Unionists, was a unionist political party founded in Ireland in 1891 from a merger of the Irish Conservative Party and the Irish Loyal and ...

in 1891, at which point the ILPU ceased to exist as a separate body.

1885 general election

Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union contested constituencies 1885

Table shows results for candidates running under a purely "Loyalist" banner.

References

{{Authority control 1885 establishments in Ireland Defunct political parties in Ireland Organisations associated with the Conservative Party (UK) Political parties established in 1885 Political parties in pre-partition Ireland Unionism in Ireland 1891 disestablishments in Ireland Political parties disestablished in 1891