Protestant Irish nationalism
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Protestant Irish Nationalists are adherents of
Protestantism in Ireland Protestantism is a Christian minority on the island of Ireland. In the 2011 census of Northern Ireland, 48% (883,768) described themselves as Protestant, which was a decline of approximately 5% from the 2001 census. In the 2011 census of the ...
who also support
Irish nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
.
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
s have played a large role in the development of Irish nationalism since the eighteenth century, despite most Irish nationalists historically being from the
Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...
majority, as well as most Irish Protestants usually tending toward
unionism in Ireland Unionism is a political tradition on the island of Ireland that favours political union with Great Britain and professes loyalty to the British Crown and constitution. As the overwhelming sentiment of Ireland's Protestant minority, following ...
. Protestant nationalists (or ''patriots'', particularly before the mid-19th century) have consistently been influential supporters and leaders of various movements for the political independence of
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 ...
from
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 i ...
. Historically, these movements ranged from supporting the legislative independence of the
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
of the Kingdom of Ireland, to a form of
home rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...
within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...
, to complete independence in an
Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( ga, Poblacht na hÉireann or ) was an unrecognised revolutionary state that declared its independence from the United Kingdom in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland, but by ...
and (since the
partition of Ireland The partition of Ireland ( ga, críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. ...
) a
United Ireland United Ireland, also referred to as Irish reunification, is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically; the sovereign Republic of Ireland has jurisdiction over the maj ...
. Despite their relatively small numbers, individual Protestants have made important contributions to key events in Irish nationalist history, such as
Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone ( ga, Bhulbh Teón; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican soci ...
during the
1798 rebellion The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a Irish republicanism, ...
,
Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...
and the
Home Rule movement Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wi ...
, and Erskine Childers and the 1916 Easter Rising. In Northern Ireland, the vast majority of
Ulster Protestants Ulster Protestants ( ga, Protastúnaigh Ultach) are an ethnoreligious group in the Irish province of Ulster, where they make up about 43.5% of the population. Most Ulster Protestants are descendants of settlers who arrived from Britain in the ...
are unionist and vote for unionist parties. In 2008, only 4% of Protestants in Northern Ireland thought the long-term policy for Northern Ireland should be unification with the Republic of Ireland, whereas 89% said it should be to remain in the United Kingdom. All the various denominations of Protestantism in Ireland have had members involved in nationalism. The Anglican
Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...
and the
Presbyterian Church of Ireland The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI; ga, Eaglais Phreispitéireach in Éirinn; Ulster-Scots: ''Prisbytairin Kirk in Airlann'') is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the Republic of Ireland, and the largest Protestant denomination in ...
are the largest Protestant churches, and this remains the situation across the island of Ireland. The largest Protestant denomination is the Church of Ireland (having roughly 365,000 members, making up around 3% of the population of the Republic of Ireland, 15% of Northern Ireland, and 6.3% of the whole of Ireland), followed by the Presbyterian Church, with a membership of around 300,000, accounting for 0.6% of people in the Republic and 20% in Northern Ireland (6.1% of Ireland's population).


Pre-Union background

In the eighteenth century the first attempt towards a form of greater Irish home rule under the British Crown was led by the
Irish Patriot Party The Irish Patriot Party was the name of a number of different political groupings in Ireland throughout the 18th century. They were primarily supportive of Whig concepts of personal liberty combined with an Irish identity that rejected full inde ...
in the 1770s and 1780s, inspired by
Henry Grattan Henry Grattan (3 July 1746 – 4 June 1820) was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century from Britain. He was a Member of the Irish Parliament (MP) from 1775 to 18 ...
. The
Age of Revolution The Age of Revolution is a period from the late-18th to the mid-19th centuries during which a number of significant revolutionary movements occurred in most of Europe and the Americas. The period is noted for the change from absolutist monarc ...
inspired Protestants such as
Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone ( ga, Bhulbh Teón; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican soci ...
, Thomas Russell,
Henry Joy McCracken Henry Joy McCracken (31 August 1767 – 17 July 1798) was an Irish republican, a leading member of the Society of the United Irishmen and a commander of their forces in the field in the Rebellion of 1798. In pursuit of an independent and democra ...
, William Orr,
Lord Edward Fitzgerald Lord Edward FitzGerald (15 October 1763 – 4 June 1798) was an Irish aristocrat who abandoned his prospects as a distinguished veteran of British service in the American War of Independence, and as an Irish Parliamentarian, to embrace the caus ...
, the brothers Sheares,
Archibald Hamilton Rowan Archibald Hamilton Rowan (1 May 1751 – 1 November 1834), christened Archibald Hamilton (sometimes referred to as Archibald Rowan Hamilton), was a founding member of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen, a political exile in France and the Unit ...
,
Valentine Lawless Baron Cloncurry, of Cloncurry in the County of Kildare, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 29 December 1789 for Sir Nicholas Lawless, 1st Baronet, who had earlier represented Lifford in the Irish House of Commons. He had ...
, and others who led the
United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional refor ...
movement. At its first meeting on 14 October 1791, almost all attendees were Presbyterians, apart from Tone and Russell who were both
Anglicans Anglicanism is a Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia ...
. Presbyterians, led by McCracken, James Napper Tandy, and Neilson would later go on to lead
Ulster Protestant Ulster Protestants ( ga, Protastúnaigh Ultach) are an ethnoreligious group in the Irish province of Ulster, where they make up about 43.5% of the population. Most Ulster Protestants are descendants of settlers who arrived from Britain in the ...
and
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Irish rebels in the
Irish Rebellion of 1798 The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced ...
. Tone did manage to unite if only for a short time, at least, some Anglicans, Catholics and
Dissenters A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Usage in Christianity Dissent from the Anglican church In the social and religious history of England and Wales, an ...
into the "common name of Irishmen", and would later go on to try to get French support for a rising, first manifested in the failed French Bantry Bay landing of 1796. At that time, the French republicans were opposed to all churches. Such people were inspired by
Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
of the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
, who disapproved of organised religions in ''
The Age of Reason ''The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology'' is a work by English and American political activist Thomas Paine, arguing for the philosophical position of deism. It follows in the tradition of 18th-century Briti ...
'' (1794–1795) and preferred a
deist Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...
belief. Although the United Irish movement was supported by individual priests, the Roman Catholic hierarchy was opposed to it, because of a growing rapprochement between Rome and London (one example of which was the funding of the new seminary in Maynooth by the British government in 1795). During the 1798 rebellion the military leaders were also largely Anglicans. After the initial battles in County Kildare the rebels holding out in the Bog of Allen were led by
William Aylmer William Aylmer (1778–1820) was an Irish military officer and member of United Irishmen who participated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. On 19 June 1798, Aylmer fought in the Battle of Ovidstown against British Crown forces, which resulted in a d ...
. In Antrim and Down the rebels were almost all Presbyterians, and at the
Battle of Ballynahinch The battle of Ballynahinch was a military engagement of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 between a force of roughly 4,000 United Irishmen rebels led by Henry Munro and approximately 2,000 government troops under the command of George Nugent. After ...
the local Catholic
Defenders Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to: *Defense (military) *Defense (sports) **Defender (association football) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Defender'' (1989 film), a Canadian documentary * ''The Defender'' (1994 f ...
decided not to take part. In County Wexford, which remained out of British control for a month, the main planners were
Bagenal Harvey Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey (died 28 June 1798) was a barrister and a commander of the United Irishmen in the Battle of New Ross during the 1798 Rebellion. He was the eldest son of Francis Harvey of Bargy Castle, Wexford, who was one of the six ...
and
Anthony Perry Anthony Perry (c. 1760– 21 July 1798), known as the "''screeching general''" was one of the most important leaders of the United Irish Wexford rebels during the 1798 rebellion. Background Perry was born in County Down, Ireland to a Protest ...
.
Joseph Holt Joseph Holt (January 6, 1807 – August 1, 1894) was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. As a leading member of the Buchanan administration, he succeeded in convincing Buchanan to oppose the secession of the South. He returned to Ke ...
led the rebels in County Wicklow, and Sir Edward Crosbie was hanged, having been wrongfully accused of leading a rebel force in County Carlow. Only in County Mayo, where there were few Protestants, was the rebellion led entirely by Catholics, and it only developed there because of the landing by a French force under
General Humbert General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert (22 August 1767 – 3 January 1823) was a French military officer who participated in several notable military conflicts of the late 18th and early 19th century. Born in the townland of La Coâre Saint-Nabord, ...
, who was assisted by Captain Bartholomew Teeling. The disarming of
Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
saw several hundred Protestants tortured, executed and imprisoned for their United Irish sympathies. The rebellion became the main reason for the Acts of Union, which passed in 1800.


From Emmet to the Fenians

In 1803
Robert Emmet Robert Emmet (4 March 177820 September 1803) was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Prote ...
, brother of
Thomas Addis Emmet Thomas Addis Emmet (24 April 176414 November 1827) was an Irish and American lawyer and politician. He was a senior member of the revolutionary Irish republican group United Irishmen in the 1790s. He served as Attorney General of New York from ...
, attempted an insurrection in Dublin. Jemmy Hope tried to raise the districts of the north where the Presbyterian spirit of republican resistance had run strongest in the 1790s, but found no response. The democratic and non-violent
Repeal Association The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell in 1830 to campaign for a repeal of the Acts of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland. The Association's aim was to revert Ireland to th ...
led by
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
in the 1830s and 1840s was supported by a number of Protestants; the most eminent being John Gray, who later supported Butt and Parnell (see below), and others such as
James Haughton James Haughton may refer to: * James Haughton (police officer) Sir James Haughton, CBE, QPM (26 February 1914 – 26 January 2000) was Chief Inspector of Constabulary from January 1976 to July 1977. He joined Birmingham City Police in 1935 ...
. Several younger Protestant Repealers, grouped around Charles Gavan Duffy's paper, the
Nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...
, were disaffected: wary of O'Connell's ready identification of Catholicism with the nation, and of the broader clericalism of the national movement. Referred to contemptuously by O'Connell as "
Young Ireland Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...
ers"--a reference to
Giuseppe Mazzini Giuseppe Mazzini (, , ; 22 June 1805 – 10 March 1872) was an Italian politician, journalist, and activist for the unification of Italy (Risorgimento) and spearhead of the Italian revolutionary movement. His efforts helped bring about the in ...
's
Young Italy Young Italy ( it, La Giovine Italia) was an Italian political movement founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini. After a few months of leaving Italy, in June 1831, Mazzini wrote a letter to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, in which he asked him to uni ...
which in 1849 had briefly imposed a republic on the Pope in Rome--they included Thomas Davis,
John Mitchel John Mitchel ( ga, Seán Mistéal; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist, author, and political journalist. In the Famine years of the 1840s he was a leading writer for ''The Nation'' newspaper produced by the ...
and leader of the abortive 1848 rebellion
William Smith O'Brien William Smith O'Brien ( ga, Liam Mac Gabhann Ó Briain; 17 October 1803 – 18 June 1864) was an Irish nationalist Member of Parliament (MP) and a leader of the Young Ireland movement. He also encouraged the use of the Irish language. He ...
. In 1845 Davis famously clashed with O'Connell over "the Liberator's" denunciation of the "Queens Colleges", a "mixed" or non-denominational scheme for advanced education in Ireland. When Davis pleaded that "reasons for separate education are reasons for separate life", O'Connell accused him of suggesting it a "crime to be a Catholic". "I am", he declared, "for Old Ireland, and I have some slight notion that Old Ireland will stand by me". In the election of 1852 John Gray, then editor of the
Freeman's Journal The ''Freeman's Journal'', which was published continuously in Dublin from 1763 to 1924, was in the nineteenth century Ireland's leading nationalist newspaper. Patriot journal It was founded in 1763 by Charles Lucas and was identified with rad ...
, at the urging of the Reverend David Bell stood on the platform of
Tenant Right League The Tenant Right League was a federation of local societies formed in Ireland in the wake of the Great Famine to check the power of landlords and advance the rights of tenant farmers. An initiative of northern unionists and southern nationalis ...
in
Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Ireland. It also provides the name of its civil parish and barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7,678. The town is on the N2 road from Dublin to Derry and Lette ...
. Bell found his appeals for unity in support of Gray could not prevail against calls of the Union in danger, and "No Popery". Of the 100 of his fellow Presbyterians who had signed the requisition asking Gray to stand, only 11 had the courage to vote for him. Despairing of constitutional means, in 1864 Bell was inducted into the Irish Republican Brotherhood.html" ;"title="Fenian"Brotherhood">Fenian"Brotherhood by
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa ( ga, Diarmaid Ó Donnabháin Rosa; baptised 4 September 1831, died 29 June 1915)Con O'Callaghan Reenascreena Community Online (dead link archived at archive.org, 29 September 2014) was an Irish Fenian leader and member ...
. Escaping arrest, from 1865 he was in exile in the United States where, in contrast to
John Mitchel John Mitchel ( ga, Seán Mistéal; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist, author, and political journalist. In the Famine years of the 1840s he was a leading writer for ''The Nation'' newspaper produced by the ...
who, already in Ireland, had defended
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
slavery against the abolitionism of
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
, Bell tried to associate physical-force Irish republicanism with the Radical .S.Republican agenda of black enfranchisement and
Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
.


Home Rule era (1870–1914)


Politicians

The new
Home Government Association The Home Government Association was a pressure group launched by Isaac Butt in support of home rule for Ireland at a meeting in Bilton's Hotel, Dublin, on 19 May 1870. The meeting was attended or supported by sixty-one people of different politi ...
was founded by
Isaac Butt Isaac Butt (6 September 1813 – 5 May 1879) was an Irish barrister, editor, politician, Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, economist and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist part ...
in 1870, who died in 1879. William Shaw presided over the convention held to found its successor, the
Home Rule League The Home Rule League (1873–1882), sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was an Irish political party which campaigned for home rule for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, until it was replaced by the Irish Parliam ...
, of which he was chairman. He was followed by
Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...
, the founder of 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 nation ...
(IPP).
H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...
called Parnell one of the most important men of the nineteenth century and
Lord Haldane Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, (; 30 July 1856 – 19 August 1928) was a British lawyer and philosopher and an influential Liberal and later Labour politician. He was Secretary of State for War between 1905 and 1912 during w ...
called him the most powerful man that the
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...
had seen in 150 years. Parnell led the
Gladstonian William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
constitutionalist
Home Rule movement Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wi ...
and for a time dominated Irish and British affairs. However, at the height of his power he was to be dethroned by the Katharine O'Shea, O'Shea divorce affair and died soon afterwards. Other Protestant Nationalist members of parliament were: John Gray (Irish politician), Sir John Gray, Stephen Gwynn, Henry Harrison (MP), Henry Harrison, Jeremiah Jordan, William Archibald Macdonald (MP), William McDonald, J. G. Swift MacNeill, James Rochfort Maguire, James Maguire, Pierce Charles de Lacy O'Mahony, Isaac Nelson, John Pinkerton (politician), John Pinkerton, Horace Plunkett and Samuel Young (Irish politician), Samuel Young. In 1903, with Thomas Sloan, Independent Member of Parliament, MP for Belfast South (UK Parliament constituency), South Belfast, Robert Lindsay Crawford, R.Lindsay Crawford co-founded the Independent Orange Order. For Crawford, who became the new order's Grand Master, this, in the first instance, was a protest against co-optation of the established Orange Order by the Ulster Unionist Party and its alignment with the interests of landlords and employers. But he also saw it as an opportunity for Irish Protestants to "reconsider their position as Irish citizens and their attitude towards their Roman Catholic countrymen". His commitment in the Magheramorne Manifesto (1904) to an "extended form of self-government" for Ireland proved too much for Sloan and his supporters, and Crawford was expelled. As a journalist in Canada and the United States Crawford was committed to the cause of Irish self-determination, and in the 1920s served as the Irish trade representative in New York. Several Protestant figures in the early Northern Ireland Labour Party were nationalists. These included MPs Jack Beattie, Sam Kyle and William McMullen (politician), William McMullen and labour leaders James Baird (trade unionist), James Baird and John Hanna (trade unionist), John Hanna.Michael Farrell (activist), Michael Farrell, ''Northern Ireland: The Orange State'' Meanwhile, trade unionist Victor Halley was a member of the Socialist Republican Party (Ireland), Socialist Republican Party.


Artists

While not active nationalist supporters, authors who wrote about Irish life and history, such as William Wilde, Whitley Stokes (scholar), Whitley Stokes, Standish James O'Grady and Samuel Ferguson helped to develop nationalist sentiment. From 1897 the artist and mystic George William Russell, George Russell (also known as "Æ") helped Horace Plunkett to run the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. The IAOS rapidly grew into the main Irish rural co-operative body through which Irish farmers could buy and sell goods at the best price. Plunkett was also a cousin of Count Plunkett, George Noble Plunkett, father of Joseph Mary Plunkett. Horace Plunkett's home in County Dublin was later burned down in 1922 by Anglo-Irish Treaty, anti-treaty Irish republicanism, Irish republicans during the Irish Civil War, as he had been appointed a Senator in the first Irish Free State Seanad, Senate. Russell was also involved in the "Irish Literary Revival" (or Celtic Twilight) artistic movement, that provided an intellectual and artistic aspect supportive of Irish nationalism. This was also largely started and run by Protestants such as WB Yeats, Lady Gregory, Seán O'Casey, Alice Milligan, and John Millington Synge, JM Synge, who also founded the influential but controversial Abbey Theatre that opened in 1904. "An Túr Gloine" (The Glass Tower) had a similar membership. The archetypal work of art that commemorated the 1916 Rising, though sculpted five years before the rising, is the statue of the dying mythical warrior Cuchullain, sculpted by Oliver Sheppard, a Protestant art lecturer in Dublin who had been a moderate nationalist for decades. Cast in bronze, it was unveiled at the General Post Office (Dublin), GPO in 1935.


Independence era (1916–1922)

Sam Maguire inducted Michael Collins (Irish leader), Michael Collins into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in 1909. From 1928 the main prize for Irish football awarded by the Gaelic Athletic Association has been the Sam Maguire Cup. In 1908 Bulmer Hobson and Constance Markievicz founded the Fianna Éireann, intended as a nationalist Boy Scout movement. The Irish Volunteers were a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by Irish Nationalists and separatists including Roger Casement, Bulmer Hobson and Erskine Childers, all Protestant Irish nationalists (although Casement, who had been secretly baptised a Catholic by his mother, officially converted to Catholicism just before he was hanged in 1916). The Irish Volunteers were formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers by Edward Carson and James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, James Craig. The Ulster Volunteers were a Unionism in Ireland, Unionist paramilitary movement who feared a Dublin-centric, anti-Protestant Home Rule parliament in Dublin. The Irish Citizen Army existed from 1913–1947 and one of its creators was Jack White (labour unionist), Jack White from Ulster, son of General George White. On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, 220 of the group (including 28 women) took part in the Easter Rising. Most of the rifles and ammunition used in the Rising had been imported from Imperial Germany, Germany in July 1914 by Erskine Childers on his yacht ''Asgard (yacht), Asgard'' along with Edward Conor Marshall O'Brien, Conor O'Brien, Alice Stopford Green, Mary Spring Rice, Darrell Figgis and the former Quaker Bulmer Hobson. The rest of the rifles were shipped by Thomas Myles, Sir Thomas Myles, at the suggestion of the barrister James Creed Meredith, James Meredith, and were landed at Kilcoole. In 1913 Hobson had sworn Patrick Pearse into the IRB; Pearse was one of leaders of the Rising. A prominent signatory to the Anglo-Irish Treaty in late 1921 that followed the Anglo-Irish war was Robert Barton, a cousin of Childers. A cousin of both, David Lubbock Robinson, was in the IRA and interned. He later became a Fianna Fáil Senator. In the subsequent Irish Free State governments Ernest Blythe, a former member of the Irish Volunteers, held various ministerial posts. Seán Lester was a League of Nations diplomat. The founder of the Gaelic League and first President of Ireland was Douglas Hyde. Dorothy Macardle opposed the 1921 Treaty and was a lifelong supporter of Éamon de Valera, writing his view of history in The Irish Republic (book), ''The Irish Republic'' (1937), but also refusing his suggestion to convert to Catholicism on her deathbed in 1958. Some like the Revd. Robert Hilliard fought in the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1939. Following independence, southern Protestant unionists accepted the new reality and worked with the new Free State from its difficult start in 1922–23. These included judges such as James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy, Lord Glenavy, whose suggestions for a new law courts system was enacted as the Courts of Justice Act, 1924, Courts Act 1924, and twenty accepted nominations to the Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State), new Senate, such as Dermot Bourke, 7th Earl of Mayo, Lord Mayo.


1940s

In 1941, writer Denis Ireland, son of a wealthy manufacturer and steeped in Unionist tradition, described himself as "a son of the Ulster Protestant industrial ascendancy". He founded the Ulster Union Club in Belfast to purportedly "recapture, for Ulster Protestants, their true tradition as Irishmen", it advertised a range of activities including weekly discussions and lectures on current affairs, economics, history and the Irish Gaelic, Irish language, as well as dancing and music classes. A number of pamphlets were published and under its auspices Ireland contributed to various magazines, newspapers and radio programmes in Belfast and Dublin. The Club was mainly frequented by Protestants but, as the authorities soon discovered, it was a source of recruits to the Irish Republican Army (1922–1969), IRA. UUC meetings were being attended by John Graham (Irish republican), John Graham, a devout member of the
Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...
, who, at the time of his arrest in 1942, was leading a "Protestant squad", an intelligence unit, that was preparing the armed organisation for a new "Northern campaign (Irish Republican Army), northern campaign." In 1944, under Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922, Northern Ireland Special Powers Act, the UUC was suppressed. The club's premises, and the homes of Ireland and other prominent members (among them Presbyterian clergymen, teachers and university lecturers) were raided by RUC Special Branch. Along with George Gilmore, and George Plant, Graham had been amongst a handful of Protestants who had come to the IRA through the minority Republican Congress. Plant was executed in 1942 by the Irish government for the murder of a suspected informer. In 1948 Denis Ireland entered the Seanad Éireann, the Irish Senate, for the Irish Republicanism, republican and social democracy, social-democratic Clann na Poblachta. As a senator, Ireland was the first member of the Oireachtas, the Irish Parliament, to be resident in Northern Ireland.


During the Troubles

In the North, Protestants participated in the early years of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Ivan Averill Cooper, Ivan Cooper was among its co-founders in 1970. Billy Leonard, a former Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventist lay-preacher and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) reservist, whose wife and children are Catholics, was elected in 2001 to Coleraine Borough Council as an SDLP representative for the Skerries area. Citing lack of emphasis on Irish unity he joined Sinn Féin in 2004. The party nominated him to succeed Francie Brolly as an MLA for East Londonderry in 2010. But citing disagreements "over support arrangements for MLAs' wages and expenses", and complaining that "the tentacles of the IRA Army Council, [IRA] Army Council still run throughout" the republican party he soon resigned. Ronnie Bunting, son of Ronald Bunting, a close associate of Ian Paisley, became a member of the Official IRA in the early 1970s and was a founder-member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1974. He was assassinated by the Ulster Defence Association in 1980. Also assassinated by the UDA in 1980, John Turnley, scion of a wealthy Protestant family and a former British Army officer, joined in SDLP in 1972. At the time he was killed, Turnley was chairman of the Irish Independence Party, co-founded with Frank McManus (Irish politician), Frank McManus (former Unity (Northern Ireland), Unity MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency), Fermanagh & South Tyrone) and Fergus McAteer (son of the former Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland), Nationalist Party leader Eddie McAteer)., and a leading member of the National H-Blocks Committee supporting the IRA blanket protest. David Russell was a Protestant Provisional IRA Volunteer (Irish republican), volunteer originally from Ramelton in Donegal and a Presbyterian. He was killed due to a premature bomb explosion in 1974 at a supermarket in Derry. Tom Berry was an Official IRA volunteer with Protestant background. He was killed by the Provisional IRA in east Belfast during the intra-republican feud in 1975. Harry Murray was a Provisional IRA Volunteer (Irish republican), volunteer from Tiger's Bay.


Republic of Ireland

Martin Mansergh, a member of the
Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...
, has been influential in formulating Fianna Fáil's policy on Northern Ireland since the Northern Ireland peace process, peace process began in the 1990s. Sinn Féin TD for Clare Violet-Anne Wynne is Protestant. Fine Gael TD Heather Humphreys has referred to herself as a republican and nationalist on several occasions.


Protestant nationalist converts to Roman Catholicism

A number of Protestant nationalists also converted to Catholicism, for a variety of reasons: * William Gibson, 2nd Baron Ashbourne, Lord Ashbourne * Ada Beesley, the second wife of John Redmond * Thomas Westropp Bennett, Thomas Bennett * Charles Bewley * Joseph Biggar MP * Aodh de Blácam (né Harold Blackham) * Roger Casement * Lillie Connolly, widow of James Connolly * Charlotte Despard, sister of John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, Viscount French (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1918–21) * Victor Fagg, prominent Irish republican (converted to Catholicism in 1943 to marry Una Daly, a member of the women's IRA group, Cumann na mBan) * Father Patrick Fell, a Roman Catholic convert accused and later convicted in the 1970s of being a commander of an Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service unit; later became a priest. * Mabel McConnell FitzGerald, wife of Desmond FitzGerald (politician), Desmond FitzGerald and mother of Garret FitzGerald * Grace Gifford, sister of Muriel, wife of Joseph Plunkett
Katherine Anna ("Katie") Gifford, Mrs Wilson (1875–1957), Irish republican, civil servant, and teacher; sister of Grace and Muriel Gifford
* Muriel Gifford, sister of Grace, wife of Thomas MacDonagh * Maud Gonne, wife of John MacBride, mother of Seán MacBride, and mother-in-law of Francis Stuart * Edmund Dwyer Gray (Irish politician), Edmund Dwyer Gray, son of the Protestant nationalist, John Gray (Irish politician), Sir John Gray * Hugh Law (Cumann na nGaedheal politician), Hugh Law MP and TD * Shane Leslie * Seán Mac Stíofáin, born John Edward Drayton Stephenson in England to an English Protestant father and a mother of Ulster Protestant and Unionist. * Constance Markievicz MP (abstentionist) and TD, first female elected as both * Pierce Charles de Lacy O'Mahony MP * Gertrude Bannister Parry (cousin of Roger Casement) * James Pearse, father of Patrick Pearse, Patrick and Willie Pearse; converted to Catholicism (and, at least nominally, Home Rule) before marrying Margaret Brady (who, with her daughters, shared her sons' political beliefs and all became political activists) * William Stockley * Francis Stuart, son-in-law of Maud Gonne


See also

*Alliance Party of Northern Ireland *Catholic Unionist *Unionism in Ireland *Irish Unionist Party


References


Sources

* O'Broin, Leon; Protestant Nationalists in Revolutionary Ireland, Barnes & Noble 1985, {{ISBN, 978-0-389-20569-2 Protestant Irish nationalists, Celtic nationalism Irish nationalism Politics of Northern Ireland