Brien Behling

Irish Nationalism: The Duality of Religion

The conflict over Ireland and its control has stretched back over a millennium, back to the
times of Nordic settlement around the coastland of Eire. Yet, only in the last five hundred years,
with the arrival of Protestant British settlers following the Reformation and the establishment of
the Tudor dynasty under Elizabeth the First, has the true question of Irish identity and
sovereignty emerged. The emergence of Irish Nationalism, of a descript cause for Irish unity and
self-governance can be seen under the guiding hand of Theobald Wolfe Tone, founder of the
United Irishmen. Yet, even this is an inaccurate statement, as it implies a singular form of Irish
nationalism, which is far from the case. Irish Nationalism, following the guidelines of common
European theorists, would hold that Irish Nationalism is the series of thought connected creating
a sovereign, Irish Republic on the Emerald Isle. Now, this definition would be acceptable only if
the conflict between British Crown and Ireland was one-dimensional, of which it is not. As the
conflict progressed between England and Ireland, two distinct groups emerged, Catholic and
Protestant.
It is these two groups that the true conflict of Ireland centers on who will govern the
island. The Catholics, generally speaking, are the natives of Ireland and seek an established Irish
Republic, while the Protestants wish to remain in union with the British Parliament and continue
as British citizens. The term Irish Nationalism, then, is more aptly labeled Irish Republicanism
and applies only to those who identify as Irish, the Catholics. Yet, equally important is the foil to
Irish Nationalism is Ulster Unionism, the driving ideology of Protestants, who identify as British,
yet live in Ireland, that wants to remain part of the British Empire. It is this separation, the
creation of two objectively opposite ideologies, that fuels the entire conflict. Thus, in the study
of Irish Nationalism, two strands appear, Irish Republicanism and Ulster Unionism. For the sake
of this study, Irish Nationalism will be used interchangeably with Irish Republicanism, both

standing for the self-identified Irish and Catholic and live in Ireland, while Ulster Unionism will
stand for those who identify as British and Protestant, yet live in Ireland.
Overall, Irish Nationalism, of both the Irish-Catholic and the British-Protestant strands
stem from distinct histories of struggle and conflict, with one side opposing the other, constantly
seeking to undermine the position of the other and raise their own standard high. Since the
Protestant Reformation of England in the 16th century, the influx of Protestant English settlers
into Ireland caused conflict with the natives and pre-Reformation British settlers, Catholics all.
From then on, a Protestant Ascendency governed the Emerald Isle, as Catholics watched Eire,
Ireland in their tongue, fall piece by piece to outsiders. Catholics lost their culture, stripped of
their rights, lands, and religion, in essence, their identity, that which defined them.
Simultaneously, the Protestants built their own identity, defining themselves on their own
terms, in the ways of their British monarch and root culture. It is in these identities, built out of
conflict, of persecution, of aggressive action and violent means, that the nationalisms of Ireland
erupt, forged in the fires of a struggle that stretches back centuries. It is these identities that fuel
the nationalistic conflict still experienced today, past down from generation through generation.
These identities, built from economic struggle, religious-based politics, and the biased education
of each community pour fuel on the fires and continue the Troubles to this day.
The identities of both the Irish Catholics and the Ulster Protestants hail from an economic
struggle, which is just a part of the larger conflict between the two traditions. Economic
prosperity, or lack thereof, has been a driving problem in Ireland, as the Catholics were stripped
of land and status after each defeat, while the Protestants gained after each victory. And when
the time of economic reform occurred, it was attacked, for it endangered the status quo, that
which the Unionists of Ulster knew and had brought for them much prosperity. Since the arrival
of the Ascendency, the island of Ireland was progressive controlled more and more by
Protestants, English and Scottish settlers, who through legal and forcible means, took Catholic

lands and drove them from the green pastures, breaking with the traditional Brehon Law of the
Gaelic tribes, which stripped the Irish of their land rights. i By the dawn of the 18th century,
nearly eighty percent of Ireland was controlled by non-Irish.ii This drove the Irish to the worse
arable land on the isle, while Protestant settlers grew fat on the formerly Irish-owned fields.
This would continue for centuries and found one of the guiding principles of Irish nationalism.
At the time, the Irish peasantry was either living on poor, mountain land and practicing
subsistence farming or working as a tenet-farmer to a Protestant landlord. Yet, as tenet-farmers,
the Irish had little to no rights and were denied the rights granted to Protestant renters, namely
Ulster Custom, which allowed tenets to remain on the land, as long as rents were paid in full.
Protestants held this right, yet Catholic, by virtue of their Catholicism, were denied it and thusly
able to be evicted at mere notice or have their rents changed at a whim.iii Protestants owned the
quality land and controlled who could live there, ensuring that any Catholic who did would pay
excessive rents and if the need arose, be thrown off the land in favor of a Protestant renter. This
would only be attained after years of passive and sometimes active, violent resistanceiv with the
passage of Gladstone, Prime Minister of Englands, Land Act in 1870. It took some hundred
plus years before basic economic equality was achieved and that was in nominal terms only;
without a prominent voice in the justice system, as it were, Catholics were only legally entitled to
Ulster Custom on paper.
The economic hardships for Catholics can also be observed when examined through the Ulster
Protestant lens, who viewed any economic gain of the Irish as their loss. When the question of
Home Rule first arose in 1860, all that was requested was an Ireland Parliament to govern
domestic affairs, while still remaining within the British Empire and obeying the Crown and
Parliament. It would give the Irish a voice in setting tax and rent laws and institute economic
reform and bring about a more balanced relationship with London, who for long had viewed

Ireland as a colonial expansion of British power, using it and its Irish population to produce
goods for the Empire. Irish cattle and sheep were exported to England, while all industrial goods
were imported, as Ireland held none of her own. This created a highly dependent relationship on
England, one that the Irish wished to improve, through partial self-governance. The colonial
relationship was seen by Irish nationalists as unjust and exploitative...v Yet, for the Protestants
of Ireland, this relationship was the driving factor that filled their coffers with coin and had made
their families fat with wealth. As each Home Rule bill was purposed and defeated (this occurred
on three separate occasions) Protestants became increasingly fearful for their economic safety,
especially by the Third Home Rule Bill of 1912. Overlooking the threat of a Catholic Parliament
in Dublin, which was morally reprehensible to them, Home Rule was a threat, for it held that
a Dublin parliament, dominated by the agrarian interests of the south and west, would bring
about the ruination of Ulsters prosperity.vi Their fear was, in essence, the way of life established
would be lost, as Belfast, capital of the Unionists and rising star of the British Empire, with its
industrial shipyards and growing textile industry, which had helped ensure and cement the
Protestant aristocracy as the ruling class of Ireland. To say what Protestants of all ranks were
preparing to fight forwas the maintenance, in some form, of the threatened Protestant
ascendancy in Ireland vii is not far off base; Protestants, in the face of Home Rule, closed
ranks, rallied in their Unionist halls and lodges, and prepared to fight for Protestant economic
prosperity. Home Rule or any such non-British direct rule, jeopardized the welfare of the Ulster
community, thus, it only made sense to protest, by whatever means necessary, a change in the
status quo. A Dublin-based parliament, staffed with a Catholic (Irish) majority, would invest in
the vast agrarian complex of the south and west, leaving the industrial north and its exclusive
Protestantism, by the wayside to crumble in neglect. The eventual solution, to appease the

(super)majority Catholic south and the small, but majority Protestant north, was partition;
splitting the island in parts, one, to form its own sovereign government and the other, to remain
part of the United Kingdom.
Partition had the result of taking the Catholic-Protestant conflict and placing it in a pressure
cooker; following the divide, Protestants quickly moved to solidify their economic power in the
Ulster region, now dubbed Northern Ireland and in turn, block Catholics from gaining any
semblance of economic status, which would make them independent from the Protestant
Aristocracy. There was a systematic discriminationviii to keep Catholics occupying
governmental jobs, as these brought political influence and power, but more troublingly, allowed
for a Catholic middle-class to emerge. Thus, it became de facto government policy to bar all
Catholics from governmental work. This would also extend to the heart of Ulster industry, the
shipyards, the primary employment source for Protestants in the north. Most importantly, this
discrimination would also rear its head in the police forces (Royal Irish Constabulary RIC &
Royal Ulster Constabulary RUC), as Catholics faced widespread intimidation or
hostilityix when trying to enter law enforcement. Economically speaking, Protestants,
following their Ulster Unionist ideology, claimed a monopoly on the influential occupations in
the north and through that dominion, acted to ensure ascendency over the Catholics. Thus,
whenever Catholics attempted to seize economic concessions or, as was much more prevalent,
through paramilitary means, the Unionists were always able to effectively keep them down, often
through the very economic means the nationalists were protesting in the first place. Wealth is a
sign of status, power, and above all freedom, so economic liberty was long a contentious issue
between the Irish and the British. It only stands to reason that the Irish would seek to increase
their station, seeking a fair balance of economic power, while the Unionists sought to defend
their investments and retain their vast economic superiority and ascendency. In the end,

economics and wealth was treated as a zero-summon game, with a singular victor, who profited
at the loss of the opponent, which inspired violent action and counteraction, all which helped
create two distinct and opposing cultural identities.
Just as economic desires defined the identities of the Nationalists and Unionists, so did the
religion-based politics that dominated the government of Ireland. The conflict between Catholic
and Protestant, Nationalist and Unionists, spilled from economic into politics, as each desired a
government that represented them. As renowned international policy consultant Hans
Morgenthau stated, one nation one state is thus the political postulate of nationalismx.
What this means, is that, the unified nation and state is the full representation of nationalism and
thus, Catholics and Protestants both sought a government that represented their respective
nationalism. The result is two ideologies, unionism and nationalism, [that] are diametrically
opposedxi ; one seeks to create an Irish government, sovereign of the British Crown, while the
other wishes to maintain the Union and continue in their alliance to Parliament in London. What
then occurs, are the two sides actively seeking to further their own rights, while viewing the
other as the enemy. The conflict became defined by the religious roles of those involved, until
politics and religion were in essence, one; What divides Protestants and Catholics in Northern
Ireland is ideology; they disagree on who should govern them. Unionists reject and fear Irish
nationalism, while Nationalists reject union with Britain, which for them has always taken the
form of Protestant power.xii This vast divide is the most prevalent in post-partition, Northern
Ireland, where politics and religion become interchangeable; to be Catholic is to be Nationalist,
to be Protestant is to be Unionist. This becomes a reality with the establishment of Stormont, the
Parliament in Northern Ireland, which, as the newly elected Unionist Prime Minster, the Lord
Craigavon stated, All I boast is that we are a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant Peoplexiii.
This was a stark declaration that the governments sole concern was the Protestant population of

Northern Ireland; the Catholics, for all purposes, were non-people and thus needed no
protections of the government. What then occurs, in no small ways, is the true establishment of a
split society; In a short time the Norths Nationalists discovered they were second-class subjects
of the Crown.xiv
Yet, even progressing backwards in time, to before partition, Catholics were still treated as
second-class citizens and received no voice or rights. For when the Home Rule Acts were
purposed and successively defeated by the Conservative Party in Parliament (London), the
nationalists had no legal voice, while Protestants had a vocal and powerful speaker in the visage
of Ben Carson. Carson, a hardnosed Protestant and ranking member of the Conservative Party,
vowed that in no ways would partition occur, if it meant cutting the north of Ireland from the
United Kingdom. He, along with many in the Conservative Party, declared they would arm
Protestants in the North and if need be, engaged in open warfare with the Crown, to preserve
their right to be loyal to the Crown. It is paradoxically in the adamant resistance to a government
they so wish to remain a part of.xv The extremes Carson are seen as he oversaw the
establishment of the Ulster Volunteers, a paramilitary group dedicated to violently opposing
Home Rule, all while [c]laiming to be loyal subjects of his Gracious Majesty King George V,
they nevertheless pledge[d] to use all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present
conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland and to refuse to recognize the authority
of any such parliament.xvi. It is after understanding such harsh resistance, to the point of
violating the Constitution of England, we can understand how this hardline Protestant sentiment
carried forth into Partition and the establishment of an exclusive Protestant Parliament.
This passionate resistance proved violent insurrection could effectively trigger government
policy change, so in turn, Catholics, in watching their Protestant brethren bring the gun into
politics, did the same. As the preeminent Irish history, Dr. Eamon Phoenix says, by

blatantly challenging the authority of the sovereign parliament and by re-introducing the gun as
the final arbiter in Irish politics, Carson rekindled the Fenian flamexvii. Carsons actions
returned violence to an already pressurized conflict, bringing the gun into religion and politics.
It then no surprise, that within a few short years of Carson and the Third Home Rule Act, that the
Irish Republican Brotherhood, a Catholic paramilitary group, struck hard and fast in the Easter
Rising of 1916, shocking the government in London. The Brotherhood, after seeing successive
failures of Home Rule sought something more ambitious, a full-fledged Irish Republic and to do
so, they calculated that an armed stand however futile would almost certainly provoke the
British into harsh reprisals; by their martyrdom, they might give their cause an Irish Republic
instead of anaemic Home Rule its elixir of life.xviii Thus, while the Rising culminated in
failure, it raised national awareness, drawing Catholics from the whole of Ireland to the
Republican cause, and did invoke British wraith.
The Easter Rising confirmed for much of England and certainly for the Protestants in Ireland,
something they had held for years; Irish Nationalism was Catholic and thus solely focused on the
defeat of Protestants.xix It is with this idea that Protestants closed ranks and delivered punishment
for the leaders of the Rising. Executions poured forth from Dublin Castle, a few every day, until
all the leaders were slain. The intentions had been one of cruel punishment, purposeful to deliver
retribution, for the British, in London and Ireland were shocked by the Rising; they felted
betrayed, stabbed in the back.xx It is in such a mind-state that the Protestant government sought
to teach the Irish a lesson, [but] they present[ed] a face of barbarity rather than justice. Men
who had been denounced and spat on became gallant heroesxxi. The punishment for the Rising
did the exact opposite the Protestants wanted, it create a group of martyrs for the Republican
cause, which enflamed the Catholics. It was in response to the vast outrage following the
executions and the resulting protests, the British Parliament would pass the Partition Act of 1922.

Partition would lead to an independent Irish Republic in the south, while the north of Ireland,
with its Protestant majority would remain in Union with the British Empire. Yet tensions did not
fade, for while the Republic flourished, the Catholics in the North suffered beneath the heel of an
angry and frightened Protestant majority, which only lead to more violence.
Partition saw the creation of Northern Ireland, a Protestant-majority region that held a significant
population of Catholics. While peace was occurring in the South, the North saw the outbreak of
violence, as both the Catholics and the Protestants sought to ingrain their respective identities,
through targeted education to spread their specific perspective on the Irish Troubles. This
education was both formal and informal, some taught within the schools, focusing on the history
of the conflicts, often focusing on the numerous violent Catholic uprisings and the equally
bloody Protestant suppression of these revolts. Other lessons were taught through the culture
and literature of the day, as music, poems and stories told the tales of Irish Nationalism, while the
Unionists utilized Orange Parades to further their identities.
For the Irish, the Nationalist cause had much history to draw on, as the parents and
grandparents regaled their children with stories of the great heroes, who fought against the
cursed English invaders, with the purpose of inspiring the children to do much the same. The
poems praised the swordsmen who harried the Ulster colonists, the Tories who harassed the
Cromwellians, the rapparees who waged guerrilla war on the Williamitesxxii and with each
retelling, the message of the British, the Protestants, were the enemy was deeper ingrained, until
the only responsible option was violent insurrection. The message only grows stronger the more
exposure to culture and literature occurred, often encouraged by Catholic leaders, who oft quoted
the prominent nationalist poets.

Already the curse is upon her,

And strangers her valleys profane;

25

They come to divide, to dishonor,

And tyrants they long will remain.
But, onward! the green banner rearing,
Go, flesh every sword to the hilt;
On our side is Virtue and Erin,
On theirs is the Saxon and Guilt.

30

-Thomas More (1779-1852), from The Song of ORuark, Prince of Breffnixxiii

(Italics added)
It is poems such as this that declares honor and glory in combat against the invader, the
Saxon, who violates the green hills of Ireland. They spurn on violence, encourage and call for it,
to rid Erin Ireland, of the enemy. Violence becomes an almost holy mandate, as seen in line
31, which lays claim to the idea of virtuous combat and appeals to the notions of Ireland as a
nation embodied, fighting alongside the young Irish lad as he attempts to drive the Saxon from
the shores. Likewise, these messages came in the form of stirring songs, the famous Irish folk
music so loved around the world. Many of these songs are a living history of Irish culture,
commemorating the great leaders of past revolts, the heroic events that together have created and
defined the Irish identity the world knows. One such song, the Foggy Dew, tells the story of the
Easter Rising, impeding in the minds of the Irish the memory of those who fought and dead in a
futile and ill matched effort at Irish independence. The sacrifice of the men and women, their
heroic death for freedom, becomes eternalized for Catholics, an epitome for how the Irish should
live, with lines such as And the world did gaze, in deep amaze, at those fearless men, but
few/Who bore the fight that freedom's light might shine through the foggy dewxxiv. The Foggy
Dew, with its appeal to freedom and sacrifice, is just one song of memorialization amongst a
pantheon of Nationalism. Thus, as the Irish grow, they experience this consistent nationalistic
idea in their homes, on the street, in the corner shop or pub and it begins to define them, the final

sculpting of an Irish identity shaped in the fires of conflict and suffering. It is this cultural
education that puts history to shape and makes it real for the Irish, allowing them to embrace
their identity and maintain it for the next generation.
Just as the Irish Nationalists have their cultural education, the Ulster Unionists have their
own cultural education, shaped and crafted by their historical experience in Ireland. Ulster
history was preserved and protected by the Orange Order, a Protestant Organization focused on
the continuation of the Protestant regime in Ireland. The history they permeate for Unionist
community focuses on the violence and death Protestants suffered at the hands of Catholic and
reduces the complicated history of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation to the
consolidation of the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.xxv The primary goal of the Orange Order
was to focus on the injustice of the Catholic presence and the massive benefits of being
Protestant in Ulster. In strict economic and political terms, being Protestant meant power, being
a member of the governing class of Ireland, which dictated the course of the island. Thus,
Protestant history focuses on the influence of the British Crown, which allowed for its Protestant
settlers to flourish and attacks any idea or event that diminishes Protestant power. As Catholics
glorified their past, Protestants were intent on maintaining it in their histories, as the unionists
rewriting of the grand narratives of British history serves to slam shut the gates of history so
that unionists may continue to enjoy the privileges of the colonial past.xxvi For the most part,
Protestants history, as taught to the Unionists in Northern Ireland, disregards any positive
contribution by Catholics and only highlights the heyday of Protestant power in Ireland.
In addition to their written history, the most powerful reminder of Protestant history and
identity are the Orange Parades, annual marches that commemorate and honor the Siege of
Londonderry, during the Glorious Revolution in England. The siege, by Catholic King Jamess
forces was eventually broken by the Protestant William of Orange and became forever the face

of Protestant victory in the face of Catholicism. Every year, the Protestants of Northern Ireland
take to the streets and march, flying the Orange colors and banners high, while playing the
Orange songs they so long practiced in their Orange halls and lodges. The parades have become
the utmost personification of Protestant identity; their ability to march vindicates the struggles
and victories of past Protestants and declares the unshakeable endurance of Protestant
Unionism.xxvii Thus, as these Orange parades march through Protestant communities yearly, the
ideas of Protestantism, the identity that defines them, seeps into the minds of the people, unifying
them under the Orange banner.
In the end, it is these cultural educations that complete the creation of two distinct
identities of Irish Catholics and Ulster Unionists. Both sides grow from their historical
backgrounds, consuming the stories of economic hardship at the hand of the other and the ideas
of religious politics, as one sought to destroy the other and let the conflict define them. The
economic persecution of Catholics and political and religious suppression gave them reason to
draw on the heroic literature, to encourage violent action to overthrow the tyrant, while
Protestants, viewing their past prosperity and monopoly on power, only wish to preserve that
identity. Thus, when one side, after examining their history and culture, as taught by their
community, struck out against the injustices against their kind, they only gave the other side fuel
to reinforce their historical identity. When Catholics rose in revolt, massacring Protestants, it
only secured the Protestant perspective of being at war with nationalists, which caused them to
retaliate, killing Catholics, only to trigger the same response from the Catholic community. It
became a vicious cycle, as each action or occurrence strengthened the identity of the other, until
all that is left is the us-versus-them mentality, which only leads to more conflict and strife. It is
in this way, that over 400 years from the beginnings of the Troubles, that Catholics and
Protestants, Nationalist and Unionist, can still raise arms against each other.

i Michael Hurst, Parnell and Irish Nationalism (University of Toronto Press, Canada, 1968),
4.
ii Sean Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology (Continuum, New
York, 1981), 9.
iii Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 28.
iv Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 94.
v Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 86.
vi George Boyce, Respectable Rebels: Ulster Unionists Resistance to the Third Home Rule
Bill, 1912-14, in Conflicts In the North of Ireland, 1900-2000 Flashpoints and Fracture
Zones, ed. Alan F. Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010), 29.
vii George Boyce, Respectable Rebels: Ulster Unionists Resistance to the Third Home
Rule Bill, 1912-14, 29.
viii Peter Collins, 1932:A Case-Study in Polarization and Conflict, in Conflicts In the
North of Ireland, 1900-2000 Flashpoints and Fracture Zones, ed. Alan F. Parkinson and
Eamon Phoenix (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010), 100.
ix Peter Collins, 1932:A Case-Study in Polarization and Conflict, 101
x Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 3.
xi Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 34.
xii Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 35.
xiii Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 177.
xiv Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 138.
xv F.C. McGrath, Settler Nationalism: Ulster Unionism and Postcolonial Theory, in Irish
Studies & Review Vol 20, No. 4 (November 2012), 471
xvi F.C. McGrath, Settler Nationalism: Ulster Unionism and Postcolonial Theory, 471
xvii Eamon Phoenix, Northern Nationalists in Conflict: from the Third Home Rule Crisis to
Partition, 1900-21, in Peter Collins, 1932:A Case-Study in Polarization and Conflict, in
Conflicts In the North of Ireland, 1900-2000 Flashpoints and Fracture Zones, ed. Alan F.

Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010), 47.
xviii Phoenix, Northern Nationalists in Conflict: from the Third Home Rule Crisis to
Partition, 1900-21, 50.
xix Dennis Kennedy, Border Trouble: Unionist Perceptions of and Responses to the
Independent Irish State, 1921-39, in in Conflicts In the North of Ireland, 1900-2000
Flashpoints and Fracture Zones, ed. Alan F. Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix (Four Courts
Press, Dublin, 2010), 88.
xx Lawrence J. McCaffrey, Components of Irish Nationalism, in Perspectives on Irish
Nationalism, ed. Thomas E. Hachey & Lawrence J. McCaffrey (University Press of
Kentucky, 1989), 16.
xxi McCaffrey, Components of Irish Nationalism, in Perspectives on Irish Nationalism,
16.
xxii Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology, 4.
xxiii Thomas More, The Song of ORuark, Prince of Breffni, (1779-1852),
http://www.bartleby.com/270/2/27.html
xxiv The Foggy Dew, http://celtic-lyrics.com/lyrics/201.html
xxv McGrath, Settler Nationalism: Ulster Unionism and Postcolonial Theory, 475
xxvi McGrath, Settler Nationalism: Ulster Unionism and Postcolonial Theory, 475-76
xxvii McGrath, Settler Nationalism: Ulster Unionism and Postcolonial Theory, 476

Bibliography:
Michael Hurst, Parnell and Irish Nationalism (University of Toronto Press, Canada, 1968)
Sean Cronin, Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology (Continuum, New York, 1981)

George Boyce, Respectable Rebels: Ulster Unionists Resistance to the Third Home Rule Bill, 191214, in Conflicts In the North of Ireland, 1900-2000 Flashpoints and Fracture Zones, ed. Alan F.
Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010)
Peter Collins, 1932:A Case-Study in Polarization and Conflict, in Conflicts In the North of Ireland,
1900-2000 Flashpoints and Fracture Zones, ed. Alan F. Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix (Four Courts
Press, Dublin, 2010)
F.C. McGrath, Settler Nationalism: Ulster Unionism and Postcolonial Theory, in Irish Studies &
Review Vol 20, No. 4 (November 2012)
Eamon Phoenix, Northern Nationalists in Conflict: from the Third Home Rule Crisis to Partition,
1900-21, in Peter Collins, 1932:A Case-Study in Polarization and Conflict, in Conflicts In the North
of Ireland, 1900-2000 Flashpoints and Fracture Zones, ed. Alan F. Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix
(Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010)
Dennis Kennedy, Border Trouble: Unionist Perceptions of and Responses to the Independent Irish
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Alan F. Parkinson and Eamon Phoenix (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010)
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Thomas More, The Song of ORuark, Prince of Breffni, (1779-1852),
http://www.bartleby.com/270/2/27.html, accessed 4/28/15
The Foggy Dew, http://celtic-lyrics.com/lyrics/201.html, accessed 4/28/15