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The Widening Gulf: Northern Attitudes to the Independent Irish State, 1919-49
'The rights of the minority must be sacred to the majority... it will only be by broad views, tolerant ideas and a real desire for liberty of conscience that we here can make an ideal of the Parliament and the executive.'
Thus Sir James Craig, shortly to become the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, speaking in Belfast in February 1921. For good measure he went on to say that Unionists in the North were very much bound up in the rest of Ireland. They must hope not only for a brilliant prospect for Ulster, but a brilliant future for Ireland.
What went wrong? This penetrating new study by Dennis Kennedy, former deputy editor of the Irish Times, examines the evolution of Unionist attitudes towards nationalist Ireland in the three decades after partition. As well as exploring the gulf that inexorably widened between Unionism and nationalism and between the two perceptions of Irish events, the book looks at the strains which developed between Belfast and London as Unionists became increasingly nervous about the security of their position within the UK.
Using as its main sources the Belfast News-Letter, the Northern Whig and the Belfast Telegraph, all Unionist-controlled and, through proprietors, editors and staff, closely integrated into the Unionist community, The Widening Gulf makes an important and original contribution to the debate on the roots of the continuing instability in Ireland.
Thus Sir James Craig, shortly to become the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, speaking in Belfast in February 1921. For good measure he went on to say that Unionists in the North were very much bound up in the rest of Ireland. They must hope not only for a brilliant prospect for Ulster, but a brilliant future for Ireland.
What went wrong? This penetrating new study by Dennis Kennedy, former deputy editor of the Irish Times, examines the evolution of Unionist attitudes towards nationalist Ireland in the three decades after partition. As well as exploring the gulf that inexorably widened between Unionism and nationalism and between the two perceptions of Irish events, the book looks at the strains which developed between Belfast and London as Unionists became increasingly nervous about the security of their position within the UK.
Using as its main sources the Belfast News-Letter, the Northern Whig and the Belfast Telegraph, all Unionist-controlled and, through proprietors, editors and staff, closely integrated into the Unionist community, The Widening Gulf makes an important and original contribution to the debate on the roots of the continuing instability in Ireland.
- GenresIreland
266 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1989
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