Historic Loyalism: Allegiance, Patriotism, Irishness and Britishness in Ireland

Abstract

In Ireland the term ‘loyalism’ has been deployed in many guises — too many in fact. In the late twentieth century, by the climax of the conflict known as the Troubles, the term came to embody anyone who was part of, or linked with, Protestant organizations that used pro-state terrorism against Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. But, less than a generation earlier, the term could equally apply to those who were ‘traditional unionists’ and opposed the reformist policies of Stormont governments. In this way the Reverend Dr Ian Paisley began political life as a ‘loyalist’ before entering the electoral mainstream and becoming a ‘unionist’.