Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland Since 1945

This is the first book which is based on unprecedented access to the archives of both the Party and the Order. The history depicted in this book is of two organisations which, even at the apogee of their powers in the 1950s, were riven with major stresses and conflicts. It shows just how precarious the position of the Unionist and Orange elites was as they struggled to deal with conflicting demands: of working class Protestants for British standards of welfare and wages, of industrialists who opposed the 'socialistic' government at Stormont, of rank and file Orangemen who denounced the Government for restrictions on their right to march and of Border Unionists who opposed new factories that might employ 'disloyalists' i.e. Catholics. It reveals the complex role played by the leadership of the Orange Order in both opposing change and at the same time stemming the rise of Paisleyism and Protestant paramilitarism. It reveals the key role played by the UUP leader James Molyneaux and his Orange allies in stabilising the party's position and the subsequent dissolution of the alliance under David Trimble's leadership with his support for the Belfast Agreement.

ISBN 0719077443   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9780719077449 (What's this?)   Pages 288 Publisher Manchester University Press   Published in Manchester Imprint Manchester University Press   Series title Devolution Series Format Paperback   Height (mm) 234 Publication date 30 Apr 2007   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 324.2416083   Academic level General, Further/Higher education

Introduction 1. Workers, Orangemen and Border Unionists 2. Reform and reaction 3. 'The Mad Major and his appeasing government' 4. The Protestant backlash 5. From victory to defeat 6. From the 'Diktat' to the Good Friday Agreement

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