Not quite as British as Finchley: the failed attempt to bring British Conservatism to Northern Ireland

Abstract

In a previous issue of Irish Studies Review I examined the unanticipated emergence in the late 1980s of a series of Conservative associations in Northern Ireland. In this follow-up article, I will seek to account for the subsequent swift and ignominious decline in the early 1990s of the Northern Irish Conservatives. While the fortunes of the Ulster Tories were undermined by a number of contingencies – the vagaries of parliamentary arithmetic and their own lack of political judgement foremost among them – their fate was sealed primarily by certain rather more structural concerns. In particular, the rapid decline of the Conservative associations in Northern Ireland owes its origins to the historically “loveless marriage” between Ulster unionists and the British state. The unionist community simply refused to vote in meaningful numbers for a political party at the centre of a Westminster establishment deemed hostile to the cause of the Union. In addition, the Conservative hierarchy would inevitably prove unwilling to nurture their own party associations in Northern Ireland as this “integrationist” project ran precisely counter to their own longstanding political ambitions for the region. This conflict of interests and intentions would in short order ensure the demise in all but name of the Northern Irish Conservatives. There can be few more dramatic illustrations of the mutual distrust that conjoins Ulster unionists and the British state than the string of lost deposits incurred by Conservative candidates running for office in Northern Ireland.

Keywords::

• Ulster unionism
• Northern Ireland
• Anglo-Irish Agreement
• British Conservatism
• electoral integrationism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. It might be useful here to offer a brief note on the terminology used in the essay. As with its predecessor, this article employs a distinction between ‘unionism’ and ‘Unionism’. While the former designates simply a broad political commitment to the maintenance of the Union, the latter denotes a more exclusive ethnonational identity. The two orientations overlap to a large extent but are not entirely coterminous. Hence, someone from a nationalist background who happens to believe in the Union might be termed a ‘unionist’ but would not be considered a ‘Unionist’. The distinction between ‘unionism’ and ‘Unionism’ was one routinely employed by the Conservatives I interviewed. Most were at pains to distinguish themselves from the sectarianism and parochialism of local parties whom they considered to be ‘Unionist with a capital U’.

^2.Aughey, Under Siege; Loughlin, Ulster Unionism and British Identity since 1885, 212; Ruane and Todd, Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland, 113–15.

^3.Aughey, Under Siege, 138–46; O'Malley, Northern Ireland, 37; Cochrane, Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism; Porter, Rethinking Unionism, 6–11.

^4.Farrington, Ulster Unionism and the Peace Process, 63.

^5.Clifford, Parliamentary Sovereignty and Northern Ireland; Clifford, Parliamentary Despotism; Clifford, Government without Opposition.

^6.Farrington, “Ulster Unionism and the Irish Historiography Debate,” 255.

^7.Jackson, “Unionist History (ii).”

^8.Trend, “Down with the Tories?”

^9.Aughey, “Conservative Party Politics in Northern Ireland,” 144–6.

^10.Cunningham, “Conservative Dissidents and the Irish Question,” 35.

^11.Pearce, “Not Everyone was Cheering.”

^12.Stringer and Robinson, Social Attitudes in Northern Ireland, 192.

^13.Coulter, “Origins of the Northern Ireland Conservatives,” 37–41.

^14.Coulter, “Peering in from the Window Ledge of the Union.” For more on the nature of “direct rule” see Birrell, Direct Rule and the Governance of Northern Ireland; Byrne, Economic Assistance and Conflict Transformation.

^15.Walker, History of the Ulster Unionist Party, 233.

^16.O'Leary, “Conservative Stewardship of Northern Ireland,” 671.

^17.Farrington, Ulster Unionism and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, 50; Loughlin, Ulster Unionism and British Identity since 1885.

^18.Farrington and Walker, “Ideological Content and Institutional Frameworks,” 140.

^19.Walker, History of the Ulster Unionist Party, 233.

^20.Smith, “‘Ever Reliable Friends’?,” 72.

^21.O'Dowd, “‘New Unionism,’” 115.

^22.Cunningham, British Government Policy in Northern Ireland, 105–20; O'Leary and McGarry, Politics of Antagonism, 117–19; Ryan, War and Peace in Ireland, 157; Wright, Northern Ireland, 185–6.

^23.Livingstone and Morison, Audit of Democracy in Northern Ireland; O'Leary and Arthur, “Northern Ireland as a Site,” 41.

^24.Rose, “Is the UK a State?,” 125; Ruane and Todd, Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland, 224–6; Wright, Northern Ireland, 198–9.

^25. O'Dowd, “‘New Unionism,’” 116; McGarry and O'Leary, Explaining Northern Ireland, 312.

^26.Thatcher, Downing Street Years.

^27. Conservative Research Department, “Confidential: The Implications of the Establishment of Conservatives Associations in Northern Ireland” (London: Conservative Research Department, 1988).

^28. Conservative Research Department, “Confidential: The Implications of Recognising North Down” (London: Conservative Research Department, 1989).

^29. Jonathan Caine, “Upper Bann Affiliation,” Conservative Party Internal Memorandum, February 16, 1990.

^30. O'Leary, “Conservative Stewardship of Northern Ireland,” 675.

^31.Farrington and Walker, “Ideological Content and Institutional Frameworks,” 146.

^32. Conservative Research Department, “Confidential: The Implications of Recognising North Down” (London: Conservative Research Department, 1989).

^33. Ibid.

^34.The Northern Star 3, no. 18, May 12, 1990, 1.

^35.The Northern Star 3, no. 1, January 13, 1990, 1; 3, no. 7, February 24, 1990, 4.

^36.Smith, “‘Ever Reliable Friends’?,” 78.

^37.Corthorn, “Enoch Powell, Ulster Unionism, and the British Nation.”

^38. Conservative Research Department, “Confidential: The Implications of the Establishment of Conservatives Associations in Northern Ireland” (London: Conservative Research Department, 1988).

^39. Conservative Research Department “Confidential: Links between the Ulster Unionist Party and the Conservative and Unionist Party” (London: Conservative Research Department, February 20, 1990).

^40.Farrington, Ulster Unionism and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, 57.

^41. “Victory Pledge,” News Letter, May 20, 1987, 1–2.

^42. This association would end in March 2005 when the Grand Lodge severed its ties with the party. See McEvoy, Politics of Northern Ireland, 45.

^43.Coulter, “Direct Rule and the Unionist Middle Classes”; Coulter, “Culture of Contentment”; McKay, Northern Protestants, 37.

^44.McGovern and Shirlow, “Counter-insurgency,” 188–9; McKay, Northern Protestants, 37, 258.

^45.Coulter, “Peering in from the Window Ledge of the Union,” 415–17.

^46. Conservative Research Department, “Confidential: Upper Bann” (London: Conservative Research Department, 1990).

^47.Walker, History of the Ulster Unionist Party, 242.

^48.Duffy and Evans, “Building Bridges?,” 126.

^49.Needham, Battling for Peace, 255.

^50.McGarry, “Old Wine, New Bottles.”

^51.Coulter, “Under Which Constitutional Arrangement Would You Still Prefer to be Unemployed?,” 769–70.

^52. O'Leary, “Conservative Stewardship of Northern Ireland,” 667.

^53.Cochrane, Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism, 304; Dixon, “The Usual English Doubletalk”; McCann, War and an Irish Town, 56–7.

^54. Anthony Bevins, “Major's Pact with Unionists Exposed,” The Independent, July 28, 1993.

^55.Walker, History of the Ulster Unionist Party, 245.

^56. Henry McDonald, “Blow to David Cameron as Only Ulster Unionist MP Quits Party,” The Guardian, March 25, 2010.

^57. Alex Kane, “Ulster's Tories Are Too Conservative,” News Letter, June 18, 2012.