two nations theory

two nations theory, the argument that conflict between nationalism and unionism arises from the existence of two nations in Ireland, based upon distinct cultures, political allegiances, and economic histories. The thesis first emerged in the late 19th century, an example being T. MacKnight's Ulster as It Is (1896). Later proponents have included the human geographer M. W. Heslinga, whose The Irish Border as a Cultural Divide (1971) argued that the border between Northern and independent Ireland marks off two different cultures, and Peter Gibbon, whose Origins of Ulster Unionism (1975) saw two divergent modes of production as leading to the emergence of two distinct types of society within Ireland. Gibbon's approach is that of a Marxist concerned to explain the absence of working‐class unity in the north. The same theme was taken up in the 1970s by the British and Irish Communist Organization in a series of pamphlets that gradually descended into left‐wing sectarianism.

Nationalists would argue that, historically, there is one nation in Ireland, and in many cases would see differences of religion and outlook as the result of political and economic manipulation by successive British governments. A more sophisticated approach, developed by David Miller, is that Unionist loyalty to Britain is to the crown rather than the government of the day, and is conditional on the crown protecting Protestant interests.

While there is a distinct unionist cultural identity, the fragmented nature of loyalism and unionism seems to preclude the possibility of a distinct nation. On the other hand the differences are deep enough to cast doubt upon the one nation approach of nationalists.

J. P. Smyth