Ulster Unionist Party

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Ulster Unionist Party, the governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. The party evolved in 1885–6 as a protest movement, united by a broad antipathy to home rule but otherwise highly fissile. After 1921, and the creation of the Northern Ireland parliament, it remained a cumbersome coalition which sustained unity through a trenchant stand on the Union, an implicit anti‐Catholicism, and a passive or reactive approach to most other areas of policy.

The party embraced a broad range of Ulster Protestant opinion, but was led by the commercial elite of eastern Ulster, with a notable residual landed presence. Although the influence of the landed gentry had been decisively countered in the Edwardian party, three of the six Unionist leaders of the period 1921–72 (Brooke, O'Neill, and Major James Chichester‐Clark) were landed gentlemen. However, the Unionist parliamentary party at Stormont, both within the House of Commons and the Senate, was dominated by the Protestant professional classes. Proletarian unionism was never adequately represented within the Ulster Unionist leadership. Catholics have never been effectively courted by the party, and indeed the increasingly parochial nature of Unionism in 20th‐century Ireland has tended to reinforce its anti‐Catholicism.

Hampered by the fragile and diverse nature of its support, the Unionist Party never developed far from its original ideology of protest: unity has often been bought at the price of inactivity. Recurrent IRA violence reinforced the defensive loyalism of the party: this has brought a lasting emphasis on law and order policy, from the Special Powers Act (1922) through to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (1974). In addition, the anti‐partitionism of successive Dublin administrations permitted the Unionist Party to survive on the basis of an uncomplicated appeal to British loyalty: the Irish constitution of 1937 allowed Lord Craigavon (see Craig) to reunite unionism in the Stormont election of 1938, while the declaration of a republic enabled Sir Basil Brooke to perform a similar feat in 1949. The fragile nature of the Unionist coalition, and its socially conservative leadership, has meant that broader social and welfare issues have tended to be relegated within the party's priorities. British welfare legislation, in particular the legislation of Attlee's post‐war government, was duplicated by the Unionist Party, but on Unionist principles, rather than from an intrinsic commitment to reform.

The Unionist Party splintered under the impact of the civil rights movement and the renewal of IRA violence in 1969. Liberal Unionists, dissatisfied with internal opposition to O'Neill, joined the Alliance Party; working‐class loyalists, angered by O'Neill's apparently high‐handed and paternalistic leadership, joined the Democratic Unionist Party. Militant loyalists, dissatisfied with the apparently impotent constitutionalism of the Unionist Party, turned to the Ulster Vanguard movement or to the populist vigilante bodies later unified as the Ulster Defence Association. Under the leadership of James Molyneaux (1979–95) some degree of consolidation was achieved: the party successfully contained the challenge of the DUP, and profited from the failure of the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland and of Vanguard. The election of David Trimble as leader in 1995 at first seemed like an affirmation of hard‐line attitudes; but his endorsement of the Belfast Agreement of 1998 (see peace process) and other reformist impulses provoked a degree of confusion and division among the party's supporters. In 1998, with the splintering of the Unionist vote, the party came second to the Social Democratic and Labour Party in the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is as yet unclear whether this, and other electoral setbacks, represent more than a temporary downturn in the Ulster Unionists' fortunes.

Bibliography

Buckland, Patrick , The Factory of Grievances: Devolved Government in Northern Ireland, 1921–39 (1979)
Cochrane, Feargal , Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism since the Anglo‐Irish Agreement (1997)
Hume, David , The Ulster Unionist Party 1972–1992: A Political Movement in an Era of Conflict and Change (1996)

Alvin Jackson

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) (Northern Ireland) The term ‘Unionist’ became prominent in British politics in 1886 when Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain formed the Liberal Unionists and allied with the Conservative Party. They were committed to maintaining the union of Ireland with the rest of the United Kingdom. As the issue remained at the centre of British politics, Conservatives and Liberal Unionists became known simply as ‘Unionists’. When Ireland was partitioned in 1921, Conservatives in Northern Ireland became known as the Ulster Unionist Party, and later the Official Unionist Party. This party formed the government at Stormont from 1921 until 1972, but it was subject to much internal tension from the 1960s, which resulted in Ian Paisley forming the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in 1971. The party was deeply divided over Faulkner's support for power-sharing, and he was replaced as leader in 1974 by Harry West. It faced opposition from a variety of other (mainly more hardline) Unionist groups in the 1970s, when it maintained its support for majority rule. James Molyneaux became party leader in 1979, and together with Ian Paisley he vigorously opposed the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.

In 1991 the UUP entered inter-party talks, and it did not oppose the 1993 Downing Street Declaration. David Trimble replaced Molyneaux as party leader in 1995. In general elections in the early 1990s, the UUP won around 35 per cent of the vote in Northern Ireland, and about ten seats in the British Parliament. However, its share of the vote dropped to 24.17 per cent in the elections of delegates to all-party peace talks in Northern Ireland (30 May 1996), with much support shifting to the more radical DUP. After the UUP received 21.3 per cent of the popular vote and 24 out of 108 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, Trimble became Northern Ireland's First Minister. The party continued to lose ground amongst its Protestant core over its preceived inability to deal with the IRA's equivocation in keeping the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. At the 2003 Assembly elections, its vote stabilized, but its result was eclipsed by that of the DUP, whose vote had increased sharply. The party was further weakened by subsequent defections of high-profile party members to the DUP.

http://www.uup.org

Ulster Unionist Party. Formed in 1904–5 as the Ulster Unionist Council to resist the threat of all-Ireland devolution, it consisted of representatives of local unionist institutions, the presbyterian church, the Orange order, and loyalist MPs. It brought protestant landowners, businessmen, and working class together successfully to oppose the third Home Rule Bill, 1912–14. It was led by southern unionist Sir Edward Carson 1910–21, and then by Sir James Craig, key organizer in the preceding period and the first Northern Ireland prime minister 1921–40. The Ulster Unionists became the single party controlling the Northern Ireland government and Parliament 1921–68, resisting constitutional reforms and concessions to the catholic minority until O'Neill's premiership in 1963. Representing highly conservative social and economic views, it always had locally based interests at heart. Through control of local and provincial government, it was frequently accused of gerrymandering and sectarianism. The civil rights crisis from 1967 and the reluctant involvement of the British government placed enormous strains on party unity and resulted in a challenge from traditional unionist sources. It divided over the power-sharing executive 1973–4, the majority deserting Brian Faulkner's leadership and helping its demise. Since then it has been under an increasing challenge from the Democratic Unionist Party, leaving it with primarily middle-class support. The UUP opposed the Anglo-Irish agreement 1985, but extremely cautiously supported the Downing Street declaration of 1993 and the Good Friday agreement of 1998. The latter placed a severe strain on the party as the IRA reneged upon its commitment to decommission its weapons. It suffered a crushing defeat in the general election of 2005, losing three seats to the DUP, Belfast South to the SDLP, and retaining only the seat for Down North. Its leader, David Trimble, defeated in Upper Bann, resigned at once.

Michael Hopkinson

Ulster Unionist Party Formed in 1904–5 as the Ulster Unionist Council to resist the threat of all‐Ireland devolution, it consisted of representatives of local unionist institutions, the presbyterian church, the Orange order, and loyalist MPs. It brought protestant landowners, businessmen, and working class together successfully to oppose the third Home Rule Bill, 1912–14. It was led by southern unionist Sir Edward Carson 1910–21, and then by Sir James Craig, key organizer in the preceding period and the first Northern Ireland prime minister 1921–40. The Ulster Unionists became the single party controlling the Northern Ireland government and Parliament 1921–68. The civil rights crisis from 1967 and the reluctant involvement of the British government placed enormous strains on party unity and resulted in a challenge from traditional unionist sources. It divided over the power‐sharing executive 1973–4, the majority deserting Brian Faulkner's leadership and helping its demise. It has remained the majority representative of Northern unionist opinion, despite an increasing challenge from the Democratic Unionist Party. The UUP opposed the Anglo‐Irish agreement 1985, but extremely cautiously supported the Downing Street declaration of 1993, and the Good Friday agreement of 1998. The latter placed a severe strain on the party as the IRA reneged on its commitment to decommission its weapons.

Ulster Unionist Parties Political parties in NORTHERN IRELAND supporting maintenance of the union with the UK. In 1886 Lord Hartington and Joseph CHAMBERLAIN formed the Liberal Unionists, allying with the Conservatives and pledging to maintain the Union of Ireland with the rest of the United Kingdom. In 1920, with the division of Ireland, the majority party in Northern Ireland was the Unionist wing of the Conservative Party, now calling itself the Ulster Unionists, under Sir James Craig, who was Prime Minister (1921–40). The party, supported by a Protestant electorate, continued to rule under his successors, until the imposition of direct rule from Westminster in 1972. The policy for handling the increased violence between Nationalists and Unionists after the civil rights campaign of 1968 led to divisions in the party, and in 1969 it split into the Official Ulster Unionist Party and the Protestant Unionist Party. The latter, led by the Revd Ian PAISLEY, was renamed in 1972 the Ulster Democratic Unionist Party, with policies more extreme than those of the Ulster Unionists (led, from 1979 to 1995, by James Molyneaux and from 1995 by David Trimble).

Ulster Unionist Labour Association. Created in July 1918 as a working-class adjunct to the Ulster Unionist Party, it benefited from the social Toryism of its patron, Edward Carson. The UULA won three of the eight Unionist seats in Belfast at the general election of December 1918; six UULA candidates were returned to the first Northern Irish Parliament in June 1921. Thereafter, the UULA parliamentary voice—a combination of deference and sectarianism—grew frailer, weakened by the retirement of Carson from politics in 1921 and by defeats in the 1925 Northern Ireland elections.

Alvin Jackson

Ulster Unionist Party Largest Loyalist party in Northern Ireland. It developed in the late 19th century to defend the six northern provinces of Ulster from Irish home rule and to maintain the union with Britain. Almost exclusively Protestant, it was the ruling party in Northern Ireland from 1922 until the imposition of direct rule from Westminster in 1972. In 1998, the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, became first minister of Northern Ireland.