Two nations theory (Ireland)
The Two Nations Theory holds that the Northern Ireland Protestants are a distinct Irish nation.
According to S.J. Connolly's Oxford Companion to Irish History (pg.585) this idea first appeared in the book Ulster As It Is (1896) by the Unionist Thomas MacKnight. It was also advocated by the Tory writer W.F. Monypenny in his 1913 book The Two Irish Nations:An Essay on Home Rule and was later taken up by the British Conservative politician Andrew Bonar Law. [1]
It was advanced in 1907 by the future Sinn Féin Supreme Court judge and Republican TD Arthur Clery in his book The Idea of a Nation. [2] Clery appears to have been motivated by his view of Irishness as essentially Gaelic and Catholic, and by the belief that partition would facilitate the achievement of Home Rule. He is unusual in supporting the "two nations" theory from a nationalist perspective; it is more usually advocated by Unionists.
Since most advocates of the "the Two Nations Theory" used the idea to oppose Home Rule and later to justify the partition of Ireland, it was strongly criticised by Irish Nationalists such as John Redmond (who famously stated that " the two nation theory' is to us an abomination and a blasphemy ")[3], Eamon De Valera [4] and somewhat later, Douglas Gageby.[5]
In 1962, the Dutch geographer M. W. Heslinga argued in his book The Irish Border as a Cultural Divide that there were good cultural reasons for the existence of the border. Paramount among these was religious difference which resulted in the partition of Ireland being a division between ‘two nations’ on the island of Ireland – the Catholic Irish nation in the Republic and Protestant Ulster nation in Northern Ireland. [6]
This view was also put forward by the Irish Communist Organisation in 1969 (later B&ICO), in response to the crisis in the north. On the basis of the Leninist theory of nationalities, they theorised that Ireland contained two overlapping nations and that it was necessary to recognise the rights of both.[7] [8] Jim Kemmy TD of the Democratic Socialist Party was influenced by these ideas.[9]
Around the same time, the Irish nationalist Desmond Fennell put forward the idea that the Ulster Protestants were a separate national group that had not been absorbed into the Irish nation and the solution to the conflict was joint administration of the Six Counties by the UK and Irish governments. Fennell put these ideas forward in articles for the Sunday Press and Irish Times: his 1973 pamphlet, "Towards a Greater Ulster", also outlines these ideas [10] [11].
The ideas of Conor Cruise O'Brien about Northern Ireland, especially in his book States Of Ireland (1973), were also labelled as “two nations theory” by some commentators. [12]
In a 1971 speech, Tomas Mac Giolla of Official Sinn Fein condemned O'Brien, Fennell and B&ICO's "two nations theories" as a capitulation to British imperialism [13]
A variation on this idea was discussed by David Miller in his study of the Ulster Protestants, Queen's Rebels. He argued that Ulster Protestants, while not a nation, were a pre-nationalist group (separate from Irish Catholics) that operated according to loyalty to the British Crown. He stated that there was thus a "nation" (Irish Catholic Nationalists) and a "community" (Irish Protestant Unionists) in Ireland.[14]
References
- ^ Ideology and the Irish Question: Ulster Unionism and Irish Nationalism 1912-1916 by Paul Bew,OUP, 1998.
- ^ The Idea of a Nation reprinted 2002 by University College Dublin Press; edited by Patrick Maume
- ^ Ireland, 1912-1985: Politics and Society by Joseph Lee, Cambridge University Press, 1989, pg. 15
- ^ The Politics of the Irish Civil War by Bill Kissane Published by Oxford University Press, 2005 Pg. 50
- ^ See Gageby's essay in Conor Cruise O'Brien Introduces Ireland by Owen Dudley Edwards and Conor Cruise O'Brien, Deutsch, 1969
- ^ The Irish border as a cultural divide : a contribution to the study of regionalism in the British Isles. (2nd. Edition) M. W. Heslinga ; Assen [Netherlands], Van Gorcum, 1979.
- ^ See,for instance, The Two Irish Nations: A Reply To Michael Farrell by the British and Irish Communist Organisation, Athol Books, 1971.
- ^ This led to their formation of the Workers Association for the Democratic Settment of the National Conflict in Ireland in an attempt to draw the left to a non-nationalist position. Its policy sought the ending of the Republic's claim in Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution to Northern Ireland. The ICO/B&ICO Two Nations idea is discussed in Ireland, Divided Nation,Divided Class by Austen Morgan and Bob Purdie, Ink Links, 1980.
- ^ John A. Murphy discusses Kemmy's Two-Nation Theory in Seanad Éireann,1981. [1]
- ^ For instance, see Fennell's article "Some New "Invisibles" for Old?" in the Irish Times, April 16, 1973.
- ^ Fennell claims part of his motivation for this scheme was his desire to protect the confessional nature of the Irish Republic from the secularisation that would be required to accommodate the influx of a large group of Protestants: See his book Heresy: the Battle of Ideas in Modern Ireland (Blackstaff, 1993).
- ^ See, for instance The Irish Question :Two Centuries of Conflict by John McCaffery,1995. p. 210 and A History of the Irish Working Class, by Peter Berresford Ellis, 1985. pg. 329
- ^ Reported in Irish Times, October 25, 1971.
- ^ Queen's Rebels : Ulster Loyalism in historical perspective by David W. Miller. Gill and Macmillan,1978.
External links
The Debate on the Irish National Question, by Robert Dorn [2]
How Many Nations are there in Ireland? by Michael Gallagher [3]
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