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The fissures that have split the United Kingdom in the last decades have run through Northern Ireland. Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the fragile peace has been threatened by Brexit, the rise and fall of the D U P and the failure of power-sharing arrangement between the main parties at the Stormont Assembly. As the very future of Northern Ireland is now in jeopardy, will Britain face up to its imperial legacy and address the deep inequalities that remain in the aftermath of the Troubles, and the uneven development of the 'New Ireland'?
Geoffrey Bell offers an insightful history of Ulster Unionism from the 1960s to the present day. In recent years this has come to a crisis point. What is the future of the Union in the post-Brexit reality? How will the relationship between Northern Ireland and Westminster develop? Can the United Kingdom survive?
List of contents
Chapter 1. "Crackpots"
Chapter 2. Precious Union
Chapter 3. The Appearance of Northern Ireland
Chapter 4. Betrayals
Chapter 5. Tories Out, DUP In!
Chapter 6. What About the Workers?
Chapter 7. The Not So Good Friday
Chapter 8. The Twilight of British Unionism?
Chapter 9. The Twilight of Ulster Unionism
About the author
Geoffrey Bell was born in Belfast and has written extensively about Ireland and British attitudes to 'The Troubles', past and recent, for print, television and exhibitions. These include Protestants of Ulster (Pluto), and Pack Up the Troubles (Channel Four).
Summary
The crisis of Ulster Unionism and the future of Northern Ireland
Report
Comprehensively accounts for the evolution, rise and current decline of 'Ulster' unionism and its settler-colonial interaction with British politics. Niall Meehan, author of The Embers of Revisionism
