Ulster Movement for Self-Determination

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The Ulster Movement for Self-Determination was a minor Ulster nationalist political movement in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Part of the United Kingdom lying in the north-east of the island of Ireland, created 1921

Northern Ireland is variously described as a country, province or region which is part of the United Kingdom. Located in the north-east of the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2011, its population was 1,810,863, constituting about 30% of the island's total population and about 3% of the UK's population. Established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Assembly holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the British government. Northern Ireland co-operates with the Republic of Ireland in several areas, and the Agreement granted the Republic the ability to "put forward views and proposals" with "determined efforts to resolve disagreements between the two governments".

The UMSD was formed in 1986, after emerging from the Ulster Clubs. [1] The group took as its emblem a map of the nine counties of Ulster and, in contrast to other strains of Ulster nationalism that have developed, felt that independence for Northern Ireland should be accompanied by repartition, creating the historic Ulster as an independent state by also incorporating the counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan from the Republic of Ireland. [2] This position was confirmed by an anonymous UMSD spokesman who described the three counties as "our rightful heritage" in an interview with John Coulter of the Sunday News in 1987. [3] In a further interview the following year Coulter said that the spokesman suggested either the Reverend Hugh Ross or David Trimble as a potential leader for the proposed independent state. [4]

The Ulster Clubs was the name given to a network of Unionist organisations founded in Northern Ireland in November 1985. Emerging from an earlier group based in Portadown, the Ulster Clubs briefly mobilised wide support across Northern Ireland and sought to coordinate opposition to the development of closer relations between the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The group's motto was "hope for the best and prepare for the worst".

Counties of Ireland Administrative division of Ireland, historically 32 in number

The counties of Ireland are sub-national divisions that have been, and in some cases continue to be, used to geographically demarcate areas of local government. These land divisions were formed following the Norman invasion of Ireland in imitation of the counties then in use as units of local government in the Kingdom of England. The older term ‘shire’ was historically equivalent to ‘county’. The principal function of the county was to impose royal control in the areas of taxation, security and the administration of justice at the local level. Cambro-Norman control was initially limited to the southeastern parts of Ireland; a further four centuries elapsed before the entire island was shired. At the same time, the now obsolete concept of county corporate elevated a small number of towns and cities to a status which was deemed to be no less important than the existing counties in which they lay. This double control mechanism of 32 counties plus 10 counties corporate remained unchanged for a little over two centuries until the early 19th century. Since then, counties have been adapted and in some cases divided by legislation to meet new administrative and political requirements.

Ulster nationalism

Ulster nationalism is a minor school of thought in Northern Ireland politics that seeks the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom without joining the Republic of Ireland, thereby becoming an independent sovereign state separate from both.

The UMSD, which grew out of Ulster loyalism but never had the backing of any paramilitary group (or indeed, even minor support), failed to gain any foothold in Northern Irish politics and was gone by 1994. [5] The actual fate of the group is unclear, although it has been suggested that it formed the basis of the Ulster Independence Committee and was thus effectively replaced by the higher profile Ulster Independence Movement. [6]

Ulster loyalism Pro-UK political alignment in Northern Ireland

Ulster loyalism is a political ideology found primarily among Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland who maintain a strong desire to remain part of the United Kingdom. Many Ulster Protestants are descendants of settlers from Great Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. Like most unionists, loyalists are attached to the British monarchy, support the continued existence of Northern Ireland, and oppose a united Ireland. Ulster loyalism has been described as a kind of ethnic nationalism and "a variation of British nationalism". It is strongly associated with paramilitarism.

The Ulster Independence Movement was an Ulster nationalist political party founded on 17 November 1988. The group emerged from the Ulster Clubs, after a series of 15 public meetings across Northern Ireland. Led by Hugh Ross, a Presbyterian minister from Dungannon, County Tyrone, the UIC sought to end what it saw as the tyranny of rule from London and instead set up an independent Northern Ireland.

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Irish republicanism is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland. The development of nationalist and democratic sentiment throughout Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was reflected in Ireland in the emergence of republicanism, in opposition to British rule. This followed hundreds of years of British conquest and Irish resistance through rebellion. Discrimination against Catholics and nonconformists, attempts by the British administration to suppress Irish culture, and the belief that Ireland was economically disadvantaged as a result of the Acts of Union were among the specific factors leading to such opposition.

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References

  1. ↑ Frequently Asked Questions from Ulster Nation website
  2. ↑ 'Racism: The Social Cancer' from An Phoblacht
  3. ↑ Sean McPhilemy, The Committee - Political Assassination in Northern Ireland, Niwot, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart, 1998, p. 11
  4. ↑ McPhilemy, The Committee, p. 13
  5. ↑ 'Unionism in the Dáil' from An Phoblacht
  6. ↑ McPhilemy, The Committee, p. 30


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