The Ulster Unionist Party and the Orange Order dominated the political landscape of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland for most of the 20th century. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of how the Unionist Party's grassroots mobilized against the reforms and for tough action against the developing IRA campaign.

The first systematic social history of the Orange Order. Based on unprecedented access to the Order's archives, the book charts the Order's path from the peak of its influence, in the early 1960s, to its present crisis, and argues that the traditional Unionism of the past is giving way to a more militant form which is winning the hearts of the younger generation.

A compelling narrative of contemporary Ireland from one of its most highly respected historians The Ireland of today is a place poised between the divisiveness of deep-seated conflict and the modernizing pull of material prosperity. Though each state's history is strikingly divergent, the mirroring ideologies that fuel them are remarkably symbiotic. With Ireland Since 1939, one of the most distinguished Irish historians working today casts a fresh and unpredictable eye to Ireland's history from World War II up through the present to show how-by putting aside its North/South conflict-Ireland can look forward to a prosperous economic future.

Argues that unionism in Northern Ireland can best protect the British link by developing a more sophisticated civic unionism, with an enlarged vision of the scope and nature of politics. This edition also covers the peace talks, the Belfast Agreement and the Assembly elections of June 1998.

Barton and Roche have drawn on the expertise of leading Irish historians to examine the history and political/ideological character of Irish nationalism and unionism and the origins and implementation of Partition. The book also draws on the expertise of historians, political analysts and economists to explore 'North-South relations' in post-Partition Ireland and the extent of socio-economic and political discrimination in Northern Ireland after 1920. The Northern Ireland Question: Nationalism, Unionism and Partition offers a 'revisionist' challenge to Irish nationalist claims (in, for example, the Report of the New Ireland Forum published in 1984) about the nature and extent of 'discrimination' in Northern Ireland and to Irish nationalist claims about the economic viability of the political uniication of Ireland. The book concludes with an overview of unionist and nationalist thinking in the 1990s during the crucial period of the beginning of the 'peace process' and the negotiations that led to the Belfast Agreement in 1998.

The Orange Order remains the largest organization in Northern Irish civil society, with a membership exceeding the combined total of all the political parties in the region. This book provides the first comprehensive membership survey of the Orange Order. Loyal to the Core? draws upon a detailed study of the Orange Order and on a wealth of individual interviews with Orange leaders and the Order's grassroots base. It begins with a historical outline of the Order's development, before turning to a detailed assessment of its contemporary struggle for relevance amid political marginalization, secularism, and diminished benefits to its membership. The book charts the views of members on how to adapt to external changes, explores the sense of belonging provided by membership, analyzes the repositories of loyalty that fuel their sense of Britishness, and assesses how the century-old relationship with the Ulster Unionist Party was replaced by a shift in allegiances. The book also examines the calls for Unionist unity made by the leadership and analyzes the membership's desire for a broad Unionist front.

Defenders of the Union is a concise and readable overview of the history and contentious politics of Unionism and the affect it has had on Anglo-Irish relations over the last two hundred years. It is an essential guide to this confusing topic and covers key areas such as: * definition of unionism * establishment of the union * Unionist literature * loyalists since 1972.