Episode 7 - Panel 2b - Southern Irish Loyalists in a garrison county: Kildare Unionism, 1912-23 - Seamus Cullen

Southern Irish Loyalism in Context

The proposed paper is a study of the Southern Unionist community in County Kildare in a time of social and political upheaval. Kildare, in contrast to other counties outside Ulster, was different due to the presence of substantial British army garrisons stationed in the county. With the military at times peaking at ten percent of the population, Unionists in Kildare at all levels in society forged strong connections with the army. During the revolutionary period until the departure of the British army in 1922 the community enjoyed the security associated with living in a garrison county where violence so prevalent elsewhere in the country was at a minimum. The tiny community enjoyed strong representation in the House of Lords, and also at the Irish Convention of 1917, they also held a dominant influence in the local judiciary and police. While organising and participating in opposition to home rule in 1912, Unionist political involvement particularly in a public manner diminished. The strong commitment of Protestants and Unionists to the war effort weakened the Unionist community in Kildare which included a large Catholic membership. The inability of the Kildare Unionists to reactivate their movement after the war effectively isolated them from a political future although attempts were made to reach accommodation with moderate nationalists when partition seemed a reality. Unionists in Kildare did not experience the same level of violence that loyalists in neighbouring counties suffered, although some high-profile incidents occurred during the Civil War. In post-independence Kildare while the Unionist population declined individuals from a Unionist background continued to play a disproportionate role in the economy, large scale farming and the professions. Seamus Cullen is a historian and author who has published a number of books including ‘Fugitive Warfare’ a history of the 1798 Rising and The Emmet Rising in Kildare. Throughout his career as a historian, Seamus has studied many areas of history, archaeology and geography and holds an M Phil on Modern History from TCD. He is at present a research student at St Patrick’s DCU and his area of study is the Irish Revolution in Kildare. Seamus Cullen’s personal web-site includes more than fifty history articles, written and previously published by S. Cullen. http://seamuscullen.net/index.html.