In recent years, the historiography of southern Irish Protestants ― from the aristocracy to the occasional G.A.A. player ― and unionists, usually one and the same, has grown exponentially. Southern loyalists, a cohort that includes Catholics, have not figured as prominently. Somewhat unfortunately, as the editors of this volume admit in their afterword, it is once again Protestant loyalists who dominate this book, and they concede that the volume largely fails to deal with ‘the place of Catholic loyalists in the Irish Free State’ (p. 334). Quite simply, they might have been better advised to retitle the volume because Southern Irish loyalism will confuse readers with certain expectations. With that caveat out of the way, it is important to highlight the many positives of the volume.
Chronologically, the chapters span the period reaching from the beginning of the third home rule crisis in 1912 to the establishment of the Republic of Ireland in 1949. Its editors have gathered a mix of established and emerging scholars who present on fourteen topics, divided into four sections (while the editors contribute a well-crafted introduction and afterword).
Section one deals with the Protestant and unionist experience of revolution. B. M. Walker grounds his study in the reports of the Church of Ireland synods, a rich and illuminating source which provides a voice to the forgotten and Walker does glorious justice in articulating that voice. Elaine Callinan's study of voting patterns in the 1918 general election emphasises that unionists remained consistent in their pre-war opposition to home rule, whatever about Catholic loyalists. Donald Wood provides a chapter on the inter-censal Protestant population decline, between 1911 and 1926, a topic that has already received considerable attention from historians; his main contribution to the debate is that much of the decline was due to emigration. Finally, in this section, Frank Barry provides a welcome chapter on the unionist business community, a sub-set that has undoubtedly been neglected in the historiography of the post-independence period.
Section two focuses on loyalists in the British imperial services, mainly examined through the prism of their contributions to the war efforts between 1914 and 1918 and again from 1939 to 1945. In Sean William Gannon's chapter we get a rare and enriching glimpse of Catholic loyalist contribution to the imperial services after independence. One should not lose sight of the fact that because men and women signed up for imperial or colonial service, it did not necessarily mean they were supporters of ideological loyalism ― they were often simply looking for a job or a respectable career outlet. The prolific Ian d'Alton, writing in his usual engaging and always erudite style, broadens our understanding of southern Protestant involvement in both world wars, and his chapter is complemented well by contributions from Fionnuala Walsh on loyalist women and the war effort between 1914 and 1922, and Joseph Quinn concentrating on the Second World War. Walsh's use of Irish Grants Committee files provides a welcome perspective on the years after 1918. Like the I.R.A. pension files these must be treated with a degree of scepticism: for people in search of money, any truths will do.
In section three, the provincial experience, Alan McCarthy, writing on Henry Tivy, a Cork loyalist, illustrates how such a micro study can illuminate the local experience in complex politically and socially contested worlds. Seamus Cullen contrasts the different experience of loyalists in Kildare, a county much less affected by the brutal violence experienced for example in west Cork. Cullen correlates loyalism with the Protestant gentry but one suspects there was a very high proportion of Catholic loyalists in a county so closely tied to the British economy; the elaborate festooning of towns such as Naas and Maynooth prior to royal visits in the pre-war decades provides suggestive evidence. In his study of Waterford loyalists, Pat McCarthy repeats his assertion that ‘There is no evidence of any agrarian motivation in the Waterford burnings [of Big Houses]’ (p. 241). Yet, he cites Glascott Symes's study of Sir John Keane and Cappoquin House (2016), the central thesis of which contests that very notion. In other words, much more forensic examination of the motives for burnings in Waterford might be revelatory.
The ‘lost counties’ of section four ― Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal ― certainly have not been lost in the historiography of Protestant unionism to date. Some years ago, Daniel Purcell wrote to the Northern Standard ‘looking for personal documents such as diaries or letters that record the thoughts and experiences of Protestant ancestors during the years 1916 to 1923’. It is not clear from his chapter on Monaghan and Cavan if he succeeded, but if he did an explication would have provided a more original dimension to his chapter. Jonathan Cherry's fascinating case study of Lord Farnham, an Irish aristocrat who, having given his all to the empire only to be left bitter and broken (financially as well as emotionally), shows clearly there is still work to be done on the aristocracy post-independence, especially those left tauntingly (for them) along the border. Katherine Magee's chapter on Colonel J. G. Vaughan provides an interesting companion piece; like Farnham he felt it difficult to integrate but, in what Magee asserts was a deeply personal decision, he defied the partition of Ulster and took the short migration route into the United Kingdom.
In ‘Afterword: layers of loyalty’, the editors address much of what might have been illuminated in this volume. While it may have its deficiencies, the collection should certainly fulfil the editors’ final wishes that it will ‘spark further research into the complex questions of allegiance and identity in the history of this island’ (p. 338).
