The lives and experiences of southern Irish loyalists are still mostly absent from the historiography of the Irish Revolution and early years of the Free State, so Southern Irish Loyalism, 1912–1949, edited by Brian Hughes and Conor Morrissey, is a welcome addition to the field. This collection is wide-ranging, and over the course of fourteen chapters, the contributors cover a variety of experiences in the new southern state, with four thematic sections: “Crisis and Decline? Protestants and Unionists in Revolution,” “Servants of the Crown,” “The Provincial Experience” and “Lost Counties? Loyalism at the Border.” The discussion of how individuals and groups resisted or accommodated themselves to the new state and the variety of regional experiences is particularly illuminating.

In their introduction, Hughes and Morrissey claim that this volume is designed to reveal the “outlook, perspective, or economic choice” (2) that defined loyalists, rejecting the notion that the central conflict of Irish history was self-evidently ethno-religious in nature. They also discuss the interesting idea that “political unionism rebranded itself as cultural royalism” (19) first proposed by Ian d'Alton (one of the volume's contributors). However, these promises of cultural exploration are not really fulfilled, with the majority of the essays largely concerned with Unionists and Protestants, with Catholic loyalists only really considered by Frank Barry and Seán William Gannon. Another notable lacuna is the female experience, whose attraction as an electorate is briefly considered by Elaine Callinan but receives sustained analysis only in Fionnuala Walsh's discussion of loyalist women and philanthropic service between 1914 and 1922.

Donald Wood's essay opens the first section with a discussion of Protestant population decline from 1911 to 1926. While the figures for this are not in dispute, Wood does challenge David Fitzpatrick's analysis, proposed in Descendancy: Irish Protestant Histories since 1795 (2014) and elsewhere, suggesting Protestant infertility. A detailed analysis of the Unionist electoral campaign of 1918 is provided by Callinan, emphasizing their use of First World War rhetoric and attempts to appeal to women. Brian M. Walker uses the public speeches of prominent members of the Church of Ireland to explore how Protestants fared during the upheaval of the revolutionary years and to reject the thesis of “ethnic cleansing” (92). The economic adjustment of the southern unionist business community to the policies of the Free State is illuminated by Frank Barry, who emphasizes the relief of producers that Cumann na nGaedheal governments maintained access to external markets and pursued fiscally conservative policies.

The second of the volume's themes is that of service to the British crown and the corresponding section opens with Ian d'Alton's very personal exploration of Irish military service in the two World Wars. He illustrates that while the importance of imperial military service was central to (certain) Protestant conceptions of their identity, during the Second World War it was also combined with a pragmatic support for the official policy of neutrality. Similar themes are pursued later in the section by Joseph Quinn, who illuminates the complexity of the attitudes of Irish Protestants toward the war, supporting the British war effort while simultaneously defending Irish neutrality. Fionnuala Walsh assesses the service of Irish women in medical, philanthropic and war relief organizations in support of the imperial war effort up until 1922. The contribution of Irishmen to imperial administration is analyzed by Seán William Gannon, framing service overseas as a loyalist escape route from a hostile Free State. The continuing connection to and service in the British Empire after independence is an area ripe for further study into which this chapter provides a fascinating glimpse.

The final two sections pursue a regional approach, with three chapters exploring loyalism in Cork, Waterford, and Kildare and three considering Ulster loyalism in Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal. Individual experiences come to the fore, with Alan McCarthy reflecting on the rise and fall of newspaper proprietor Henry Lawrence Tivy in Cork, and his “lengthy political journey from conservative unionist to Free State sympathiser” (220). Pat McCarthy similarly considers the political adaptions made by Waterford loyalists between 1912 and 1924, who first found common ground with moderate Redmondite nationalists during the Great War and later supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the opportunities presented by the new state. The fortunes of loyalists in County Kildare were inextricably tied to the fate of the British garrison in the county, and Seamus Cullen demonstrates how they benefited from a greater sense of security until the withdrawal of the British Army in 1922.

The experiences of loyalists in Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal were distinct from those of loyalists elsewhere in the country, not fitting neatly into the categories of either Ulster Unionist or Southern Unionist. Signatories of the Ulster Covenant in 1912, these loyalists were later abandoned by their Ulster political allies. The chapters in this final section of the book demonstrate the acute sense of alienation that many felt. Daniel Purcell ably discusses the problem of maintaining an Ulster cultural identity in the era of partition and how this led to higher levels of loyalist militancy in Cavan and Monaghan before an accommodation with the Free State could occur. A similar journey to coexistence is the major theme of Jonathan Cherry's chapter detailing the political life of Lord Farnham of Cavan, encompassing periods of exile in Britain before returning to Ireland and adaptation to life in the Free State. Farnham's trajectory contrasts sharply with that of Colonel J. G. V. Hart of County Donegal, who felt entirely alienated from the Free State, petitioning the Boundary Commission for all his land to be transferred to Northern Ireland before eventually relocating there himself in 1927.

Overall, the chapters in this volume provide a variety of insights into the southern Irish loyalist experience in the early years of the new state, illuminating previously shadowy aspects of their political, cultural, and economic life. In addition to being of interest to scholars of Irish Unionism and Protestantism, this book will be of use to those interested in local politics, social upheaval during the revolution, and Irish service in the military and imperial civil service.