This thesis examines the impact of the Irish revolution on the communities of east Ulster between the years 1920 and 1922. It focuses on the mainly Protestant counties of Antrim and Down where loyalist violence was more intense and frequent than that of republicans. The aim is to explore the nature of loyalist violence and its relationship with the wider conflict in Ireland. Historians have focused their efforts on republican and state violence. By utilising hitherto unused sources, this thesis sheds light on the factors that shaped loyalist violence. It explores the importance of how events in southern Ireland influenced conflict in the north-east. Other factors are considered, such as the role of crowd psychology and territoriality. Loyalist rioters believed they acted on behalf of the unionist community, but the attitudes of ordinary unionists to violence were wide-ranging. This thesis explores these attitudes alongside the dynamics of popular unionist politics. It discovers that the unionist community harboured a diverse range of views on violence, the Unionist party leadership, nationalists and the British government. Many unionists took an active part in the revolution, most clearly by enrolling in the Ulster Special Constabulary. Questions are asked of this force, such as who joined and why. It is argued that ordinary people enrolled and in terms of occupational background the B Specials largely reflected east Ulster society. The assumption that the u.s.c. was recruited from more extreme unionists is challenged and structural explanations are offered for acts of unauthorised violence from special constables. The place of the nationalist community within the context of revolution and unionist militancy receives detailed attention. Nationalists were deeply divided between Sinn Fein and constitutionalists. This thesis offers insight on how this division manifested itself in east Ulster and how nationalists reacted to the revolution.

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This thesis focuses on the use of internment in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. It argues that internment has not been given proper academic attention and needs reappraisal. Central to my analysis are the initial years of internment, and subsequent events, which 1 believe to be necessary in any attempt to reanalyse why "The Troubles" escalated in the mann.er they did. My research centres on three main areas: l.The high politics surrounding the introduction of the measure and an assessment of the intelligence available for the initial arrest operation, 2. An examination of the repercussions of the internment period up to 1975, 3, The development of the dynamics of the conflict, outside of Belfast and Londonderry between 1970 and 1972. In researching the areas outside of the two main cities I provide a detailed study of four provincial towns; Lurgan (County Armagh), Newry (County Down), Dungannon (County Tyrone) and Enniskillen (County Fermanagh). The local section will form a substantial part of the thesis.

This thesis is a study of social and cultural change in rural Northern Ireland from the outbreak of the Second . World War in 1939 to the late 1960s, a period in which rural society was undergoing transition. This study charts the progress of that transition, addressing the ambiguity of a period in which rural people were faced with the struggle between old and new, the narrowing gap between country and city and the loss of rural identity that came with modernisation and standardisation. This thesis also, examines how rural life in the middle decades of the twentieth century is explored in imaginative literature about the countryside written at the time and in the recorded memory of rural. people casting a backward glance on their own past. This study, therefore, not only provides a social and cultural history of rural Northern Ireland during the 1940s and 1950s, but it also examines how this rural society in transition was both represented and remembered. The thesis begins with a chapter which examines the ways in which the Second World War acted as a catalyst for change in the Northern Ireland countryside. Chapter two and three explore how this process of change continued in the post-war period, looking at how ordinary rural people adapted to social reform and cultural evolution. Chapter four considers literary interpretations of the rural at time when traditional rural identities were under threat. Finally, this thesis argues that the process of accelerated change that took place in rural Northern Ireland from the 1940s to the 1960s has had a significant impact on how this period is remembered by rural people. Rural life underwent such a transformation during this time, and so few tangible links to the past remain, that those looking back often do so with nostalgia.

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This dissertation examines the career of Sir Douglas Savory, M.P., a British/lrish unionist and Conservative politician. The two main themes examined in this dissertation are the influence of both Ulster unionism and evangelical Anglicanism on Savory's political thought and activities. The dissertation gives insight into developments within twentieth century Ulster unionism and the construction of Northern Irish public culture. Examining Savory's career shows how a particular individual who began as an outsider cultivated a place at the heart of Northern Irish public life, through education, religion, and politics. The way in which he rose to prominence demonstrates the role of Queen's University Belfast and its academics in formulating policy in government. Savory became a key figure in unionist propaganda, publishing a series of pamphlets disseminating unionist political ideas during the Second World War and post-war period. The influence of religion on Savory's political thought and ideas gives particular insight into the religious strand within unionism. Savory's unionism and evangelical Protestantism made him an active campaigner on behalf of numerous causes beyond Northern Ireland, including religious minorities such as the Waldensians and the Moravians, political minorities such as the Heligolanders and the Danish-speaking people of South Schleswig, and Poland. He was motivated to defend groups with which he identified; in almost all cases, he perceived the groups for which he advocated as facing analogous plights to that faced by Ulster unionists. This demonstrates that his interest in these groups, while genuine, was also shaped by a degree of self-interest, as the way he framed these groups also helped to legitimise Ulster unionists. This dissertation examines themes of relevance to both Ulster unionism and evangelical Anglicanism, adding to scholarly understanding of these systems of thought and belief.

This thesis is an examination of how the Second World War has been commemorated in Northern Ireland. It seeks to explore how popular and official understandings of the war were constructed around two key moments. Primarily, it looks at the Victory celebrations to mark the end of the war in the West in May 1945. Secondly, it examines the importance of the publication of the official war history Northern Ireland in the Second World War in November 1956. By looking closely at how the Northern Irish government planned for the victory celebrations and how this ritual unfolded, we can reveal much about Northern Irish society at the end of the war. This thesis shows that the state-led, official commemoration served only to alienate the Catholic community. Exploring how the Northern Irish press recorded this event highlights the underlying tensions existing between both communities at the time. This thesis argues that the Northern Irish government used the victory celebrations to project a positive image of itself to the British government. Equally, in 1940 the Northern Irish government rather pre-emptively commissioned the writing of its own official war history, separate from the United Kingdom Official War History Series. This decision, taken by the Northern Irish government, was intended to ensure that Northern Ireland’s role in the war would never be forgotten. After 1945, the unionist government, preoccupied with securing its constitutional positioning within the United Kingdom, intended to make this official history a permanent memorial to Northern Ireland’s contribution to the war. Written, therefore, to exaggerate Northern Ireland’s part in the war, this official war history can be seen as a reflection of unionist insecurity. It is through these commemorative processes that ideas of national identity and belonging are explored.

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