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amework of the irish unionist alliance the ulster party began to develop its own distinct organisational structures and political goals from 1907 the iua s political activity was organised by the joint committee of the unionist associations of ireland jcuai 9 10 this body sought to coordinate the iua s election and lobbying activity whilst recognising the distinct differences between the northern and southern parties the prominence of the ulster unionist council quickly grew thanks to the strong unionist sentiment in ulster from 1910 it became the dominant force and focus of resistance in the irish unionist community 11 the jcuai was effectively controlled by ulstermen while the iua s leadership remained largely in the hands of southern unionists this led to the unionist movement gradually becoming ulsterised from 1910 which marginalised many more moderate unionists in the south 11 even so in 1913 as the third home rule bill passed through parliament the alliance appears to have become increasingly popular in the south and records show an increase in membership 12 division 1914 1922 edit the 1918 general election result in ireland showing the clear dominance of the iua in ulster relative to its weakness in the rest of ireland by 1914 the conflict of interest between the unionists in southern ireland and those in ulster was wracking the iua 13 it was known that the passage of a home rule bill for ireland was becoming increasingly likely and as a result many southern unionists began to seek a political compromise which would see their interests protected many unionists in the south became strongly opposed to any plan to partition the island as they knew that it would leave them isolated from the unionist majority areas several prominent southern unionists such as sir horace plunkett and lord monteagle became convinced that a degree of home rule was going to be necessary if ireland was to avoid partition and remain in the union 14 others such as the anti partition party leader the 9th viscount midleton later created the 1st earl of midleton in 1920 resented the growing dominance of ulstermen in the party 15 self published source lord midleton and his supporters feared that the ulster wing of the party now more formally organised as the ulster unionist party would abandon the south in order to gain a favourable settlement for the north from the british government 16 in october 1913 the vice chairman of the iua g f stewart had written to its leader sir edward carson to complain that southern concerns were being ignored 17 several large unionist demonstrations took place in dublin in early 1914 in which protesters complained as much about the ulster unionists as the irish nationalists 17 despite these internal difficulties between september 1911 and july 1914 the joint committee of the unionist associations of ireland continued its campaign across the british isles in this period the iua distributed an estimated six million pamphlets and booklets throughout britain canvassed 1 5 million voters and arranged 8 800 meetings 18 edward carson led the irish unionist parliamentary party from 1910 and 1921 during which time the party became increasingly divided between northern and southern unionist interests the internal divisions simmered during the first world war southern unionist members sided with irish nationalists against the ulster unionists during the 1917 18 irish convention in an attempt to bring about an understanding on the implementation of the suspended home rule act 1914 19 the alliance s official opposition to partition led to it being marginalised in the 1918 general election which showed the rising influence of the republican sinn féin party on the one hand and the strength of ulster unionist council on the other despite this the alliance won its largest number of seats with the iua candidate managing to win a surprise victory in rathmines against the backdrop of the subsequent irish war of independence unionists began to openly disagree at a meeting of the party on molesworth street dublin on 24 january 1919 lord midleton proposed a motion to the party which would have denied ulster unionists a say on government proposals affecting the south of ireland 13 the motion was defeated with a majority of both southern and northern unionists rejecting the plan ulster unionists believed that the motion would have the effect of dividing the unionist cause the party split anyway with lord midleton and senior southern leaders forming the break away unionist anti partition league that same day 20 many ordinary members of the southern iua protestant farmers shopkeepers and clergymen initially stayed with the remaining rump of the iua in the south led by the 11th baron farnham a county cavan landowner 13 although the iua hoped to play a part in the parliament of southern ireland envisaged under the 1920 home rule act the parliament never functioned the irish times said to be the voice of southern unionists realised that the 1920 act would not work and argued from late 1920 for dominion home rule the compromise that was eventually agreed upon in the 1921 22 anglo irish treaty under the treaty northern ireland became a part of the irish free state from its creation on 6 december 1922 the parliament of northern ireland voted to leave the free state two days later irish free state edit the split effectively ended the realistic electoral chances of the irish unionist alliance in what became the irish free state 15 the results of the 1920 irish local elections show that outside of ulster unionist support was strongest in urban areas as the partition of ireland became more likely southern unionists those unionists outside of nine county ulster formed numerous political movements in an attempt to find a solution to the irish question among these were the irish dominion league 21 and the irish centre party 22 as such the southern rump of the iua became increasingly fractured and in 1922 it lost its reason to exist with the establishment of the irish free state leading unionist figures such as the 1st earl of midleton as he had become in 1920 the 4th earl of dunraven and mount earl the 1st baron glenavy and sir horace plunkett were appointed in december 1922 by w t cosgrave to the free state s first senate 23 24 amongst others sir horace plunkett s home in county dublin was then burnt down during the irish civil war 1922 23 because of his involvement in the irish senate the iua helped form the southern irish loyalist relief association to assist war refugees and claim compensation for damage to property 25 26 27 from 1921 iua voters began to support the mainstream cumann na ngaedheal party in the 1923 election three formerly loyalist businessmen were elected as the business and professional group from 1921 to 1991 the proportion of southern irish protestants declined from 10 to 3 of the population these had provided the bulk of the iua s support base 28 unionists continued to have a majority on rathmines council until 1929 when the iua s successors lost their last elected representatives in the irish free state northern ireland edit in northern ireland unionists of the ulster unionist party uup previously known as the ulster unionist council continued to dominate domestic politics the party would hold its powerful position in the unionist community for much of the rest of the twentieth century until the rise of the democratic unionist party dup in the late 1980s general election results edit graph of irish uk mps 1885 1918 in numbers election house of commons seats government votes 1892 25th parliament 19 103 liberal victory 12 5 1895 26th parliament 17 103 conservative and liberal unionist victory 1900 27th parliament 17 103 conservative and liberal unionist victory 32 2 1906 28th parliament 16 103 liberal victory 42 7 1910 jan 29th parliament 18 103 liberal government in hung parliament 32 7 1910 dec 30th parliament 16 103 liberal government in hung parliament 28 6 1918 31st parliament 25 105 coalition victory 25 3 note results from ireland for the uk general elections contested by the irish unionist alliance 29 these figures do not include mps elected for the liberal unionists who were officially a separate party iua mps sat with the liberal unionists and conservatives at westminster and were often simply called conservatives or unionists support base edit southern unionists edit northern ireland and the republic of ireland after partition the leadership of southern unionism was dominated by wealthy well educated men who wanted to live in ireland felt british and irish and who had irish roots many were members of the privileged anglo irish class who valued their cultural affiliations with the british empire and had close personal connections to the aristocracy in britain 30 this led to their pejorative description by some opponents as west brits 31 they were generally members of the anglican church of ireland although there were several notable catholic unionists such as the 5th earl of kenmare and sir antony macdonnell many of the iua s leading figures were associated with the kildare street club a gentleman s club in dublin the electoral support base of the iua in southern ireland was largely drawn from its protestant population many of whom were farmers small business owners or church of ireland clergymen in 1913 the iua had a southern core of 683 members with approximately 300 000 supporters spread across the three southern provinces 32 33 34 in march 1919 sir maurice dockrell told the house of commons that the supporting population was about 350 000 35 the iua never achieved mass party status in the south its local branches varied in strength and generally followed geographic patterns of protestant population density as a result the iua s support base was severely limited to certain sections of the population described as usually being protestant anglicised propertied and aristocratic 32 although their numbers were small a considerable amount of industry in southern ireland had been developed indigenously by southern unionist supporters these included jacob s biscuits bewley s beamish and crawford brown thomas cantrell cochrane denny s sausages 36 findlaters 37 jameson s whiskey w p r odlum cleeve s r h hall dockrell s arnott s elverys goulding chemicals smithwick s the irish times and the guinness brewery then southern ireland s largest company they controlled financial entities such as the bank of ireland and goodbody stockbrokers they were concerned that a new home rule state might create new taxes between them and their markets in britain and the empire that would add to their costs and probably reduce sales and therefore employment many southern unionist landowners had inherited large estates from 1903 many of these were persuaded to sell land to their tenant farmers under the land purchase ireland act 1903 as a group southern unionist landowners were richer than their fellow irishmen by about 90 million by 1914 which would either stay in the irish economy given a favourable political arrangement or leave if the outcome appeared too uncertain or too radical 38 this temporarily gave them a voice far beyond their number in the irish electorate some of the more progressive supporters of the iua attempted to introduce a moderate form of devolution through the irish reform association many southern unionists were members of the landed gentry and these were prominent in horse breeding and racing and as british army officers southern unionists are regarded as having been considerably less confrontational than their ulster neighbours 39 they were always in the minority in southern ireland and many had close personal connections with figures in nationalist politics as a group they never threatened or organised violence in order to resist home rule or partition and were generally placid in their politics 40 lord midleton described southern unionists as lacking political insight and cohesion and restricting themselves to the easy task of attending meetings in dublin 39 in discussing problems of civic morality in 2011 in the republic of ireland former taoiseach garret fitzgerald remarked that before 1922 in ireland a strong civic sense did exist but mainly amongst protestants and especially anglicans 41 ulster unionists edit ulster unionists were largely protestant presbyterians rather than anglicans the ulster support base was considerably more working class than in the south although often led by aristocrats the iua attracted high levels of support in some of the poorer areas of belfast many ulster unionists were also drawn from the province s prosperous middle class who had benefited greatly from heavy industrialisation in the region as such many in northern ireland supported unionism due to the industrial growth of belfast after 1850 which depended on the economic integrity of the union the protestant religious composition and concentration motivation and ethos of the ulster unionists made its wing of the iua distinct from unionists in the south and a fear of rome rule the worry about a catholic controlled irish parliament dominated the political discourse these factors made ulster unionists noticeably more confrontational and violent in their political rhetoric and action 39 in the tense period between the parliament act 1911 and the home rule act 1914 the ulster unionists created their own paramilitary group the ulster volunteers raising the spectre of civil war the volunteer force was created by the leader of the irish unionist alliance edward carson this tradition of resistance to irish nationalism would later manifest itself in groups such as the ulster defence association and the ulster volunteer force during the troubles leadership edit the irish unionist alliance had no formal method of electing and deposing of its leadership and leaders of the iua were more informally acknowledged by other prominent figures the party s first leader was colonel edward james saunderson a former conservative member of parliament who was most active in attempting to create an all ireland unionist movement towards the end of the party s existence leadership became fractured between the northern and southern unionist movements within the alliance leaders edit name tenure the right honourable edward james saunderson mp for north armagh 1891 1906 the right honourable walter long mp for south dublin 1906 1910 the right honourable sir edward carson mp for dublin university 1910 1921 the 9th viscount midleton 1910 1919 created 1st earl of midleton in 1920 as leader of the southern unionists the 11th baron farnham 1919 1922 as leader of the southern unionists notes edit jones thomas 1971 whitehall diary volume 3 toronto oxford university press p 8 isbn 0 19 211711 4 b m walker political affiliations in parliamentary election results in ireland 1801 1922 royal irish academy 1978 xiv alvin jackson the oxford handbook of modern irish history oxfo...