Devolution

The Decline of the Loyal Family?:
Popular Unionism and the Devolution Process
Henry Patterson, Eric Kaufmann

In Brief
The project will explore the relationship between popular Unionism, in the form of the Orange Order and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and the devolution process. It will examine the hypothesis that both the quantity and quality of popular Unionism significantly affect the scope for devolution.

Context
Many current analyses of devolution locate its origins in minority nationalism, while neglecting the critical dimension of Unionism – the majority’s ‘nationalism’. Even where Unionism is addressed, as in Northern Ireland, too much attention is focussed on the relatively marginal activities of the paramilitaries or the Democratic Unionist Party’s more flamboyant variety of Unionism while neglecting the mainstream Orange Order and the Ulster Unionist Party.

The impetus behind this research springs from two sources: one contemporary, the other theoretical. We will be addressing the contemporary issues by way of an in-depth analysis of the UUP and the Orange Order. This Northern Ireland research will feed into our theoretical mission to test the theory that the quantity and quality of popular Unionist ‘nationalism’ greatly affects the scope for devolution.

Objectives
The aim of the research is to explore the changing relationship between the different structures and contexts of devolution and popular Unionism. It will:

Collect and analyse primary source documentary and interview data on the Ulster Unionist Party from partition to the present
Collect and analyse primary source quantitative and qualitative (documentary and interview) on the Orange Order in Northern Ireland in the twentieth century
Contribute to the development of theories of social and political change, both within Northern Ireland and at a more general level
Contribute to academic and lay knowledge of popular Unionism by disseminating research in the form of data sets, conference papers, workshop presentations, project updates, journal articles and books
Contribute to the policymaking process in Northern Ireland by disseminating the research to British and Irish officials, the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister, non-governmental organisations and government-sponsored research centres.

Research Plan
The project will use both qualitative and quantitative methods. On the Ulster Unionist Party an historical frame of reference will be provided by research on the Ulster Unionist Council Papers in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland .

This work will be supplemented by extensive structured interviews with rank-and-file UUP members from across the Province. Research on the Orange Order will be based on documentary evidence from Orange lodge archives . These will be compared, using statistical techniques, with material from the census, family expenditure surveys, police records and attitude surveys to explain which factors - techno-economic changes, political events or cultural shifts – tend to affect Orange membership in the longer term.

The detailed research will provide the basis for an analysis of the dynamics of Unionist identity (i.e. ethnic vs civic, Britannic vs Ulster-Protestant, singular vs multiple). It will also illuminate some of the important institutional mechanics within the UUP and the social bases of pro and anti-Agreement sentiment.