عنوان

'To raise the banner in the remote North' :

TLets349183

'To raise the banner in the remote North' :

[Thesis]

McGimpsey, Christopher David

Politics in County Monaghan, 1868-1883.

University of Edinburgh

1982

Ph.D.

University of Edinburgh

1982

This study examines the evolution of the political processin the Ulster county of Monaghan during the period 1868-1883.Considerable attention has been given to the social, economicand geographic features from the end of the sixteenth century.In addition, a survey of the parliamentary representation ofMonaghan from the Act of Union to the general election of 1865has been undertaken. This extended treatment of the socioeconomicand political background is regarded as essential to aclear appreciation of political behaviour at constituency levelin the later nineteenth century.The period 1865-1883 saw a most significant change in theparliamentary representation of the county. Monaghan had alwaysbeen regarded as a stronghold of Irish Conservatism, albeit withoccasional Whig interludes. In 1865 one of the seats was capturedfrom the Tories by a member of the local Liberal ascendancy.Our period, then, opened with the representation of Monaghan splitbetween the two major British parties.The 'Disestablishment Election' of 1868 saw the Conservativesregain control of the county's second seat. Thereafter thatparty's hegemony was threatened first by the conservative constitutionalnationalism of the Home Government Association and later,in 1880, by the Ulster Liberals. Advocating strong tenant rightprinciples, the Liberal party nominees defeated both Conservativemembers. The result appeared to be a vindication of non-sectarianclass politics. The key to victory had been held by a relativelysmall number of Liberal Presbyterian tenant farmers.In 1883 one of the M. Ps. resigned, and the ensuing byelectionpitted a local Liberal Presbyterian against a Conservativeand Tim Healy, the nominee of Charles Stewart Parnell andthe Irish National Party. The result saw a narrow victory for theNationalist candidate over his Conservative counterpart with theLiberal receiving an embarrassingly small vote.The massive decline in the Liberal vote between the contestsof 1880 and 1883 looks anomalous. However, it is argued herethat the 1880 result reflected an anti-Conservative rather than apro-Liberal vote on the part of the Catholics. In other words,the sectarian nature of politics in Monaghan which had been sucha prominent feature of the county had not been interrupted.The thesis narrates the story of Irish politics during thismost formative period, and relates it to a local study. By so doing it illustrates the strongly sectarian dimension to Irishpolitics. In the late nineteenth century few, if any, publicissues could be fully divorced from the religious factor. Therhetorical expression of political ideals might appear nonsectarianat Westminster, but in the Monaghan region theirtrue nature was indicated by the manner in which the populationreacted to them. Thus the real significance of the politicalactivities of the representatives of the two traditions canoften by more fully appreciated when related to constituencylevel.Monaghan occupied a peripheral position on the borders ofUlster. Its population was around 75% Catholic during the secondhalf of the nineteenth century. This means that Monaghanoffers an illuminating example of the interaction of ProtestantUlster and Catholic Ireland. The activities of the county'sProtestant and Catholic populations, its Orangemen and itsFenians, its various groups of clergy, its Protestant landlordsand its Catholic Bishop, all constituted the political life of'the county of the little hills'.Today Monaghan's geographic position places it in the frontline of an assault upon Northern Ireland. Once again the peopleof the county are strategically placed in relation to nationaland sectarian confrontations on the island - plus ca change plusla reste meme.

Irish politics

McGimpsey, Christopher David

University of Edinburgh

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y