Nick Maxwell Towards the end of 1968 Northern Ireland seemed to have pulled back from the brink. In response to pressure from the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and from the Labour government in Westminster, and in spite of opposition from within his own cabinet, Prime Minister Terence O’Neill announced a reform package. Buoyed up by … Read more
In the early twentieth century Ballymena, Co. Antrim, was a self-confident heartland of Ulster unionism. As a market town it stood at the heart of a thriving agricultural district. As an industrial centre it possessed textile mills and foundries, offering employment to thousands of workers and wealth to local entrepreneurs. A busy railway connected the … Read more
In introducing this special issue Brian Hanley touches on some of the complexities and contradictions of that fateful year. The events in the North in 1969 transformed Ireland; it could be argued that the violence of that August continues to shape this country to the present day. Yet in comparison to ’68, commemorated last year … Read more
Ballymena was also the site of some of the most lavish displays of unionist street-theatre during the Home Rule crisis. The most striking example occurred on the occasion of a visit in July 1913 by Sir Edward Carson. Sir Arthur O’Neill MP had been a soldier in the Life Guards cavalry regiment, whose job it … Read more
A collection of George Young’s UVF correspondence has recently emerged, allowing us to trace the story of the mid-Antrim Ulster Volunteers and affording great insight into the way provincial leaders of unionism thought and acted, as they contemplated a devolved Dublin parliament and the loss of liberty and prosperity that they believed would ensue. These … Read more