Lecture hears of historian's view of two-nation Ireland

THE LOGIC that underpins the Belfast Agreement, the principle of consent, requires us to re-examine historical assumptions about the unionist resistance to Home Rule in the 1912-13 period, Lord Bew, an independent peer and professor of politics at Queen’s University, has told a public lecture in Belfast.

Speaking in the Ulster Museum on the background to the events of the 1912-22 period, Lord Bew said most historians painted the period as one involving a fundamental rupture with prevailing political norms, liberal politics and the rule of law, by, among others, the mass unionist resistance to Home Rule with its threat to use force and its arming of volunteers.

Even the Tory Party now seemed mildly embarrassed by its old association with militant unionism and to accept the latter’s demonisation, he said.

A more coherent and prescient analysis, he added, was to be found in the work of neglected historian of the time WP Moneypenny ( The Two Irish Nations – London 1913) . He wrote of Irish history's "constant tragedy", in the deeper sense "not a clash of right and wrong, but a clash between two rights".

Moneypenny’s insight, Lord Bew said, was to write of Ireland as two nations and of the prospects over time of their reconciliation.

Lord Bew criticised the unionist leadership of the time for its utter hostility, moderated later, to John Redmond, and its failure to distinguish between the threat represented by the limited aspiration to Home Rule and the Sinn Féin demand for separation. That said, as the Scottish debate is showing now, it is true that the cause of devolution tends to foster that of separation, he argued.

The lecture on Thursday launched a series of weekly reflections on aspects of the coming decade of commemorations organised by the North’s Community Relations Council (CRC) and backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was attended by the North’s Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure, Carail Ni Chuilin, and Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan, who is taking responsibility in the South for the commemorations.

The CRC is also promulgating guidelines for the public marking of the decade, insisting they should promote an “inclusive and accepting society” and respect for different interpretations and perceptions. The next lecture in the series is in the Ulster Museum next Wednesday, at 7pm – “Carson, Craig, British Conservatism and the Third Home Rule Crisis”. Speakers include Dr Alan Parkinson, Dr Eamon Phoenix, and Gordon Lucy.