Tsk. Coldie, you should have let me handle this one
While it’s true that the nationalist/unionist divide has always tended to fall along Catholic/Protestant lines, this was not nearly so much the case in southern Ireland in the pre-independence era as it is in Northern Ireland today. Many of the heroes of Irish nationalism - Wolfe Tone, Charles Parnell, Robert Emmet, to name just a few - were Protestants.
The German arms were imported to Ireland in 1914 by the Irish Volunteers, led by amongst others Erskine Childers and Roger Casement - both Protestants.
The Irish Volunteers later became known as the Irish Republican Army.
It’s always been more complicated than you thought it was
Now wait a potato pickin’ minute. (I can say that, my Great-great-Granddaddy Pat and all that.)
I though the deal was that the Protestants thought that if the Brits pulled out, the Catholics would kill them in their sleep; and that the Catholics thought that the Brits were letting the Protestants push them around.
Killing each other is always complicated, but I am distressed that I don’t understand this one of my ancestors.
FWIW, I initially thought that this thread was about Augsut 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I am not familiar with the Tuchman book, but this is a fascinating look at Russia’s entrance and dismal early failures in the first World War. Can strongly recommend Solzhenitsyn’s works as he can make seemingly boring topics quite a lively read.
Hmm. I guess this hijack is ok, since it’s your thread
What you’ve described pretty much is the deal in the North today (an overly simplistic version of it, mind, but that’s the gist). And it would also describe pretty well the mindset of the Ulster unionists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Being a double minority in Ireland not only as Protestants, but also as Presbyterians of Scottish background, they always had a kind of siege mentality. And it was made worse as the Catholics and Protestants of the lower classes both made each other scapegoats for the economic crises of that era.
OTOH, in the south the Protestants were of Ireland’s (then-)official religion, and there weren’t many of them in the lower classes, so the religious tensions were lower. Their families had dominated Ireland for centuries, and they identified themselves as Irish. Most of them were unionists, simply because the union worked to their advantage. But their lack of that siege mentality meant that they (generally) weren’t as rabidly foaming at the mouth about it as the Ulster unionists were. So it wasn’t so difficult for a few of the more liberal-minded amongst them, who disagreed with the way England was running the island, to reach the conclusion that Ireland could run it better herself.
Of course there were also reasons specific to each individual. Parnell for one also just really didn’t like English people very much.
Things are different nowadays and a nationalist Protestant in the North is a pretty rare creature. They do exist - our own irishgirl I believe is one of them (and if she’s reading this, I’d love to get her contribution) and the last guy I dated has a mother who is a Protestant republican (which is a more extremist version of “nationalist”) - but that old siege mentality combined with decades of republican violence have kept them as much the exception to the rule as they ever were.
