How new is new loyalism?

McGlynn, C

Abstract

This thesis provides an analysis of the manifestos of two political parties
in Northern Ireland. These parties are the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP)
and the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), which is now defunct.
These parties came to prominence during the peace process that led to the
signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and both were termed new
loyalist. The phrase new loyalism suggests a novel alternative to the
pessimistic and exclusivist ethos of traditional loyalist expression as
exemplified by lan Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). However,
a brief survey of the history of labourism in the North-East of Ireland
reveals that there have been previous attempts to form a political party
with a social democratic manifesto, an agenda that could supplant
sectarianism as the main organising principle of Protestant working class
politics. Some of these movements have emerged from within the same
loyalist paramilitary groupings who were responsible for the formation of
the new loyalist parties.
The purpose of the research on which this thesis was based was to
ascertain if the PUP and the UDP represented a genuinely new and
different political direction in loyalism, which could outlast uncertainty
over constitutional matters. A framework to test the parties was
constructed from two separate literature reviews. The first was a review of
literature defining unionism, loyalism and new loyalism. The second
considered the academic debate on reconciling differentiated citizenship
rights within a polity. Data was then collected on the development and
manifestos of the two parties and qualitative interviews were conducted
with fifteen members of the PUP.
The thesis concludes that the parties were both affected by a number of
external factors, in particular the growing disaffection of unionists with
the Agreement. However, it must also be concluded that neither party
developed an agenda that transcended sectarianism.

Citation

McGlynn, C. How new is new loyalism?. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2004