The Ulster Crisis

by A.T.Q. Stewart

Book Overview

This is an account of the years immediately preceding World War I. Britain faced its gravest political crisis since the days of Cromwell and Charles I. The Liberal Government was determined to grant... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571080669
• ISBN13: 9780571080663
• Release Date: January 1969
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Standard Reference Work For This Issue

A.T.Q. Stewart established his well deserved reputation as an objective, erudite scholar with this small book. Unlike many academic historians however,he also writes well. He treats his subject not as a sounding board for a trendy, modern "ism", but instead as an objective event in the past. He examines not only what happened, but why it happened. This volume examines the rise of Ulster Loyalist resistance to Irish Nationalist "Home Rule", which the Northern Irish Loyalists rightly saw as the short road to independence for Ireland from the Empire. Their threatened armed "rebellion" against the British government so as to (ironically) achieve their aim of remaining British, ultimately set in motion the events of 1916 and later 1968/69, which sadly continue up to this very evening. Stewart treats his subject dispassionatly and with great insight and detail. At the same time Stewart describes events almost as a jounalist would have done. One can almost see the gun runners unloading the rifles off the docks in the darkness from his narration. Ultimately, he also describes how the participants faired. The nascent U.V.F. marched off to meet their doom on the Somme. The peaceful Nationalists were ultimately politically outflanked by Sinn Fein who revolted in 1916, a mere six weeks before their counterparts went over the top in Flanders. The British Officers who threatened to resign at Curragh Barracks rather than enforce what they saw as an unpatriotic law, lost not only their lives but their world. In short, if you are interested in this aspect of British history, this is a book well worth having.

ulsterwasright

well researched book good biography. hope to see more detailed book on the same subject. craigavon should also be researched to see his important part in the crisus