The term
loyalist was first used in Irish politics in the 1790s to refer to Protestants who opposed
Catholic Emancipation and Irish independence from Great Britain. Ulster loyalism emerged in the late 19th century, in response to the
Irish Home Rule movement and the rise of
Irish nationalism. At the time, all of Ireland was part of the
United Kingdom. Although the island had a
Catholic majority who wanted self-government, the northern province of
Ulster had a Protestant majority who wanted to maintain a close union with Britain, a political tradition called Unionism. This was largely due to the
Plantation of the province. Eastern Ulster was also more industrialised and dependent on trade with Britain than most other parts of Ireland. Although not all Unionists were Protestant or from Ulster, loyalism emphasised Ulster Protestant heritage. It began as a
self-determination movement of Ulster Protestants who did not want to become part of a self-governing Ireland, believing it would be dominated by Catholic Irish nationalists.
Home Rule crisis and Partition The British government's introduction of the
Third Home Rule Bill in 1912 sparked the
Home Rule Crisis. Ulster unionists signed the
Ulster Covenant, pledging to oppose Irish home rule by any means. They founded a large paramilitary force, the
Ulster Volunteers, threatening to violently resist the authority of any Irish government over Ulster. The Ulster Volunteers
smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition into Ulster from
Imperial Germany. In response, Irish nationalists founded the
Irish Volunteers to ensure home rule was implemented. Home rule was postponed by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Both loyalists and nationalists
fought in the war, with many Ulster Volunteers joining the
36th (Ulster) Division. By the end of the war, most Irish nationalists wanted full independence. After winning most Irish seats in the
1918 general election,
Irish republicans declared an
Irish Republic, leading to the
Irish War of Independence between the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British forces. Meanwhile, the
Fourth Home Rule Bill passed through the British parliament in 1920. It would
partition Ireland into two self-governing polities within the UK: a Protestant-majority Northern Ireland, and a Catholic-majority
Southern Ireland. During 1920–22, in what became Northern Ireland, partition was
accompanied by violence both in defence of and against partition.
Belfast saw "savage and unprecedented"
communal violence, mainly between Protestant loyalist and Catholic nationalist civilians. Loyalists attacked the Catholic minority in reprisal for IRA actions. Thousands of Catholics and "disloyal" Protestants were driven from their jobs, particularly in the shipyards, and there were mass burnings of Catholic homes and businesses in
Lisburn and
Banbridge. More than 500 were killed in Northern Ireland during partition and more than 10,000 became refugees, most of them Catholics. See:
The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922). In 1926, about 33–34% of the Northern Ireland population was
Roman Catholic, with 62% belonging to the three major Protestant denominations (
Presbyterian 31%,
Church of Ireland 27%,
Methodist 4%).
The Troubles , Belfast (1970) The Unionist
governments of Northern Ireland discriminated against the Irish nationalist and Catholic minority. A non-violent
campaign to end discrimination began in the late 1960s. This civil rights campaign was opposed by loyalists, who accused it of being a republican front. Loyalist opposition was led primarily by
Ian Paisley, a Protestant fundamentalist preacher. They held counter-protests, attacked civil rights marches, and put pressure on moderate unionists. Loyalist militants carried out
false flag bombings that were blamed on republicans and civil rights activists. This unrest led to the
August 1969 riots. Irish nationalists/republicans clashed with both police and with loyalists, who burned hundreds of Catholic homes and businesses. The riots led to the
deployment of British troops and are often seen as the beginning of
the Troubles. The beginning of the Troubles saw a revival of
loyalist paramilitaries, notably the
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and
Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Their stated goals were to defend Protestant areas, to fight those they saw as "enemies of Ulster" (namely republicans), and thwart any step towards
Irish unification. The
Provisional Irish Republican Army waged
a paramilitary campaign to force a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. Loyalist paramilitaries attacked the Catholic community as alleged retaliation for IRA actions, and the vast majority of their victims were random Catholic civilians. During the Troubles there were incidents where British security forces
colluded with loyalist paramilitaries, such as the attacks by the
Glenanne group. Signed in 1973, the
Sunningdale Agreement sought to end the conflict by establishing
power-sharing government between unionists and Irish nationalists, and ensuring greater co-operation with the Republic of Ireland. In protest, loyalists organised the
Ulster Workers' Council strike in May 1974. It was enforced by loyalist paramilitaries and brought large parts of Northern Ireland to a standstill. During the strike, loyalists detonated a
series of car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, in the Republic. This killed 34 civilians, making it the deadliest attack of the Troubles. The strike brought down the agreement and power-sharing government. Loyalists were involved in the major protest campaign against the 1985
Anglo-Irish Agreement. They saw it as a breach of sovereignty, because it gave the Republic an advisory role in some Northern Ireland affairs. The many street protests led to loyalist clashes with the
Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), whom loyalists accused of enforcing the Agreement and betraying the Protestant community. This caused a rift between loyalists and the police, and there were numerous loyalist attacks on police officers' homes during the protests. From the late 1980s, there was a rise in loyalist paramilitary violence, partly due to anger over the Anglo-Irish Agreement. It also resulted from loyalist groups being re-armed with weapons smuggled from South Africa, overseen by British Intelligence agent
Brian Nelson. From 1992 to 1994, loyalists carried out more killings than republicans. The deadliest attacks during this period were the
Greysteel massacre by the UDA and
Loughinisland massacre by the UVF. The main loyalist paramilitary groups called a ceasefire in 1994, shortly after the Provisional IRA's ceasefire and beginning of the
Northern Ireland peace process. This ceasefire came under strain during the
Drumcree dispute of the mid-to-late 1990s. The Protestant
Orange Order was blocked from marching its traditional route through the Catholic part of
Portadown. Catholic residents held mass protests against the yearly march, seeing it as triumphalist and
supremacist, forcing police to halt the march. Loyalists saw this as an assault on Ulster Protestant traditions, and held violent protests throughout Northern Ireland. In Portadown, thousands of loyalists attacked lines of police and soldiers guarding the Catholic district. A new UVF splinter group, the
Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), attacked Catholics and these parties received many fewer votes than the main unionist parties: the pro-Agreement UUP and anti-Agreement DUP. Some UDA and LVF brigades broke the ceasefire and attacked Catholics under the name
Red Hand Defenders, The
Loyalist Communities Council was launched in 2015 with the backing of the UVF and UDA. It seeks to reverse what it sees as political and economic neglect of working-class loyalists since the Good Friday Agreement. In 2021, it withdrew its support for the Agreement, due to the creation of a
trade border between Northern Ireland and Britain as a result of
Brexit. The fall-out over this partly fuelled
loyalist rioting that Spring. ==Political parties==