The Unexpected Stabilization of Control

Abstract This chapter emphasizes how the Second World War unexpectedly stabilized the system of control in Northern Ireland. In the late 1930s the Northern government, like that of Newfoundland, faced possible bankruptcy, and the UUP leadership looked stale and challenged. At the same time, independ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: O’Leary, Brendan
Format: Book Part
Language:English
Published: Oxford University PressOxford 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198830573.003.0004
https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/58428903/oso-9780198830573-chapter-4.pdf
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Summary:Abstract This chapter emphasizes how the Second World War unexpectedly stabilized the system of control in Northern Ireland. In the late 1930s the Northern government, like that of Newfoundland, faced possible bankruptcy, and the UUP leadership looked stale and challenged. At the same time, independent Ireland was showing evidence of consolidation of its sovereignty, economic development, and stability. The Second World War, and the eventual US leadership of the United Nations against the Axis powers, reversed the rolling out of these patterns. How and why Ulster Unionists benefited more than Irish nationalists from the Second World War is explained.