Four Nations or One?
• ‘The people of these islands have seldom
been united politically or culturally. Efforts
were made to unite them from the 12th
century onwards, but they only came under
the same monarch in 1603, and the complete
political union, which was at last achieved in
1801, endured only till 1922. Since then the
process has been reversed.’ (Hugh Trevor
Roper, The English World, 1982)
Issues:
• To what extent and why was the process
reversed?
• Does this overestimate the degree to which
Britain broke up?
• What are the implications for studying British
history? Does it need to be recast as the
shifting relation between four nations?
Structure of Lecture
• 1. The place of Ireland in modern British
history
• 2. Scotland and Wales
• 3. Final Reflections
I THE PLACE OF IRELAND IN
MODERN BRITISH HISTORY
• 1801 Act of Union with
Ireland
• 19th century Ireland
integral part of United
Kingdom; MPs at
Westminster
• A 4-nation state
Ongoing divisions
•
•
•
•
•
Predominant agricultural economy
English landholders
Famine of 1845-9
Catholicism
Late nineteenth-century cultural nationalism:
formation of Gaelic Athletic Association in 1884;
Gaelic League to protect language, 1883
• Political nationalism: 1905 formation of Sinn Fein
Bonds with Britain
• Integration of economy in imperial system: post-famine
agricultural prosperity; improving transport links
• Largely English speaking
• Importance of Irish writers in British literary culture: eg
Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw
• Agitation over landholding, but no descent into civil
anarchy: land rights issues generally settled in favour of
tenants
• Over-representation in Westminster (85 MPs in 1886)
• Support for Home Rule rather than independence
Independence inevitable or a product
of events and circumstances?
• Linked to pre-war ‘strange death of liberal
England’ (Dangerfield)? Support from
Conservatives to opposition from northern
Unionist to 1912 Home Rule bill.
• WWI in fact 270,000 Irish volunteers
• British response to 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin
radicalises nationalism
• War helps to end a nationalism that saw Ireland
as part of an Imperial Britain
• 1919-21 context of post-war dislocation and
violence (pan-European) – ‘Black and Tans’
• 1921 British acceptance of effective
independence for predominantly Catholic South:
Irish Free State; still part of Empire, but own
government in Dublin
• North of Ireland (predominantly Protestant) still
part of the United Kingdom; but now with own
parliament at Stormont in Northern Ireland as
well as ongoing representation at Westminster
• Start of the break-up of Britain?
• Or points towards the potential for the
persistence of a 4-nation state via devolution?
Interwar to Republic
• Interwar economic tensions between Britain
and Free State
• Free State remains Independent in WWII
• Post-war becomes Republic and leaves
Commonwealth: the end of a Greater
British/Imperial solution
• Fostering of a separate identity
• However, powerful Unionist identity in North
A British Isles solution
• Explosion of tension in civil rights of Catholic community in
North, nationalism, and violence of 1960s-1980s; 20,000
British troops by 1972; reimpose direct rule
• Violence not confined to Northern Ireland: extends to
bombings in England
• Porous nature of the boundary between England and
Ireland; large Irish population in England
• Solution via British collaboration with Irish government
(Anglo-Irish Agreement, 1985) and by challenging the
Unionist status quo in North; integration of Irish nationalist
and Catholic community into devolved government
SCOTLAND AND WALES
What likelihood of following Ireland?
• Like Ireland, both had been incorporated into UK, but
earlier (Wales since 16th century); Scotland by Act of Union
1707.
• Sense of difference, but less marked than in case of Ireland:
has agricultural areas (and land issues); transport links no
better to England than for Ireland; key variable is religion
• Like Ireland a new cultural nationalism (kilts; Walter Scott)
• British model enables persistence of own identities (and
also some institutional differences eg Sottish legal system,
education, Church
• Economic benefits of Empire
• Integrated in English party system (5/10 PMs 1880-1935
Scottish; and Welsh David Lloyd George 1918-22)
Early 20th Century devolution
• Context of Irish problem an exploration of
broadening Home Rule (Welsh Dept of
Education, 1907; Welsh Board of Health,
1920)
The decline of devolution
• Context of depression a move towards viewing
economic problems as needing centralised solutions
and aid from wealthier parts of UK
• Rise of a new Welsh and Scottish nationalism (Plaid
Cymru, 1935; Scottish National Party, 1928), but mainly
cultural (Welsh Eisteddfod, 1925-)
• Decline of Liberals (the traditionally devolutionist
party) and rise of Labour
• Politics of class cuts across national boundaries
• Trade unions unite across national boundaries
• Interwar dominance of Conservative (Unionist) Party
not favourable for devolution
The People’s War and nationalism
• Common effort/sacrifice of WWII helps to unite a
British nation
• Identification with British welfare state
settlement
• Mobilisation of wartime economy and
nationalisation helps to support industries of
Scotland (eg ship-building) and Wales (eg mining)
• Post-war benefits of affluence
• Nationalist parties little success in elections: in
1955, the Conservative (Unionists) even win 50%
of vote in Scotland.
Shift from late 1960s
• Increasing consciousness of decline
• 1959 sees height of % of vote going to Labour and
Conservative, thereafter growing significance of Liberals in
England and nationalists in Scotland and Wales
• 1974 Plaid Cymru takes 3 seats from Labour; SNP takes 11
seats and 30% of vote
• Civil rights movement in relation to Catholics in Northern
Ireland; descent into violence
• Welsh violence (vs holiday homes), though small scale by
comparison
• Discovery of North Sea Oil (puts in question Scottish
economic reliance on union.
• Labour reliance on nationalists for majority by
end of 1970s, leads to introduction of
devolution bills and referenda in 1979
• Referenda demand support of 40% of
population, not just a majority of those who
vote
• In Scotland, 52% vote for devolution (but is
not majority of the electorate). In Wales only
11.8% support.
1979• Election of unionist Conservative Party ironically
helps make nationalism a more potent force
• Erosion of Conservative support in Scotland
• Context of perceived attack on welfare state by a
government that few Scots (or Welsh vote for)
• Now also the factor of accelerated European
integration and regionalism – alternative to
reliance on union
Devolution of 1997• Victory of Labour 1997 makes move to devolution
possible
• Rhetoric of new Britain and reshaping of constitution
• But also pragmatism: political danger to Labour in
more radical move of independence
• Referenda of September 1997: 50.3% support in Wales;
74.9% Scotland
• 1997 SNP-controlled government promise referendum
on independence
• 2014: Scottish referendum on independence
FINAL REFLECTIONS
Different routes of devolution
• Scotland: strong history of independence; maintains
elements even within union; shift away from union a
reflection of calculation regarding self-interest; a case
of reconstituting rather than rebuilding the nation?
• Wales: heritage of independence less strong and
moves in this direction weaker; invention of nation
through culture
• Northern Ireland: unionist community held on to
identity centred on Protestantism and the union that
had disappeared elsewhere; but by 21st century the
prospect of a new kind of Britishness of the Isles
Implications for England
• Nationalism on the
periphery raises
question of what is
Englishness
• A spate of books
address this question
Four-Nations History
• Nationalism, devolution, and independence
also encourages a rethinking of what is British
history
• Problematises the equation of British and
English history
• Points towards a history of the relation
between the parts
• Also (eg Norman Davies, The Isles) raises
question of a British or a British Isles history