tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452474541473927280.post8499654905202452443..comments2023-07-29T12:34:38.874+01:00Comments on Henry CH Hill: The Cross of Saint Patrick: The Catholic Unionist Tradition in IrelandDilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532639584338090676noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452474541473927280.post-76938290470795848842010-10-16T23:45:28.129+01:002010-10-16T23:45:28.129+01:00Yup, there have been Catholic unionists and Protes...Yup, there have been Catholic unionists and Protestant nationalists - the divide has never been as clear-cut sectarian as it is often perceived.Dilettantehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03532639584338090676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7452474541473927280.post-5083113072790852572010-10-15T11:09:47.937+01:002010-10-15T11:09:47.937+01:00Of course the first Chief Justice of Northern Irel...Of course the first Chief Justice of Northern Ireland was a Catholic unionist. However things went a bit downhill as the UUP became increasingly sectarian. Just think of its leader and NI PM Sir Basil Brooke/Lord Brookborough who said Catholics could not be trusted and fired all his Catholic employees on his estate.<br /><br />Of course there is a strong history of Protestant nationalists of many hues. Parnell, Tone, Emmett.<br /><br />In 1921 the Sinn Feinn delegation that negotiated southern independence contained Bob Barton, an Anglo-Irish protestant landowner and former British Army major. And then there is his English cousin Erskine Childers (British military intelligence, clerk of the House of Commons, RAF pioneer, DSO, father of the British spy novel) who was secretary to the delegation. It says a lot about the British state and its attitude towards Ireland that these two became hard line nationalists---<br /><br />Childers son (English born and public school educated) went on to serve as Irish Dep PM and later President.The Aberdonianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17036242944647266932noreply@blogger.com