Who are the unionists?
Unionists are those who support the Union – the maintenance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – which came into being in 1801. There are currently five unionist parties represented in the Stormont assembly. The Ulster Unionist Party emerged from a coalition of Conservative and Liberals in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This coalition came about to oppose Gladstone’s plans to establish a separate all-island administration in Dublin – ‘Irish Home Rule’. The UUP was always a ‘broad church’ party united around maintenance of the Union above all else. Since the UUP lost government power when the old devolved Stormont parliament was abolished by the British government under Edward Heath in 1972, unionism has become very fractured. The UUP, led by Reg Empey who succeeded David Trimble, is no longer the largest unionist party. It is deeply divided over the, ‘peace process,’ Good Friday Agreement and the coalition government that has emerged from the Agreem
