The North of Ireland was historically the most heavily industrialized part of the island. The shipbuilding and linen factories that were critical to that industrialization were centered around Belfast, which emerged in the nineteenth century as an important city of the British Empire. However, the development of working- class politics was troubled by the national question of independence. Marx and Engels, for instance, supported self- determination for Ireland. In addition, religion also intersected with the emergence of class politics: the industrialized northeast corner of the island had been “planted” and settled by Protestants from the seventeenth century, and its overall ethno- religious political culture, outlook, and aspirations became distinct from (most of) the rest of Ireland.
The partition of Ireland in 1921 consolidated these differences. In this important new work, Christopher Loughlin takes that critical juncture as his starting point for considering the development and constraints facing leftist politics in...
