Ulster nationalism
ideology that supports independence for Northern Ireland
Ulster nationalism is a minor school of thought in the politics of Northern Ireland that seeks the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom without joining the Republic of Ireland, thereby becoming an independent sovereign state separate from both.
Independence has been supported by groups such as Ulster Third Way and some factions of the Ulster Defence Association. However, it is a fringe view in Northern Ireland. It is neither supported by any of the political parties represented in the Northern Ireland Assembly nor by the government of the United Kingdom or the government of the Republic of Ireland.
Although the term Ulster traditionally refers to one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland which contains Northern Ireland as well as parts of the Republic of Ireland, the term is often used within unionism and Ulster loyalism (from which Ulster nationalism originated) to refer solely to Northern Ireland.
History
Craig in 1921
In November 1921, during negotiations for the Anglo-Irish Treaty, there was correspondence between David Lloyd George and Sir James Craig, respective prime ministers of the UK and Northern Ireland. Lloyd George envisaged a choice for Northern Ireland between, on the one hand, remaining part of the UK under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, while what had been Southern Ireland became a Dominion; and, on the other hand, becoming part of an all-Ireland Dominion where the Stormont parliament was subordinate to a parliament in Dublin instead of Westminster. Craig responded that a third option would be for Northern Ireland to be a Dominion in parallel with Southern Ireland and the "Overseas Dominions", saying "while Northern Ireland would deplore any loosening of the tie between Great Britain and herself she would regard the loss of representation at Westminster as a less evil than inclusion in an all-Ireland Parliament".
W. F. McCoy and Dominion status
Ulster nationalism has its origins in 1946 when W. F. McCoy, a former cabinet minister in the government of Northern Ireland, advocated this option. He wanted Northern Ireland to become a dominion with a political system similar to Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the then Union of South Africa, or the Irish Free State prior to 1937.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ulster nationalism” is ideology that supports independence for Northern Ireland. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ulster, nationalism and ideology, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4334187. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1921, 1920, 1946 and 1937.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ulster nationalism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.