X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Irish Nationalism


Irish nationalism

O'Brien's attainment of the 1903 Wyndham Land Act (the culmination of land agitation since the 1880s) abolished landlordism, and made it easier for tenant farmers to purchase lands, financed and guaranteed by the government.

Noel Magee

Magee grew up in the strongly nationalist Ardoyne area of Belfast and came from a boxing obsessed family.

Richard Pigott

As a young man he supported Irish nationalism and worked on the Nation and the Tablet before acting as manager of The Irishman, a newspaper founded by Denis Holland.

South Staffordshire Regiment

The 2nd Battalion (the former 80th) was stationed in India in 1881, soon moving to Tralee in Ireland, where it was involved in actions against Irish nationalists.

Terry Magee

Magee grew up in the nationalist Ardoyne area of Belfast and came from a boxing obsessed family.


Ahmed Orabi

The earliest published work of Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory – later to embrace Irish Nationalism and have an important role in the cultural life of Ireland – was Arabi and His Household (1882), a pamphlet (originally a letter to The Times newspaper) in support of Ahmed Orabi ("Arabi" being an archaic mistransliteration not uncommon in English at the time).

Cathleen ni Houlihan

The play is startlingly nationalistic, encouraging in its last pages that young men sacrifice their lives for the heroine Cathleen ni Houlihan, who represents an independent and separate Irish state.

Commonwealth Police

Hughes claimed Australia was at risk from possible revolt or similar action by organisations associated with either Irish nationalism, left wing and anti-war activities, such as Sinn Féin and the Industrial Workers of the World.

Dual naming

"Derry/Londonderry" has been used unofficially to circumvent the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, in which Irish nationalists used "Derry" and Ulster unionists use "Londonderry" for the city and county in Northern Ireland.

Elizabeth Burke-Plunkett

She befriended unionists such as Field Marshal Douglas Haig, Horace Plunkett, and Chief Secretary George Wyndham and also nationalist leaders such as Charles Stuart Parnell, Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera.

James Shaw Maxwell

He left the Liberals in 1880 in opposition to their local opposition to Irish nationalism, and became a leading supporter of Henry George and an activist in the Scottish Land Restoration League.

Liam Devlin

He succeeds and is later described by a Scotland Yard detective as "the most cold blooded executioner the movement has seen since Collins and his murder squad".

Michael Francis Ward

Michael Francis Ward (1845-17 June 1881) was an Irish doctor, surgeon, politician and nationalist MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Home Rule League represented Galway Borough from 1874 until 1880.

North Belfast derby

The rivalry between the two clubs was heightened during The Troubles, with Cliftonville developing a mainly nationalist following and Crusaders a unionist following, largely dictated by the religious following of their respective supports.

Pearse Óg GAC

The club's crest includes a sword in flames, a symbol associated with Pádraic Pearse since his editorship of the nationalist newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis, surrounded by the green and gold club colours and a skyline of Armagh city.

Talbot Street

A plaque of remembrance marks the spot and is the focus of an infrequent commemoration attended by large numbers of Tipperary people on the morning of the All-Ireland Hurling Final in years when the Tipperary team participate, thus underlying the close association of the Gaelic Athletic Association with Irish nationalism.


see also

Government of Ireland Act 1920

Robert Kee, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism (2000 edition, first published 1972), ISBN 0-14-029165-2.

James Redpath

Redpath was deeply affected by the extreme poverty of much of rural Ireland (he converted his friend and fellow-abolitionist David Ross Locke to support for Irish nationalism by taking him up the Galtee Mountains to show him the condition of smallholding mountain tenants.) Redpath became an outspoken advocate of the cause of the Land League and Charles Stewart Parnell; pro-landlord commentators accused him of incitement to murder.