The Ulster Obstacle

VVhether peace comes to Northern Ireland, many people seem to think, is up to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British government. Not so, argues Worsthorne, a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph (London). It is mainly up to Ulster's Protestants. "IRA terrorism gets all the publicity," he points out, "which makes it seem as if Southern Irish nationalism is the irresistible force and Ulster nationalism the moveable object." The reverse, he says, is nearer the truth.

For the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland, Worsthorne says, "the thought of being governed by the Republic of Ireland is more than flesh and blood can be expected to bear." This state of mind is deeply rooted, he says, going back to the royal establishment in 1609 of a self-consciously Protestant settlement in Ulster whose loyalty could be relied upon if the Catholic powers of France and Spain tried to use Ireland to force Britain back into the arms of Rome.

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