Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a political party in Northern Ireland that advocates for unionism and the maintenance of Northern Ireland's status as part of the United Kingdom. It has been a significant force in Northern Irish politics and has played a key role in the peace process. The party has been known for its conservative social policies and its influence on UK government decisions.
7 Key excerpts on "Democratic Unionist Party"
eBook - ePubNorthern Ireland
Conflict and Change
- Jonathan Tonge(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Part of the uncertainty derives from short-term issues such as decommissioning and policing, but there remains considerable debate over the most appropriate form of devolved power-sharing. 4.5.2 The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Founded in 1971, the DUP attracted many initial recruits from the Protestant Unionist Party which existed for a brief period during 1969–71. Sharing the core beliefs of the UUP, the DUP is regarded as the advocate of a more hardline unionism. This includes persistent demands for vigorous security policies and a refusal to deal with Sinn Fein, except where unavoidable, within local councils and in the Assembly. At its formation, the DUP claimed that it would be right-wing on constitutional issues but left-wing on social policies, an appeal designed especially for working-class Loyalists. Opposed to power-sharing in the Sunningdale Agreement and the Constitutional Convention of the mid–1970s, the party benefited from the proposal of its rival for working-class votes, the Vanguard Party, to form a temporary partnership with the Nationalist-oriented Social Democratic and Labour Party. This idea led to the destruction of the Vanguard Party and the consolidation of the DUP as the UUP’s main rival. After participating in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1982, the DUP strongly opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. It has been a persistent critic of the peace process, arguing that it was a flawed attempt to pacify insatiable Republican demands. As such, the party took no part in the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, even though it is desirous of devolved government for Northern Ireland. The party highlighted political and moral objections to the Agreement, with concerns over prisoner releases, policing changes and the presence of Sinn Fein in government all prominent...
eBook - ePubUnionisms in Times of Change
Brexit, Britain and the Balkans
- Jennifer Todd, Dawn Walsh, Jennifer Todd, Dawn Walsh(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...299–323). The British Eurosceptic position and its embedding within the political, institutional and societal frameworks of the state (inadvertently) aroused and neatly married itself to Ulster Unionism’s constitutional proclivity to ardently defend the Union and Northern Ireland’s place in it. The DUP, in particular, has long espoused opposition to UK involvement in the project of European unity, and it opted to support the Leave campaign in 2016. Staunch in its claims to ‘defence’ of the Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the party has harboured reservations about any notion of deeper European unity and its consequences for British national sovereignty, in general, and in and over Northern Ireland in particular. Simply put, the party’s unionist credentials extend only as far as the borders of the British state and not beyond, and its reservations about the project of European integration are an expression of its very particular, ethno-religious and absolutist understandings of and conceptions of union. For the DUP, the constitutional link between Northern Ireland and Great Britain is immutable and any perceived dilution of it – including as represented in the pooling of sovereignty and multi-level governance which define the European project – is perceived as an existential threat which must be guarded against. Defining democratic unionism The DUP exhibits many of the broad characteristics of a (European) regionalist party. Categorised by Massetti as ‘assertive autonomist’, the party represent[s] the demands of [a] regionally concentrated ethnic group[s] who identify with the whole state and are keen to maintain the centralized constitutional settlement or, at least, a political union between the region and the state. (2009, pp...
eBook - ePubConflict to peace
Politics and society in Northern Ireland over half a century
- Bernadette Hayes, Ian McAllister(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Manchester University Press(Publisher)
...The DUP was formed in 1971 mainly from activists in the Protestant Unionist Party, who were opposed to the reforming efforts of Terence O’Neill. Largely associated with the charismatic figure of Ian Paisley, the DUP has had strong links to the Free Presbyterian Church, which Paisley had founded in 1951 (see Bruce, 1986). The DUP’s strong emphasis on social issues attracted the support of Protestant working-class voters, particularly in Belfast, while Paisley’s religious fundamentalism proved particularly appealing to many rural Protestants. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the DUP remained intractably opposed to any compromise on the constitutional issue and was able to capitalize on Protestant disaffection with 1998 Belfast Agreement, using the highly emotional slogan ‘the Union is under threat’. The DUP was particularly effective in mobilizing Protestant support around the IRA’s reluctance to decommission arms and the British government’s commitment to the early release of paramilitary prisoners. The shifting electoral fortunes of the UUP and the DUP from the 1969 Stormont election to the 2011 Assembly election are shown in Figure 5.5. Two observations are worthy of note. The first is that the total unionist and loyalist vote over the period has declined consistently. In the 1969 Stormont election, the total unionist vote was 67.4 per cent; in the 2011 Assembly election, that vote declined to 42.4 per cent, an overall decline of 25 percentage points. This decline has several explanations, which have been touched upon earlier in the chapter. One is the decreasing proportion of Protestants within the general population, so that there are simply fewer potential Protestant voters available to support the parties. The other explanation is the patterns of differential turnout between Catholic and Protestant voters...
eBook - ePubComparative European Party Systems
An Analysis of Parliamentary Elections Since 1945
- Alan Siaroff(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The party however began to enjoy support from segments of the protestant working class as well. Openly anti-Catholic (Reverend Ian Paisley denounced the Pope regularly), and anti-Dublin, the party also was a harsh critic of the European Union as it was seen as a threat to national sovereignty. The party attracted the Protestant protest vote and was opposed to the Good Friday Agreement. However, by the 2007 election most of the party accepted power-sharing and Reverend Ian Paisley became first minister; indeed the party has provided all first ministers since 2007. An anti-power sharing group broke away at the end of 2007 to form the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV). A scandal about a failed renewable energy scheme that wound up costing taxpayers dearly led to a major drop in support for the DUP in 2017. Other unionist parties have included: the Ulster Liberal Party, with ties to the British Liberal Party, which existed in its postwar variant from 1956 to 1987; the UK Unionist Party (UKUP) which existed from 1995 to 2008, and which was opposed to the peace agreement and called for closer links with Britain; the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) which existed from 1981 to 2001; and the leftist Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) which was formed in 1979 out of the Independent Unionist group. Both the UDP and the PUP signed the Good Friday Agreement but were critical of what they saw as too many concessions to republican/nationalist parties. These two parties have also been significant because they had strong links with different loyalist paramilitary groups: the UDP was associated with the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and the PUP was linked with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Both the UDA and the UVF ended their armed campaigns in 2007...
eBook - ePubPeace and Ethnic Identity in Northern Ireland
Consociational Power Sharing and Conflict Management
- Henry Jarrett(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Whilst it is important not to wholeheartedly conflate Catholicism and nationalism, it is the case that most Catholics in Northern Ireland are nationalist, and although they may not favour a united Ireland at present, it is likely to be at least a long-term aspiration (McKittrick and McVea, 2001, p. 2). In its campaign literature, the DUP appears to conflate being presently pro-union with being a member of the unionist community. It is improbable that the party will receive any significant support from Catholics, as they are likely to be discouraged by the DUP’s staunch and largely exclusive appeal to the unionist community. Indeed, it has been suggested that the party’s claim that it hopes to attract votes from Catholics is an attempt to convince moderate unionists that it has shed its traditional hard-line position (Devenport, 2011). The DUP, nevertheless, is willing to admit that sections of its manifesto, such as those on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland and cultural affairs, are unlikely to resonate beyond the unionist community, although it does claim that its policies on socio-economic issues are formulated with all of Northern Ireland’s population in mind (personal interview, 12 June 2013). It has been demonstrated that the DUP has shown little interest in moderating its unionist discourse and symbolism in the hope of attracting inter-bloc transfers. As its 2014 European and local government elections manifesto indicates little deviation in terms of this from its 2010 Westminster election publication, it is clear that use of the PR-STV electoral system has little or no meaningful impact on the way in which the party focuses its appeal to the non-unionist electorate...
eBook - ePub- Brian Feeney(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- The O'Brien Press(Publisher)
...II. The Main Political Parties Involved in the Politics of Northern Ireland Alliance party Founded in 1970, a small, middle-class party attracting support from both communities. Based mainly in the greater Belfast area, it normally received 6% of the vote. Democratic Unionist Party Founded in 1971 by Rev. Ian Paisley and initially known as the Protestant Unionist party, it has opposed any move seen as weakening the position of Northern Ireland within the Union. The DUP attracts a strong working-class Protestant vote and in November 2003 became the largest Unionist party in Northern Ireland. Fianna Fáil Translated as ‘Soldiers of Destiny’, it is the largest of the Irish Republic’s political parties. Perceived as being the most republican of the south’s large parties, for much of the Troubles it was led by Charles Haughey. His successors, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern, played key roles in the peace process of the 1990s, Ahern signing the Good Friday Agreement with British PM Tony Blair. Fine Gael Literally meaning ‘Tribe of the Gael’, it is the second largest political party in the Irish Republic. In 1985 its leader and then Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement with Margaret Thatcher. Progressive Unionist party The political wing of the UVF, it is a small political party based mainly in west, north and east Belfast since the early 1970s and receives limited electoral support outside those areas. Its most prominent representatives are David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson. Sinn Féin Regarded as the political wing of the IRA, it claims descent from the party established in 1904 by Arthur Griffith. It is an all-Ireland political organisation and unique in that it has representation in Dáil Éireann and the House of Commons as well as in the Northern Ireland assembly, although its MPs do not take their seats at Westminster. It aims to create a united thirty-two-county Irish Republic...
- John Plowright(Author)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...It played a leading role in the coalition of unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement but ultimately fell out with the Ulster Unionists, and outperformed them in the 1979 European Parliament and 1981 local government elections. For the 1983 and 1987 general elections they negotiated pacts whereby they would not oppose one another in seats where this might let in a republican or a nationalist and they also cooperated in the ‘Ulster Says No’ campaign against the Anglo-Irish Agreement of November 1985. However, in November 1989 the DUP conference voted to contest all safe Unionist seats for fear that its alliance with the Ulster Unionists was clouding its identity and losing it votes. The Downing Street Declaration of December 1993 was fiercely condemned by the DUP, although it welcomed the creation of the Northern Ireland Forum, winning 18.8% of the vote then and 18.1% of the vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections. Ian Paisley has provided the DUP with a distinctive, loud and popular voice in Ulster politics and under his stewardship the party eclipsed their UUP rivals in the May 2005 election, gaining four seats, to bring their total to nine, and winning almost double their percentage of the overall poll. Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) The Ulster Unionist Council was originally launched in Belfast on 3 March 1905 as a means of uniting northern unionism against the threat of internal faction but it drew sustenance from the renewed threat of Irish Home Rule, particularly following the 1911 Parliament Act and the introduction of the Third Home Rule Bill in 1912. The Council was affiliated to Conservative Central Office and its ties with the Conservative Party strengthened once Bonar Law replaced Balfour as its leader. Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) The Ulster Unionist Party evolved out of the Edwardian Ulster Unionist Council...
