National Identity in Scotland and Ireland (Final Part)

In Ireland national identity was fairly well defined, certainly by the twentieth century Irish nationalists were almost exclusively Irish born Catholics seeking nothing less than independence. In Scotland the nationalist movement when it appeared suffered from the fact it included a wide variety of people from different walks of life who wanted completely different things, often these views were simply incompatible and this lack of cohesion did not encourage more people to join the campaign. There was more confusion as to what it meant to be Scottish, as these questions had not been worked out over time as with Ireland where the leadership of the nationalist movement had originally been Protestant and the movement itself seeking to include all Irishmen. Over time the Catholic population became more educated and politicised and the nationalist movement became more sectarian, the Catholic faith obviously providing a more united population than nationalism itself as the nationalist movement came to represent almost exclusively the Catholics.

With the Disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843 Scotland was no longer united by Presbyterianism, nationalist identity had to be about more than religion. Also the turmoil created by Scotland's rapid industrialisation had badly affected the provision of education and many of those in the city received no education at all. The legal system too was becoming increasingly anglicised; all Scotland's separate institutions seemed under threat yet even this situation produced no successful nationalist movement. However the lack of a movement does not prove that most of the population were content with the union, perhaps they merely concerned themselves with other causes first. The Trade Union movement was very popular during this period leading to repeated clashes with the government. It has been a problem for any Scottish Nationalist political party that they are seen as single issue parties and as such are not likely to be trusted with the running of the country. Also because of the wide cross section of support the nationalist parties did receive they were never threatening any particular party, left wing people would vote Liberal or Labour when they appeared, Right wing people would vote Conservative and a little of each may vote for the nationalists. Although nowadays the SNP tend towards the left wing, to fill the vacuum left by Labour, in the past it was never really clear whether they were left or right and consequently this would make it hard

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4