60 years on :
the "Southern Unionists", the Crown and the Irish Republic

Mary Kenny

Issue 390, vol.98, Summer 2009

The group most distressed by the emblematic breaking of the last link with Britain were Protestants in the Republic (the “southern Unionists” or “southern Loyalists”). A visit by the King to Northern Ireland had often prompted an exodus from Dublin to Belfast. Some, too, had been in the habit of writing to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle to express their sense of continuing affection for the monarchy; they sent condolences, for instance, on the death of King George V in 1936. Although De Valera sincerely regarded himself as fair-minded on religious issues, his administration still exercised a certain level of control over direct links continuing to exist with the British monarchy – even appealing to protocol for the right to route (after inspection) through the Irish Government all correspondence-in-reply from the royal secretaries.

A clergyman’s wife wrote to King George VI in 1949 that “on Easter Sunday evening we sang with sorrow, for it was the last time, the National Anthem. It was a prayer from all our hearts – God Save the King. Legislation does not kill love and loyalty”. George VI, we learn, actually “minded very much” that Eire should depart from the Commonwealth – and asked the Irish High Commissioner, “Why leave the family ?” . The “southern Unionists” had indeed been through some of this before, in the 1920s – with those who decided to remain in Ireland resolving to be a law-abiding group within the Irish Free State. Once again, in 1949, their allegiance had to be affirmed to the Irish State of the Republic; and to this day, the Church of Ireland Prayer Book carries the instructions praying for the President (Rep. of Ireland) and the Queen (N.I.)

It was noticeable just how muted the 60^th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic was at Easter 2009 (in contrast to 1916 anniversary celebrations). And younger Irish Protestants today – certainly south of the border – are probably indistinguishable from younger Irish Catholics in their attitudes to the British royal family; for the “royals” now seem to belong as much to the realm of Hello ! magazine as to traditional or religious allegiance.

Mary Kenny is author of Crown and Shamrock: Love and Hate between Ireland and the British Monarchy from the time of Victoria (New Island Books, 2009).