Unionist

Unionist may refer to:

Trade unions

Europe

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, British unionists are those people and political organisations who wish their constituent country to remain or in historical usage to become part of the United Kingdom. More specifically, it may refer to:

Romania and Moldova

North America

See also

Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was the term used to refer to the United States of America, and specifically to the national government and the 23 free states and five border slave states that supported it. The Union was opposed by 11 southern slave states that formed the Confederate States of America, or "the Confederacy".

All of the Union's states provided soldiers for the U.S. Army; the border areas also sent large numbers of soldiers to the Confederacy. The Border states played a major role as a supply base for the Union invasion of the Confederacy. The Northeast provided the industrial resources for a mechanized war producing large quantities of munitions and supplies, as well as financing for the war. The Midwest provided soldiers, food and horses, as well as financial support and training camps. Army hospitals were set up across the Union. Most states had Republican governors who energetically supported the war effort and suppressed anti-war subversion in 1863–64. The Democratic Party strongly supported the war in 1861 but was split by 1862 between the War Democrats and the anti-war element led by the "Copperheads". The Democrats made major electoral gains in 1862 in state elections, most notably in New York. They lost ground in 1863, especially in Ohio. In 1864 the Republicans campaigned under the Union Party banner, which attracted many War Democrats and soldiers and scored a landslide victory for Lincoln and his entire ticket.

Unionism in Ireland

Unionism in Ireland is a political ideology that favours the continuation of some form of political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. Since the partition of Ireland, unionism in Ireland has focused on maintaining and preserving the place of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. In this context, a distinction may be made between the unionism in the province of Ulster and unionism elsewhere in Ireland.

Today in Northern Ireland, Unionist ideology is expressed in a number of different ways: through preferences for particular newspapers or sports team, participation in unionist culture and by voting for political candidates who espouse unionism.

Irish nationalism is opposed to the ideology of unionism. Most unionists come from Protestant backgrounds; most nationalists come from a Roman Catholic background. Exceptions to these generalisations exist; there are Protestant nationalists and there are Catholic unionists.

History

The political relationship between England and Ireland dates from the 12th century with the establishment of the Lordship of Ireland. After almost four centuries of the Lordship, the declaration of the independence of the Church of England from papal supremacy and the rejection of the authority of the Holy See required the creation of a new basis to legitimise the continued rule of the English monarch in Ireland. In 1542, the Crown of Ireland Act was passed by both the English and Irish Parliaments. The Act established a sovereign Kingdom of Ireland with Henry VIII as King of Ireland. Both parliaments later passed the Act of Union 1800 by which a new state was created - the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.