Creating Jobs, Manufacturing Unity: Ulster Unionism and Mass Unemployment 1922-34

The inter-war recession and resultant mass unemployment presented a serious problem for the new Northern Ireland government. Having weathered republican attempts to destabilise the state, the Unionist government found its credibility questioned by a core element of its own support: the Protestant working class. In its efforts to galvanise support and ensure Unionist unity the government resorted to a series of strategies to alleviate the unemployment problem. The pursuit of these strategies created tension and division within the Unionist cabinet. What became apparent was that Unionist unity could be secure not by the appeal of sectarianism but only by the appearance of competence. (Informaworld