Cavan Protestants in an age of upheaval, 1919-22

Broadly speaking, this is a study of the Protestant population of County Cavan in a time of social and political upheaval. Chapter one is concerned with identifying Cavan’s Protestants as a group, both politically and culturally Chapter two, given the cultural and political identity of the county’s Protestants, shows how this group reacted and adapted to the political changes of the years 1919-22. It was found that Protestantism, after a slight realignment, largely accepted Ireland’s new position regarding Britain and despite that fact that unionism as a political force was greatly diminished, the values that had given rise to that unionism remained relatively intact. After identifying the group that existed in ideological opposition to Protestantism, namely Catholicism or nationalism, chapter three sought to see if these two groups were impermeable to each other, or if all their relations were marked by hostility. It was found that ideology was muted by the practicality of each group living side-to-side together, with both peoples showing mutual respect for each other. The study concludes that, while Cavan’s Protestants accepted the Irish Free State, they remained a specific cultural/political group within the county as those beliefs that had given them their unionist tendencies were not put to rest, despite the great weakening of Irelands relationship with Great Britain