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King Carson: an essay on the invention of leadership

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Andrew Gailey
Andrew Gailey*
Affiliation:
Eton College
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Extract

    For Ulster Protestants, riven by division since the fall of Terence O’Neill as prime minister of Northern Ireland in 1969, the recent troubles have seen their future steadily being conceded by default. Where there was certainty, there is now confusion; where there was once leadership, there are now only leaders. Not surprisingly, there have been wistful glances back to the mythical heroes of the past, in particular to Sir Edward Carson, who had steered them through the home rule crisis of 1912–14 to the promised land of Northern Ireland. Carson not only mobilised all Ulster Protestants, but also organised a largely successful rebellion and in time squared the circle to become one of the few rebels in English history to go on to be a law lord. Moreover, he was also a British leader, being four times in office, twice in the cabinet, and for twenty years one of the dominating figures in Tory politics. It is this duality that made Carson’s position exceptional in Anglo-Irish relations and contributed to the immense authority he periodically enjoyed. Indeed, in Ulster before the Great War his sway assumed near-charismatic proportions. Viewed as a case study in leadership, therefore, his career was, in terms of British politics, unique.

    Type
    Research Article
    Information
    Irish Historical Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 117 , May 1996 , pp. 66 - 87
    Copyright
    Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1996

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    121 Ibid., p.474.

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    126 An earlier version of this paper was given to the British History seminar at St Peter’s College, Oxford, in 1991.1 am grateful to Ewen Green for his comments on that occasion, and also to Roy Foster, Alvin Jackson, Peter Collins and Joe Spence for their advice on a later draft.