by James Winder Good
James Winder Good (1877-1930) was a well-respected and internationally known Irish journalist, who worked for several newspapers including The Freeman’s Journal and the Irish Independent. Having spent several years based in Belfast he believed he had a developed a unique insight into what made Ulster so unique from the other provinces in Ireland. Ulster and Ireland was published at a time when all of Ireland was faced with enormous political upheaval. With the end of the Great War, and following on from the Easter Rising, many Ulstermen believed their very existence was threatened by Irish Nationalism and Home Rule. Good points out that it is very difficult to understand the Ulster Question without understanding Ulster and so in Ulster and Ireland attempts to bridge that divide. Part one of the work is a survey of Ulster History, which Good believes is essential for understanding Ulster as it existed in 1919. This is followed by a study of the political mass movement led by Edward Carson during the Home Rule crisis. The final chapters are an attempt to “analyse some qualities of the Ulster mind”. Good goes to great lengths to describe, from his point of view, how different Ulster was from the rest of Ireland and how this ultimately played a major role in the segregation of the island of Ireland.
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