Faithful Unionists: The Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905819854314 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| Author | Jon Tonge |
26 POLITICAL INSIGHT • JUNE 2019
Northern Ireland’s Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP) has
attracted unprecedented
attention amid its condence-
and-supply deal with the Conservative
government, support for Brexit and
opposition to the EU Withdrawal Agreement.
Yet amid the focus upon the contemporary
outlook of the DUP, there is much to
be learned by examining the party’s
development since its formation in 1971.
Exploring data from a Leverhulme Trust
study of DUP members (Tonge et al. 2014)
and analysing the party’s voters from the
most recent ESRC Northern Ireland General
Election (Tonge et al. 2017) this article
assesses the extent to which religion and
robustness have shaped the party’s unionism.
Faithful Unionists: The
Democratic Unionist Party
in Northern Ireland
Jon Tonge examines the rise of the DUP from the margins to the
heart of Westminster and finds a party that owes its success less to its
religious roots, and more to uncompromising unionism and fervent
opposition to Irish republicanism.
How religious is the DUP?
The DUP was created by the Reverend Ian
Paisley to fuse staunch advocacy of the
Protestant religion with stout defence of
Northern Ireland’s place in the UK. Having
formed the Free Presbyterian Church
two decades earlier, Paisley used the
DUP as a political vehicle for his Church’s
fundamentalist Protestantism. Free
Presbyterianism oers literal interpretations of
scripture. The Bible is the true word of God. To
be saved, individuals, as sinners, must ‘present’
themselves to God and be ‘born again’.
Abstinence from a wide range of earthly
vices, including drinking alcohol, gambling,
© Press Association
Political Insight May 2019.indd 26 08/05/2019 10:55
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