Almost £500k given to academics to research conservatism and unionism in Northern Ireland

The sum (to be precise, £492,630) will be used for a project led by Dr Paul Corthorn, a reader in modern british history at Queen’s, and Dr Malcolm Petrie, lecturer in late modern Scottish history at St Andrew’s.

It is to be a three-year project, and the funding stems from the England-based public body UK Research and Innovation.

The university says: “The research will examine the pivotal period between 1968 and 1997, when the previously close association between Conservatism and Unionism, forged amid the politics of the Irish Question in the late 19th and early 20th century, began to unravel.

"This decoupling of Conservatism and Unionism continues to have far-reaching implications for the future of the Union.”

A statement from Dr Corthorn says: “We will grapple with questions about the constitutional form that the Union should take, especially arguments over devolution, and the underpinnings of it, sometimes dubbed Britishness. With a postdoctoral research assistant, Dr Petrie and I will draw on a rich archival base, including hitherto un-used sources."

And Dr Petrie said: “Concentrating on the interaction between political ideas and party politics, we will investigate Conservative and Unionist attitudes towards constitutional reform, devolution, the Cold War, European integration, and economic policy.”

The concrete objectives of the project are to create a book “for a wide academic and popular audience”, to "inform contemporary debates over the future direction and durability of the Union”, and to host “a public conference, talks and workshops, and a collaboration with the History Teachers’ Association in Northern Ireland to produce an online GCSE resource on Ulster Unionism in a UK perspective”.

Among the most prominent examples of party political Conservativism linking with Ulster unionism was the ill-fated alliance between the Tories and the UUP – Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force (UCUNF) – which lasted only three years before dissolving in 2012.