Scripture Politics: Ulster Presbyterians and Irish Radicalism in Late Eighteenth-Century Ireland - Hardcover

the best and most detailed study yet on Ulster Presbyterian radicalism ... offers timely warnings against the romantic and idealised versions of 1798 which were offered up in the bicentenary celebrations. (Stephen Howe, New Statesman and Society)

I. R. McBride ... has made an invaluable contribution to Irish historiography by explaining how it was that their religious preoccupations allowed or even encouraged a significant proportion of Ulster's Dissenting ministers at that period to adopt ― and to inculcate in their congregations ― radical political stances. At the same time, he is careful to point out that concurrent social and economic factors are essential to explaining the movements thus sanctified (R. V. Comerford, Times Literary Supplement)

analytical, fair-minded, carefully non-polemical and generally excellent book. For something like two centuries, the study of their history, with a strong emphasis on theological matters, has been a feature of the self-understanding of the Irish Presbyterian clergy. it is not the least of Ian McBride's achievements that he has now linked this historiography, distinguished by the work of scholars such as Dr John Barkley and Dr Finlay Holmes, to the mainstream of history-writing on Ireland. (R. V. Comerford, Times Literary Supplement)

Scripture Politics examines the central role played by Ulster Presbyterians in the birth of Irish republicanism. Drawing on recent trends in British and American historiography, as well as a wide range of Irish primary sources, Ian McBride charts the development of Presbyterian politics between the War of American Independence and the rebellion of 1798.

McBride begins by tracing the emergence of a radical sub-culture in the north of Ireland, showing how traditions of religious dissent underpinned oppositional politics. He goes on to explore the impact of American independence in Ulster, and shows how the mobilization of the Volunteers and the reform agitation of the 1780s anticipated the ideology and organization of the United Irish movement. He describes how, in the wake of the French Revolution, Ulster Presbyterians sought to create a new Irish nation in their own image, and reveals the confessional allegiances which shaped the 1798 rebellion. Above all, this innovative and original book uncovers the close relationship between theological disputes and political theory, recreating a distinctive intellectual tradition whose contribution to republican thought has often been misunderstood. _