Scripture Politics

Scripture Politics examines the central role played by Ulster Presbyterians in the birth of Irish republicanism. Ian McBride restores the United Irishmen to their eighteenth-century social context, restructuring a world where religious doctrine, political theory, and social antagonisms remained inextricably linked.

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