Redefining Partition: John Hume and the Evolution of Nationalist Thinking on a Divided Ireland

To assess the extent that nationalist thinking on partition has evolved, it is first worth considering John Whyte’s succinct delineation of the traditional nationalist position: ‘(1) the people of Ireland form one nation; and (2) the fault for keeping Ireland divided lies with Britain’.¹ There were perhaps always some nationalists who rejected the reductionism in this interpretation, but their voices were largely peripheral until the 1950s, when the first notable changes in mainstream nationalism became evident. At the outset, this was most apparent in southern Ireland, particularly after Seán Lemass became Taoiseach in 1959. Under Lemass, the Irish government moved