Loyalist political identity after the Peace

This article looks at the ways in which conceptions of Loyalist identity have been affected by the current political conjuncture in Northern Ireland. It argues that claims about cultural and political group identity are central to Loyalist political discourses and that the way in which this identity is figured is both variable and limited. Analysing the rhetoric of both the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) the article shows how the reactions of these two parties to the ‘peace process' turn, in part, on (re)definitions of group identity shaped out a discourse concerned with authenticity and betrayal. From this basis the article explores the relationship of class identity to the formation of Loyalism and speculates as to the ways in which these parties might develop their imagining of identity as the peace process unfolds. It pays particular attention to the ways in working-class politics might become particularly central to the PUP.