One of the most important developments in nineteenth-century Ireland was the so-called transformation of Presbyterians in Ulster from United Irish rebels in 1798 to loyalists in 1885. According to W. E. H. Lecky, ‘the defection of the Presbyterians from the movement of which they were the main originators, and the great and enduring change which took place in their sentiments …are facts of the deepest importance in Irish history and deserve very careful and detailed examination’. It is often stated that this process was facilitated by the rise of evangelicalism, which forged Protestant unity between Presbyterians and their erstwhile enemy the Church of Ireland on the basis of conversionist religion and anti-Catholicism. The key individual in this movement was Henry Cooke, the dominant figure in nineteenth-century Presbyterianism who gained fame as the champion of Trinitarian orthodoxy within the Synod of Ulster in the late 1820s. The connection between conservative evangelical religion and conservative politics was asserted by his principal Arian adversary, Henry Montgomery, who was proud that his two brothers were United Irishmen, though he strongly objected to armed rebellion. Writing in 1847, Montgomery claimed that the natural Presbyterian love of civil and religious liberty had been repudiated by Cooke and the ‘miserable, priest-led Calvinist Presbyterians’ of the lower orders who now swelled the ranks of the Orange Order. Many modern historians have followed the same line of interpretation. For instance, K.A. Miller has referred to ‘the hegemony of Rev. Henry Cooke and others who led their people into the Unionist alliance with Anglican proprietors, evangelicalism, and the Orange Order’.

Yet the relationship between Presbyterian evangelicalism, politics, and loyalty was complex and contingent. Three points are worth emphasising. First, care must be taken when describing the connection between political affiliation and religious outlook. This essay demonstrates that there were a number of possible relationships between religion and politics that depended upon particular circumstances. For instance, Presbyterians may have been at the forefront of radical politics in the 1790s, but the clear majority were opposed to the rebellion and supported reform through lawful means. Furthermore, though Cooke was a Peelite Conservative, he, along with the overwhelming majority of Presbyterian ministers, was not an Orangeman and nor was ‘Conservative’ necessarily a synonym for ‘Orange’ in the nineteenth century. Second, the majority of Presbyterian ministers disagreed with Cooke’s conflation of evangelicalism and conservative politics.