The Minority Mind

Jews and Protestants in Catholic Ireland, 1912–1968

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Partition was about minorities and their oppression – real or imagined, anticipated or remembered – which inspired a wide debate, still relevant today for the future of Northern Ireland. The partitionist assumptions – that a new nation-state required religious homogeneity and that minorities would be victimised – were rooted in historical experience and reflected contemporary political practice. This book illuminates the historical significance of religious minorities in southern Ireland at a time when the twenty-six Counties formed 'a Catholic state for a Catholic people'. Dragged into a process of nation building about which Jews and Protestants had serious reservations, they often felt like guests of an unappeasable host. Many emigrated, but those who stayed offered a critical contribution to civil society. Based on a wide range of primary sources, including recently discovered personal diaries, Eugenio F. Biagini's holistic account of the minority experience explains the role of entrenched diversity in shaping attitudes to civil rights and national identity.

• Studies Jews and Protestants as two minorities in independent Ireland, examining their relations with one another and with majority society
• Offers a holistic account of the minority experience using a wide range of primary sources
• Traces change over time for religious minorities and the role of strategies of integration, shedding new light on the relationship between democracy and sectarianism