"More interesting is to seek the extent to which, and the ways in which, this Unionism remained basically a reaction to Irish nationalism, and to what extent it continued to draw strength and cohesion from widely held perceptions of the nature and characteristics of that nationalism as it became embodied in the new Irish state. Unionist statements and speeches of 1919-49 indicate how the political leaders of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland remained obsessed by the threat of nationalism and their distaste for it. Such speeches were, naturally, widely reported in the newspapers of the time. As well as being a prime source for the opinions of influential and representative men, and for accounts of the actions of Government and political organisations, the three daily Unionist papers published in Belfast, and to a lesser extent the array of weekly papers published throughout Northern Ireland, offered frequent editorial comments on the Southern state and events within it. These newspapers were also the windows through which the vast majority of Northern Unionists viewed the nationalist struggle from 1919 onwards. For most they were the only sources of information. Thus a reading of these papers, particularly for the vital early years immediately after the end of the First World War, gives a good picture of the events in Ireland as Unionists perceived them…