ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the impact of revisionist Marxist theory, ideology and politics on the Northern Irish conflict. It gives a summary of orthodox Marxist attitudes towards Ireland and examines the anti-nationalist Marxist school of thought associated with, amongst others, Paul Bew and Henry Patterson, to assess their view of the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland state. The chapter also looks at the revisionist development and modernisation of the political movements representing the anti-nationalist Marxist school. It discusses the political evolution of these movements and considers amongst other things, attitudes and stances on political violence in Ireland, partition and Ulster unionism. The Marxist position on Ireland today amounts to no more than a reprise of Connolly's position as a whole combined with a selective reading of Marx and Lenin in its light. Irish nationalism was a movement of agrarian and commercial reform, Ulster unionism was concerned with the link between Ulster and British manufacture.
