ABSTRACT
The decision by the leader of Northern Nationalism, Joe Devlin, MP for West Belfast, to support Redmond's acceptance of partition, even on a temporary basis, produced a major schism which continued to divide Nationalists within the new state. The division to some extent mirrored the broader process by which the moderate constitutiOnalists were displaced by the militants of Sinn Fein in the process of 'militarization' of Irish politics beginning with the 1916 insurrection. Ulster was the only province where the older parliamentary Nationalist tradition did not succumb totally to the assault of Sinn Fein.
