ABSTRACT
One indication of Ireland's divided political culture is that there is no general agreement between most catholics and most protestants on a single set of national symbols. To take the case of a national festival, in the Republic of Ireland, where ninety-four per cent of the population is catholic, St Patrick's day is celebrated at the popular level, the state level, and is a bank holiday. During the eighteenth century the state in Ireland celebrated a number of 'national' anniversaries, some of a contemporary and some of a traditional nature. During the early 1790s serious rifts appeared within the protestant community in Ireland over the country's future: rifts which were to lead ultimately to the rebellion of 1798 and the act of union. The vacillations of the government encouraged the conservatives to persist in hoping right up until 1829 that the tide would turn against it, and that 'protestant ascendancy' in its exclusive sense would triumph.
