ABSTRACT
The spectacle of the New English interest assuming the mantle of the Irish nation is one more liable to excite contempt than admiration. The way in which the Protestant ascendancy rose to power was hardly likely to receive approbation from Irish Roman Cathodes, or, for that matter, Irish Protestant Dissenters. In order to understand fully the Protestant contribution to the Irish nationalist tradition it is necessary to examine that complex process by which the colonists came to regard themselves as the Irish people. It is tempting to assert that the Anglo-Irish developed the theory that to be born in Ireland made one an Irishman, thus standing as an exception to the exclusiveness of later Irish nationalists; but there was one, very important, qualification which the vast majority of Protestants made: one had not only to be born in Ireland, but also to be born an Anglican.
