Anthony Terence Quincey Stewart,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(8 July 192916 December 2010), known professionally as A. T. Q. Stewart or Tony Stewart, was a Northern Irish historian, teacher and academic, and a best-selling author on the subject of the politics of

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Coming from a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

background, he was a history master at the Belfast Royal Academy and taught for many years at

Queen's University, Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

Personal life

Stewart was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1929 to Presbyterian parents. He went to school at the

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today ...

before going on to study history at

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

. He then took a history teacher's job at a school whilst studying for an MA under J. C. Beckett on the topic of radical Presbyterianism in Northern Ireland following the

Irish Rebellion of 1798 The Irish Rebellion of 1798 (; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ''The Turn out'', ''The Hurries'', 1798 Rebellion) was a popular insurrection against the British Crown in what was then the separate, but subordinate, Kingdom of Ireland. The m ...

and why it had changed from an

Irish republican Irish republicanism () is the political movement for an Irish republic, void of any British rule. Throughout its centuries of existence, it has encompassed various tactics and identities, simultaneously elective and militant and has been both w ...

British unionist In the United Kingdom, unionism is a political stance favouring the continued unity of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as one sovereign state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Those who support the union ...

perspective in the decades following. Following this, he became a lecturer and later reader of Irish political history at Queen's. He married the Queen's English graduate and teacher Anna Robinson and they had two children together. He retired early from Queen's in 1990. He died in 2010 in Belfast.

Academic work

Stewart was critical of the prevailing view of Irish history. He felt it was interpreted with a bias in favour of one political side. He once stated: "There is something wrong with the shape of Irish history; it is too short, too narrow, upside down and it leans all over to one side". In 1968, he wrote ''The Ulster Crisis'' on the establishment of the

Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from North ...

which served as his PhD. In 1977, he wrote his critically acclaimed book ''The Narrow Ground'' which was so popular, Reverend

Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and ...

held it up during a

Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster :''Distinct from Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)'' The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster is a Calvinist denomination founded by Ian Paisley in 1951. Doctrinally, the church describes itself as Fundam ...

sermon calling it "a great book which tells us the truth about the history of Ulster" despite Stewart stating he did not want it to become involved in politics. Stewart received criticism from claims that he was an "apologist for unionism" but he responded stating that

Irish nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...

was not the sole preserve of Catholics.

References

External links

*
The Narrow Ground: The Roots of Conflict in Ulster
', full text of the book in

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

format on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Anthony Terence Quincey 1929 births 2010 deaths Academics of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Political history of Northern Ireland 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland Presbyterians from Northern Ireland Historians from Northern Ireland Historians of Ireland