Fianna Fáil, Irish republicanism and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968–2005. By Catherine O’Donnell. Pp 241. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. 2007. €60 hardback; €27.50 paperback. - Northern Ireland’s ’68: civil rights, global revolt and the origins of the Troubles. By Simon Prince. Pp 260. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. 2007. €65 hardback; €24.95 paperback.

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (142) ◽  
pp. 310-312
Author(s):  
Brian Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Academic Press ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Fianna Fail ◽  
Irish Republicanism

The British radical left and Northern Ireland during the ‘Troubles’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Finn
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Left Turn ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Irish Republicanism ◽  
Radical Left

Britain’s radical left influenced the Northern Irish Troubles along two separate tracks: through its impact on British politics, and through its contacts with Irish republicanism and the Irish far left. The idea for a civil rights movement in Northern Ireland came from the far-left milieu, and was put into practice by activists who had cut their teeth on the British leftist scene. When conflict between the IRA and the British Army took centre-stage, sections of the British far left provided advice and encouragement for the Provos as they executed a left turn under the leadership of Gerry Adams, and Irish Trotskyists argued for a broad campaign of protest in support of republican prisoners. But despite their best efforts, left-wingers in Britain were unable to shift the Labour Party away from its position of support for the ‘bi-partisan’ consensus on Northern Ireland.

Shinners, Dissos and Dissenters

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paddy Hoey
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
Irish Republicanism ◽  
Term Analysis

Newspapers, magazines and pamphlets have always been central, almost sacred, forms of communication within Irish republican political culture. While social media is becoming the primary ideological battleground in many democracies, Irish republicanism steadfastly expresses itself in the traditional forms of activist journalism. Shinners, Dissos and Dissenters is a long-term analysis of the development of Irish republican activist media since 1998 and the tumultuous years following the end of the Troubles. It is the first in-depth analysis of the newspapers, magazines and online spaces in which the differing strands of Irish republicanism developed and were articulated during a period where schism and dissent defined a return to violence. Based on an analysis of Irish republican media outlets as well as interviews with the key activists that produced them, this book provides a compelling long-term snapshot of a political ideology in transition. It reveals how Irish Republicanism was moulded by the twin forces of the Northern Ireland Peace Process and the violent internal ideological schism that threatened a return to the ‘bad old days’ of the Troubles. This book is vital for those studying Irish politics and those interested in activism as it provides new insights into the role that modern activist media forms have played in the ideological development of a 200-year-old political tradition.

Assessing the importance of ideas and agency in the Northern Ireland peace process

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. McLoughlin
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Northern Ireland Conflict ◽  
External Actors ◽  
Political Thinker

This chapter examines the importance of ideas and agency in the Northern Ireland peace process by focusing on the former leader of the SDLP and joint Nobel Peace Prize Winner, John Hume. Hume was one of the most important and long-standing elites in Northern Ireland conflict. He emerged first as a civil rights leader at the outset of the Troubles, was a founding member of the SDLP, and was central to the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement. Moreover, Hume played a unique dual role in his career. First, he was a political thinker, or perhaps more accurately an articulator, of a new approach to the Northern Ireland problem. Second, Hume was a key negotiator and political broker, most significantly helping to persuade militant republicans to adopt a peaceful political strategy, continually engaging with British and Irish political elites, and even guiding external actors like the US government and the EU in their respective inputs to the Northern Ireland peace process.

‘Communists’, the IRA and the Northern Ireland Crisis

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-74
Author(s):  
John Mulqueen
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
National Liberation ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Rights Issue

At the beginning of the 1960s, the Soviet Union decided to support national liberation movements to undermine the US and its allies worldwide. Concurrently, the IRA leadership began to emphasise socialism and co-operate with communists in various agitations – the most significant would be the Northern Ireland civil rights movement. This chapter discusses perceptions of the republican movement’s ‘new departure’. William Craig, the Northern Ireland minister of home affairs, contended that the communist-influenced IRA aimed to manipulate the civil rights issue as a prelude to another armed campaign. In 1969 Northern Ireland’s prime minister, Major James Chichester-Clark, warned that some civil rights protesters aimed to create an ‘Irish Cuba’. The civil rights campaign inadvertently worsened sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland, leading to the outbreak of the Troubles.

scholarly journals Political Discourse in the Republic of Ireland and its Function in the Troubles and Peace Process in Northern Ireland

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Republic Of Ireland ◽  
Sinn Fein ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Fianna Fail ◽  
The Republic

Despite some historical divergence, political parties in the Republic of Ireland shared some key objectives in response to the Troubles. Most consistently, each of the main parties (Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael) sought to undermine support for the IRA in Northern Ireland and de-legitimise arguments by Sinn Féin and the IRA. Over the course of the peace process, such common priorities developed into a wider shared discourse on the principles for agreement in Northern Ireland. The parties in the Republic soon established a vocal consensus incorporating support for the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin involvement in politics in Northern Ireland, reconciliation, and a pluralist republicanism. The emergence of this common discourse has been essential to the legitimacy and durability of the peace process.

Sinn Féin and the IRA

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathew Whiting
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Sinn Fein ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
British Rule ◽  
Irish Republicanism ◽  
The Republic ◽  
British State ◽  
State Responses

When Sinn Féin and the IRA emerged in Northern Ireland in 1969 they used a combination of revolutionary politics and violence to an effort to overthrow British rule. Today, the IRA is in a state of ‘retirement’, violence is a tactic of the past, and Sinn Féin is a co-ruler of Northern Ireland and an ever growing political player in the Republic of Ireland. This is one of the most startling transformations of a radical violent movement into a peaceful political one in recent times. So what exactly changed within Irish republicanism, what remains the same, and, crucially, what caused these changes? Where existing studies explain the decision to end violence as the product of stalemate or strategic interplay with the British state, this book draws on a wealth of archival material and interviews to argue that moderation was a long-term process of increasing inclusion and contact with political institutions, which gradually extracted moderate concessions from republicanism. Crucially, these concessions did not necessitate republicans forsaking their long-term ethno-national goals. The book also considers the wider implications of Irish republicanism for other cases of separatist conflict, and has significance for the future study of state responses to violent separatism and of comparative peace processes.

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