‘Britain's Irish Question: Britain's European Question?’ British-Irish relations in the context of European Union and The Belfast Agreement

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH MEEHAN
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Irish Question ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

If students of world politics can be reasonably accused of ignoring the Troubles in Northern Ireland—in part because they seemed to have little to do with the larger East-West confrontation and partly because they were so obviously about something distinctly national in character—then by the same token specialists on Northern Ireland can justly be accused of a certain intellectual parochialism and of failing to situate the long war within a broader global perspective. The quite unexpected outbreak of peace however only emphasizes the need for a wider understanding of the rise and fall of the Northern Irish conflict. This article explores the relationship between the partial resolution of the Irish Question—as expressed in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998—and the changing character of the European landscape. Its central thesis is that while there were many reasons for the outbreak of peace in the 1990s, including war weariness, it is difficult to understand what happened without situating it in a larger European framework and the new definition of sovereignty to which the EU has given birth.

scholarly journals Richard Bean’s The Big Fellah (2010) and Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman (2017): two plays about the Northern Troubles from outside of Northern Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroko Mikami
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Good Friday Agreement

During the three decades of the Troubles of Northern Ireland (1969-1998), a remarkable amount of plays about the Troubles was written and almost of them, it seems, had been ‘monopolised’ by (Northern) Irish playwrights. Recently, however, certain changes about this monopoly have been witnessed and those who do not claim themselves as Irish descendants have begun to choose the Northern Troubles as their themes. Also, there have been growing concerns about violence worldwide since 9.11. This article deals with two plays, Richard Bean’s The Big Fellah and Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, neither of which was written by an Irish playwright and examines whether and to what extent it is possible to say that they can transcend regional boundaries and become part of global memories in the context of the post-Good Friday Agreement and the post 9.11.

scholarly journals ‘The situation over there really bothers me’: Ronald Reagan and the Northern Ireland conflict

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (159) ◽  
pp. 97-116
Author(s):  
James Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
American Government ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Transatlantic History ◽  
Northern Ireland Conflict ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe relationship between the Reagan administration and the Northern Ireland conflict is a neglected area of transatlantic history. This article addresses the extent of Ronald Reagan’s interest in the Northern Irish conflict and the manner in which other protagonists sought to secure or prevent his involvement. It will examine the president’s approach in the context of different views within his administration, the State Department’s wish to maintain American neutrality on the issue of Northern Ireland, and the desire of leading Irish-American politicians for the American government to be much more interventionist. These debates coincided with significant developments in Northern Ireland. Therefore, Reagan’s contribution to the Anglo–Irish process encapsulates a variety of issues: the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1980s, the 1985 Anglo–Irish Agreement and the internationalisation of the conflict before the election of President Bill Clinton in 1993.

The Future of British–Irish Relations after Brexit

2020 ◽  
pp. 254-273
Author(s):  
Etain Tannam
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Sectarian Violence ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Potential Methods ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

This chapter assesses the impact of UK withdrawal from the EU on British–Irish relations. It examines yet another possible disintegrative effect of Brexit on the UK system, namely the re-unification of Ireland. The 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, bringing to a close decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, had created an excellent working relations between Dublin and London. However, Brexit has threated this equilibrium, and has unexpectedly brought back on the agenda a possible border poll. The chapter then looks at the unfolding of the Brexit negotiations from June of 2016 to March of 2020 from the perspectives of British–Irish relations. It also studies the importance of the British–Irish relationship and the EU in the peace process in Northern Ireland, and considers potential methods of managing the relationship after Brexit.

The Irish Border

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milena Komarova ◽  
Katy Hayward
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Belfast Agreement ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

The emergence, development, and transformation of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland reveals much about the changing nature of nation-statehood over the century that followed its creation. In its own way, it is also a subject of innovation. The three interrelated strands of relationships safeguarded by the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement of 1998 in many ways define the border. These relationships run within and between the two islands of Ireland and Britain, and also between the two political traditions in Northern Ireland. Nationalists and Unionists have come to define much of their ethos in relation to the symbolic meaning of the Irish border: The former want the border removed and the latter see the border as necessary to keep Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. This helps to understand the prominence given to the Irish border in the context of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU), as well as the controversy around the terms of the U.K.–EU Withdrawal Agreement, which changed the nature of the relationship between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom as well as between Northern Ireland and Ireland. As a consequence of Brexit, the future of borders in and around Ireland—their openness and their governance—will be inevitably shaped by the vicissitudes of the EU–U.K. relationship.

scholarly journals From Troubles to Post-Conflict Theatre in Northern Ireland

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Phelan
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Irish Theatre ◽  
Irish History ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was a watershed moment in Irish culture, as much as in the political sphere. Up until that moment, late twentieth-century Irish history had been dominated by the conflict that erupted in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, and Northern Irish theatre was dominated by the ‘Troubles play’—initially in the 1960s in the work of Sam Thompson, and later in plays by writers such as John Boyd, Graham Reid, and, in more complex ways, behind the formally adventurous work of Stewart Parker and Anne Devlin. However, since 1998, writers such as Owen McCafferty have inaugurated the search for a theatrical form appropriate to a post-conflict culture in which scars and divisions still remained. This chapter covers the arc of development of Northern drama over the period, leading up to some of the innovative performances of companies such as Theatre of Witness.

‘The Troubles we’ve seen’: film, television drama and the Northern Irish conflict in Britain

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hill
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Television Drama ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Relative Scarcity

This chapter examines films and television dramas dealing with the impact of the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ in Britain and the controversies that they generated. It begins with a consideration of early TV dramas such as The Vanishing Army (1978) and Chance of a Lifetime (1980) dealing with the experiences of the returning British soldier. This is followed by an examination of the representation of the IRA’s activities on the British ‘mainland’ in productions such as The Patriot Game (1969), Hennessy (1975), Eighteen Months to Balcombe Street (1977) and The Long Good Friday (1979) as well as an analysis of how the miscarriages of justice that emerged in the wake of the IRA’s bombing campaigns were turned into (documentary)-dramas such as Who Bombed Birmingham? (1990) and In the Name of the Father(1993). The chapter then concludes with some consideration of the ‘peace process’ and the relative scarcity of dramas dealing with the divisions and tensions that were a feature of the earlier period.

Brexit will bring instability to Northern Ireland

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Agricultural Exports ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Eu

Significance The collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive on January 16, coupled with the prospect of a policed border after Brexit (for the first time since 2005), removes two highly visible accomplishments of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and in turn helps opponents of the peace process. Impacts Northern Irish financial services providing 'nearshore' support for London will be hit by banks moving head office functions elsewhere. Northern Ireland will suffer economically from Brexit more than other regions owing to reliance on agricultural exports to the EU. An extended period of direct rule would break habits of cooperation, complicating the return to devolved self-government.

The Concept of Europeanization and Possibilities of its Application to the Analysis of Ukraine-EU Relations

2017 ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
Natalia Popova
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Member States ◽  
External Governance ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Eu Studies ◽  
The Eu

The concept of Europeanization has become quite fashionable in EU studies in recent years. It is often used for the analysis of the relations between the EU and non-member states. The aim of the article is to examine the possibilities of its application in explaining the relationship between the EU and Ukraine. The structure of the article is as follows: firstly, the concept of Europeanization is defined considering such two disputable issues as distinguishing among concepts of Europeanization and European integration as well as Europeanization and EU-ization. Next, the evolution of the theoretical research of Europeanization and definition of this concept are analyzed. Two main mechanisms of Europeanization (conditionality and socialization) are examined. The author considers main approaches to the analysis of the "external" Europeanization emphasizing the concept of "external governance". Three groups of factors which influence the effectiveness of Europeanization are briefly analyzed. And finally, the peculiarities of application of the Europeanization concept to the Ukraine-EU relations are outlined. Keywords: EU, Ukraine, Europeanization, EU-ization, ‘external’ Europeanization, conditionality, socialization, concept of ‘external governance’

scholarly journals EU Law’s Half-Hearted Protection of Religious Minorities Minority Specific Rights and Freedom of Religion for All

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 830
Author(s):  
Kristin Henrard
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Special Rights ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

This article begins with some reflections on the definition of religious minorities, their needs and rights and how this relates to the discussion about the need for minority specific rights in addition to general fundamental rights as rights for all human beings irrespective of particular identity features. Secondly, an overall account of the ambiguous relationship between religious minorities and fundamental rights is presented. The third and most extensive section zooms in on the EU and religious minorities, starting with an account of the EU’s general approach towards minorities and then turning to the protection of fundamental rights of religious minorities in/through the EU legal order. First, the EU’s engagement with minority specific rights and the extent to which these norms have been attentive to religious themes will be discussed. Second, the CJEU’s case law concerning freedom of religion and the prohibition of dis-crimination as general human rights is analysed. The conclusion then turns to the overall perspective and discusses whether the EU’s protection of religious minorities’ fundamental rights can be considered ‘half-hearted’ and, if so, to what extent. This in turn allows us to return to the overall focus of the Special Issue, namely the relationship between the freedom of religion for all and special rights for religious minorities.

Commemorating bonds of Union: remembering the Ulster Special Constabulary at the National Memorial Arboretum

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
Remote Site ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Local Service ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Grant Scheme

In 2006, two acts of commemoration took place to the memory of the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC). One was staged in a public site of national commemoration at the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) in Lichfield, Staffordshire and the other was a very local service in the remote site of Mullaghfad Church, Co.Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Both of these events were state-funded under the terms of the ‘Victims and Survivors Befriending Grant Scheme’, but engaged in very different modes of remembrance. This chapter focuses on the USC memorial at the NMA as a strategic site of memory for the Ulster unionist community. Drawing upon interviews with members of the Ulster Special Constabulary Association (USCA) present at the commemoration, it explores the active role Britain plays as a physical and symbolic site of ‘respite’ for Ulster unionists. In contrast to the private, divisive nature of memorials to the USC in Northern Ireland, the NMA site enables the USCA to locate its role in the Troubles in terms of British heroism and sacrifice, alongside memorials to other UK police units. The chapter suggests that historians should look more closely at the active role Britain plays in commemorating the Northern Irish Troubles.

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