A Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume II

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Colonial Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Irish Republicanism ◽  
Fear Of Abandonment ◽  
The Eu

O’Leary’s authoritative treatment of the history of Northern Ireland and its current prospects is genuinely unique. Beginning with an in-depth account of the scale of the recent conflict, he sets out to explain why Northern Ireland recently had the highest incidence of political violence in twentieth-century western Europe. Volume 1 demonstrates the salience of the colonial past in accounting for current collective mentalities, institutions, and rivalrous animosities, culminating in a distinct comparative account of the partition of the island in 1920. The major moments in the development of Irish republicanism and Ulster unionism are freshly treated by this Irish-born political scientist who has spent thirty-five years mastering the relevant historiography. Volume 2 shows how Ulster Unionists improvised a distinctive control system, driven by their fear of abandonment by the metropolitan power in Great Britain, their anxieties about Irish nationalist irredentism, and their inherited settler colonial culture. British political institutions were exploited to organize a sustained political monopoly on power and to disorganize the cultural Catholic minority. At the same juncture, the Irish Free State’s punctuated movement from restricted dominion-level autonomy to sovereign republican independence led to the full-scale political decolonization of the South. Irish state-building had a price, however: it further estranged Ulster Unionists, and Northern nationalists felt abandoned. Volume 3 unpacks the consequences and takes the reader to the present, explaining Northern Ireland’s distinctive consociational settlement, accomplished in 1998, and its subsequently turbulent and currently imperiled implementation. An assessment of the confederation of European Union and the prospects for an Irish confederation close the book, which vividly engages with feasible futures that may unfold from the UK’s exit from the EU.

A Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume III

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Colonial Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Irish Republicanism ◽  
Fear Of Abandonment ◽  
The Eu

O’Leary’s authoritative treatment of the history of Northern Ireland and its current prospects is genuinely unique. Beginning with an in-depth account of the scale of the recent conflict, he sets out to explain why Northern Ireland recently had the highest incidence of political violence in twentieth-century western Europe. Volume 1 demonstrates the salience of the colonial past in accounting for current collective mentalities, institutions, and rivalrous animosities, culminating in a distinct comparative account of the partition of the island in 1920. The major moments in the development of Irish republicanism and Ulster unionism are freshly treated by this Irish-born political scientist who has spent thirty-five years mastering the relevant historiography. Volume 2 shows how Ulster Unionists improvised a distinctive control system, driven by their fear of abandonment by the metropolitan power in Great Britain, their anxieties about Irish nationalist irredentism, and their inherited settler colonial culture. British political institutions were exploited to organize a sustained political monopoly on power and to disorganize the cultural Catholic minority. At the same juncture, the Irish Free State’s punctuated movement from restricted dominion-level autonomy to sovereign republican independence led to the full-scale political decolonization of the South. Irish state-building had a price, however: it further estranged Ulster Unionists, and Northern nationalists felt abandoned. Volume 3 unpacks the consequences and takes the reader to the present, explaining Northern Ireland’s distinctive consociational settlement, accomplished in 1998, and its subsequently turbulent and currently imperiled implementation. An assessment of the confederation of European Union and the prospects for an Irish confederation close the book, which vividly engages with feasible futures that may unfold from the UK’s exit from the EU.

A Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume I

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Colonial Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Irish Republicanism ◽  
Fear Of Abandonment ◽  
The Eu

O’Leary’s authoritative treatment of the history of Northern Ireland and its current prospects is genuinely unique. Beginning with an in-depth account of the scale of the recent conflict, he sets out to explain why Northern Ireland recently had the highest incidence of political violence in twentieth-century western Europe. Volume 1 demonstrates the salience of the colonial past in accounting for current collective mentalities, institutions, and rivalrous animosities, culminating in a distinct comparative account of the partition of the island in 1920. The major moments in the development of Irish republicanism and Ulster unionism are freshly treated by this Irish-born political scientist who has spent thirty-five years mastering the relevant historiography. Volume 2 shows how Ulster Unionists improvised a distinctive control system, driven by their fear of abandonment by the metropolitan power in Great Britain, their anxieties about Irish nationalist irredentism, and their inherited settler colonial culture. British political institutions were exploited to organize a sustained political monopoly on power and to disorganize the cultural Catholic minority. At the same juncture, the Irish Free State’s punctuated movement from restricted dominion-level autonomy to sovereign republican independence led to the full-scale political decolonization of the South. Irish state-building had a price, however: it further estranged Ulster Unionists, and Northern nationalists felt abandoned. Volume 3 unpacks the consequences and takes the reader to the present, explaining Northern Ireland’s distinctive consociational settlement, accomplished in 1998, and its subsequently turbulent and currently imperiled implementation. An assessment of the confederation of European Union and the prospects for an Irish confederation close the book, which vividly engages with feasible futures that may unfold from the UK’s exit from the EU.

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.

scholarly journals Roma Expulsions and Discrimination: The Elephant in Brussels

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen O’Nions
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
The Eu

Abstract This article will critically examine the treatment of migrant Roma in Western Europe, particularly Italy and France, in the light of the obligations under the EU Citizenship Directive 2004/38. The role of the political institutions will be considered, especially the European Commission, who have yet to take a decisive position on the Roma expulsions and on the wider issue of Roma discrimination in Europe. It is argued that the focus on non-discrimination cannot address the entrenched inequality which characterises the Roma’s situation in Europe. Furthermore, that the comparative disadvantage experienced by Europe’s Roma communities constitutes a major human rights crisis which has so far been sidelined by Brussels. A European strategy is urgently required, which demands leadership from the Commission and the full participation of Roma representatives.

10. Devolution and Parliamentary Supremacy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Webley ◽  
Harriet Samuels
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Governing Body ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complete Series ◽  
Explanatory Text ◽  
Parliamentary Supremacy ◽  
Primary Materials ◽  
The Eu

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. Devolution can be defined as the conferral of powers by a central governing institution on a regional or national governing body, without the central institution having to concede legislative supremacy. Such devolved powers can be administrative, executive, or legislative in nature. The process of devolving such powers to three of the UK’s four nations—England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—was initiated by the passing of the Devolution Acts of 1998. This chapter begins by tracing the history of devolution, and then discusses the ways that power can be devolved, and the roles and powers of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. It addresses the question of whether there should there be an English Parliament, and finally, examines the effects of devolution on parliamentary supremacy as well as the effects the UK’s exit from the EU may have on the devolution settlement too.

Nationalism, Secessionism, and Autonomy

2021 ◽  
pp. 143-172
Author(s):  
André Lecours
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Basque Country ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
American Federation ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines three additional cases: the Basque Country, Puerto Rico, and Québec. The objective behind these supplemental case studies is twofold. First, for the Basque Country, the goal is to understand why there has not been a strengthening of secessionism like in Catalonia. The chapter explains that Basque nationalism is exceptional for its history of political violence, which renders extremely difficult the type of alliance between nationalist forces that has occurred in Catalonia. Next, the chapter looks at Puerto Rico and Québec to assess how a focus on the nature of autonomy to explain the strength of secessionism travels beyond Western Europe. The case of Puerto Rico, where secessionism has always been marginal, helps to tease out the potential importance of perceptions on autonomy. Although Puerto Rican autonomy has not been adjusted, political debates over the constitutional future of the island, namely through multiple referendums on status, have likely fed perceptions that Puerto Ricans can change their autonomy, either through an enhancement of the current status or by becoming a state of the American federation. In Québec, the weakening of secessionism in the last decades has corresponded with a switch from constitutional reform to intergovernmental agreements as instruments for managing the position of the province within the federation. Constitutional change is difficult in Canada; consequently, Québec’s autonomy has been static constitutionally. As a result, when the focus for managing autonomy is placed on constitutional negotiations, secessionism in the province strengthens. When autonomy is managed through intergovernmental agreements, secessionism weakens.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Hearty
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Introductory Overview ◽  
Irish Republicanism ◽  
Research Questions

This chapter provides an introductory overview of the arguments made throughout the following chapters of the book. It brings together insights from the fields of memory studies and transitional justice to establish a theoretical framework for examining the construction, circulation and contestation of collective memories during periods of political violence and how these change during periods of political transition. Drawing on observations made in transitioning societies elsewhere, the chapter will highlight how the past becomes a highly contestable resource not only between but also within collectives during political transition. Cognisant of this, the chapter will proceed to outline the main research aims of the book and the research questions that it aims to provide answers to in ascertaining both how and why memory is/was moulded by various actors within modern Irish republicanism to either support or reject the endorsement of policing and criminal justice in Northern Ireland.

10. Devolution and Parliamentary Supremacy

2021 ◽  
pp. 295-334
Author(s):  
Lisa Webley ◽  
Harriet Samuels
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Governing Body ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complete Series ◽  
Explanatory Text ◽  
Parliamentary Supremacy ◽  
Primary Materials ◽  
The Eu

Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. Devolution can be defined as the conferral of powers by a central governing institution on a regional or national governing body, without the central institution having to concede legislative supremacy. Such devolved powers can be administrative, executive, or legislative in nature. The process of devolving such powers to three of the UK’s four nations—England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—was initiated by the passing of the Devolution Acts of 1998. This chapter begins by tracing the history of devolution and then discusses the ways that power can be devolved and the roles and powers of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. It addresses the question of whether there should there be an English Parliament and, finally, examines the effects of devolution on parliamentary supremacy, as well as the effects the UK’s exit from the EU has had on the devolution settlement.

Introduction: The Northern Ireland Troubles in Britain: impacts, engagements, legacies and memories

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Dawson ◽  
Stephen Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Northern Ireland Conflict ◽  
History Of ◽  
Opening Up

The introduction, and the book more generally, addresses a paradox: that the Northern Ireland conflict, commonly known as ‘the Troubles’, has had profound and shaping impacts upon politics, culture and the lives of many thousands of people in Great Britain, producing lasting legacies that continue to resonate nearly half a century after the eruption of political violence in 1968-9; but that engagements with the conflict, and with its ‘post-conflict’ transformation, from within Britain have been limited, lacking, frequently problematic, often troubled, in ways that are not fully grasped or considered. The book, then, has four main aims: to investigate the history of responses to, engagements with, and memories of the Northern Irish conflict in Britain; to explore absences and weaknesses or silences in this history; to promote a wider academic and public debate in Britain concerning the significance of this history, and the lessons to be learned from the post-conflict efforts to ‘deal with the past’ in Northern Ireland; and to provoke reflection on the significance of opening up hitherto unexamined histories and memories of the Troubles, and the ways in which ongoing conflicts between competing understandings of the past might be addressed and negotiated.

Problems of North-South Economic Integration and Politics in Ireland: Southern Perspectives

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Anderson ◽  
James Goodman
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Perspective Drawing ◽  
Future Potential ◽  
The Eu

North-South economic integration across the border in Ireland is being stimulated by wider transnational processes and European Union integration. But its meanings and extent, as elsewhere in the EU, are defined by state-centred structures and political ideologies. In Ireland, economic integration, and the lack of it, has been shaped by political Partition and the national conflict over Northern Ireland. This article discusses economic integration and politics from a Southern perspective, drawing on interviews with Dublin-based representatives of business organisations, professional associations and semi-state bodies. It mirrors earlier research in Belfast on the motivations and problems of cross-border integration, its institutional forms and future potential. Private firms, associations and other bodies have generally tried to circumvent rather than supersede North-South and national divisions. But the end result of trying to keep ‘economics’ separate from ‘politics’ is a very uneven and stunted form of integration which is sorely lacking in coherence, coordination, and accountability. It is concluded that overcoming these problems requires North-South political institutions and democratic involvement.

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