Northern Ireland

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-217
Author(s):  
James Loughlin
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Support ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Enoch Powell

This chapter assesses comparatively the attitude to Northern Ireland of Oswald Mosley and Enoch Powell, both seen as right wing politicians, if of varying degrees of extremism. For Mosley Powell was seen as a threat to his own position as a public figure, one whose controversial speech on immigration at Birmingham in 1968 attracted the kind of public support long unavailable to him, a pariah figure in British politics. Yet both were authoritarian figures, convinced of the certitude of their own opinions and with little time for dissentient views. On Northern Ireland, however, they exhibited significant differences. Mosley’s experience of British policy during the Irish War of Independence gave him an informed outlook on the kind of repressive and morally reprehensible measures it was necessary to avoid, and that a solution to the problem would require some kind of constitutional modification. Powell, in contrast, developed a paranoid conspiracy mindset, seeing the United Kingdom under threat from enemies within and without and with Northern Ireland just the latest site of conflict; and like the extreme Right offering a limited ‘law and order’ solution to the Troubles.

‘Nowhere to hide’: Regionalism and memory in Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Schwetman
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
First Person ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Look Back

Derry Girls (2018–present) playfully satirizes regionalism and first-person narrative while re-enacting a collective memory of the Troubles. A close reading of the series’ opening montage provides the basis for a fuller understanding of the programme’s nuanced critique of efforts to look back on Northern Ireland in the 1990s and make sense of it all with the benefit of hindsight. In lieu of the reassurances of authoritative extradiegetic commentary, the series’ opening monologue provides a humorous account of the unresolved tribulations of adolescence and, in the larger political frame, a community’s continuing inability to situate itself as a region within the United Kingdom.

scholarly journals The Politics of Immigration: a new electoral dilemma for the right and the left?

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrej Zaslove
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Immigration Legislation ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Right

The success of radical right, anti-immigrant political parties and the recent riots in France are only two of the more publicized examples of how volatile the issue of immigration has become across Western Europe. It is often believed that the dichotomy between racism and anti-racism is quite clear. Right-wing and center-right parties and their electoral constituencies are less accepting of immigrants, while center-left and left-wing political parties and their supporters are more accommodating. In this paper, however, I argue that this distinction is not as clear as it is often perceived. Using Italy as my case study, I outline the various ideological positions on the left and the right, and within the left and right, vis-à-vis immigration legislation and important related issues such as integration and multiculturalism. In the second section, I then examine how these ideological positions respond to the realities of immigration and to new pressures from voters within civil society. The question is whether immigration has created a new electoral dilemma for both sides of the political spectrum. I examine whether: 1) left-wing parties are experiencing pressures from their traditional working class constituencies to be tougher on immigration and issues of law-and-order. How does this mesh with more liberal attitudes regarding policies that permit immigrants to enter, find work, and integrate into society? 2) The question is whether right-wing political forces are also experiencing an electoral dilemma between center-right voters who support less liberal immigrant legislation and their traditional business constituency who support center-right economic policy but also realize that they require immigrant labour. In the conclusion, I, briefly, examine whether this new electoral dilemma experienced by the Italian left and right is consistent with other West European countries such as Germany, Austria, Demark, the United Kingdom, and France.

Poverty and education in Northern Ireland: the legacy of division and conflict

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-64
Author(s):  
Ruth Leitch ◽  
Erik Cownie
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Statistical Correlation ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Educational Challenges

This chapter examines the issue of poverty and education in Northern Ireland (NI) and how the particular economic, social, political, and educational challenges associated with NI following the Troubles (1968-1998) are viewed as inextricably entangled in this region of the United Kingdom. After briefly outlining the relatively recent and current political and policy landscapes, it goes on to consider patterns of demography, poverty and deprivation and educational achievement and how these link to segregation and issues of difference. The chapter then draws on a major, largely qualitative study that was undertaken in NI, Investigating Links in Achievement and Deprivation (ILiAD), in order to illustrate how any simple statistical correlation of deprivation and educational achievement plays out here in a much more complex nuanced manner.

Patterns of Law and Order Policies in 20 Western Industrialized Countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-102
Author(s):  
Georg Wenzelburger
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
The United Kingdom

Chapter 3 provides a quantitative analysis of the politics of law and order. It is presented in three steps. First, it is tested whether party competition affects how much parties emphasize law and order issues in their programs and whether this is different for issue owners. The study reveals that high public salience of security-related issues pushes all parties to emphasize law and order more strongly and that issue owners react strongly to the pressure of right-wing populist parties by emphasizing law and order in their manifestos. Second, the quantitative analysis tests whether these different programmatic stances translate into more spending on law and order. This is indeed the case, but only if constitutional courts are weak. Third, the analysis takes a closer look at legislation in France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom and finds the main results of the analysis on public spending corroborated.

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.

British government policy post 1974: learning slowly between Sunningdales?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eamonn O’Kane
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Acceptable Solution ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
British Policy ◽  
Irish Question ◽  
The Impact

This chapter seeks to examine the impact and legacy of the failed Sunningdale initiative on British policy in Northern Ireland. At a superficial level British policy towards the problem oscillated markedly in the 25 years between the Sunningdale and Belfast/Good Friday Agreements. The approach of seeking to build a power-sharing devolved government with a strong Irish dimension proved unattainable in 1974. Over the subsequent years the British appeared to toy with: Irish unity; full integration of Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom; devolution without an Irish dimension (or indeed much power to share); and a variant of joint authority with the Irish government without power-sharing in Northern Ireland, before returning successfully to the Sunningdale model in the late 1990s. This chapter will question the reasons for this oscillating approach. Was it a result of a disillusion with Sunnningdale amongst British policy-makers; a reflection of their pragmatism; a desire to insulate wider British politics from the Irish question; or an indication of a lack of ideological commitment and interest in Northern Ireland in wider British political circles? Drawing on the available archival sources, and interview data from British policymakers, the chapter will argue that it was not slow learning that delayed the ‘return’ to Sunningdale for the British, but the realities of events on the ground in Northern Ireland and the political attitudes of those involved in the conflict. The British were key players in this conflict but their ability to control events and outcomes was severely limited. Sunningdale represented what the British believed would be the most acceptable solution to the problem in 1973, but the conditions were not conducive for almost a quarter of a century.

Strike

Jimmy Reid ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 193-222
Author(s):  
W.W.J. Knox ◽  
A. McKinlay
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Life ◽  
British History ◽  
The Political ◽  
British Politics ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Falklands War ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Looking Back

Chapter seven commences with Reid’s post-1979 defeat and his new career in journalism against the backdrop of a decade of Thatcherism, apartheid in South Africa, the troubles in Northern Ireland and the Falklands war. This is the political preface to the miners’ strike which undoubtedly dominated mid-1980s British politics and so naturally it dominated this chapter of Reid’s public life. During his time as a columnist for the Glasgow Herald, Reid became at odds with the Labour party over his criticism of Arthur Scargill’s leadership of the miners’ strike and of how the strike might impact Labour’s potential for victory in future elections. Objectively looking back at this pivotal time in British history, we analyse Reid’s interpretations of the strike, Scargill and Labour’s losses as well as evaluating how far Reid’s political background, experience and principles influenced his attitudes towards them.

scholarly journals Screen production on the ‘biggest set in the world’: Northern Ireland Screen and the case of Game of Thrones

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 845-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Ramsey ◽  
Stephen Baker ◽  
Robert Porter
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Publicly Funded ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Institutional Actor ◽  
Game Of Thrones

The publicly funded screen development agency, Northern Ireland Screen, has been the key institutional actor in the exponential growth of the screen industries in Northern Ireland. The most prominent production to be based in Northern Ireland has been Home Box Office’s Game of Thrones, which had much of its eight seasons filmed in the region. Significant amounts of public finance have been offered to the screen industries, with direct funding provided to augment United Kingdom-wide tax breaks. However, there has been a lack of critical analysis of the recipients of this finance, on the precarious nature of many of the jobs that have been created, or on the stated benefits to the economy. This article subjects the role of Northern Ireland Screen to policy analysis to attempt to fill this scholarly gap. Setting the subject into the context of public support for film and television across the United Kingdom, it is argued that the economic argument for providing direct financial support to the screen industries needs to be viewed in the context of the overall impact on society.

scholarly journals How Brexit was made in England

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ailsa Henderson ◽  
Charlie Jeffery ◽  
Dan Wincott ◽  
Richard Wyn Jones
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
English National Identity ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Made In

The Leave majority recorded in England was decisive in determining the UK-wide referendum result. Brexit was made in England. We take this as a prompt to challenge the conventional Anglo-British mindset that animates most studies of ‘British politics’ and has shaped public attitudes research on the United Kingdom. We explore the persistence of distinctive Eurosceptic views in England and their relationship to English national identity prior to the referendum. We then model referendum vote choice using data from the Future of England Survey. Our analysis shows that immigration concerns played a major role in the Brexit referendum, alongside a general willingness to take risks, right-wing views, older age, and English national identity. Therefore, Brexit was not just made in England, but English ness was also a significant driver of the choice for Leave.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 319-326
Author(s):  
James Loughlin
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
British Politics ◽  
World War ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Target Community ◽  
British State ◽  
Race Problem

In summarising the findings of this study a number of points can be made. First, as a region of the United Kingdom Ulster/Northern Ireland stands out for the singularity of its history and characteristics. While for other regions of the British State the issue of nationality only arose in very singular circumstances such as those created by a world war, in Ulster the divided national identities of its people and the constitutional claims of Irish Governments meant that issues of nationality were a perennial concern, rendering the usual bread and butter issues common to British politics to a secondary position. Similarly, fears of communist subversion such as stimulated extreme right agitation in Britain for much of this period, was a very marginal issue in Northern Ireland. Accordingly, despite commitment to common symbols of Britishness the singularity of its concerns had created a political environment which left very little space for new entrants to occupy, despite, latterly, a growing race problem. The extreme Right’s effective target community was the Protestant and loyalist people, but only if it had become a major force in British politics would it have had some leverage in Northern Ireland.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document