The Twilight of the United Kingdom & Tiocfaidh ár lá: Twenty Years after the Good Friday Agreement

The vote by the electorate of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in 2016 was one in which the impact of Brexit on the island of Ireland and on UK-Irish relations hardly figured. Within months, however, the ‘Irish border problem’ was centre stage. The deterioration in UK-Irish relations in the 2 years following the referendum was profound and marked the first stage in the potential unravelling of the deep interdependence which had come to characterise relations between Dublin and London by virtue of their shared membership of the European Union since 1973. A significant ‘reverse asymmetry of power’ emerged from the United Kingdom’s relative isolation in the Brexit negotiations and Ireland’s privileged position as an European Union insider. In an increasingly turbulent international arena, the retreat from integration set in train by Brexit also threatened the Good Friday Agreement and the institutions and processes put in place to manage North–South and East–West relations after 1998.

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The Twilight of the United Kingdom &Tiocfaidh ár lá: Twenty Years after the Good Friday Agreement

Ethnopolitics ◽

10.1080/17449057.2018.1473114 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 223-242 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Brendan O'Leary

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Good Friday ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Good Friday Agreement

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Extradition Between the UK and Ireland After Brexit—Understanding the Past and Present to Prepare for the Future

The Journal of Criminal Law ◽

10.1177/0022018320977531 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 002201832097753

Author(s):

Gemma Davies ◽

Paul Arnell

Keyword(s):

Transition Period ◽

Alternative Methods ◽

Good Friday ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Good Friday Agreement ◽

The Future ◽

Close Relationship ◽

The Republic ◽

The Uk ◽

The Eu

The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom have a long, close and difficult history. The most recent phase of which dates from 1998 and the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement. Since 1921, however, there has been unique practice between Ireland and the UK as regards the transfer of accused and convicted persons from one to the other. Indeed, there has been a special and close relationship between the two in that regard; albeit one not without difficulties. In recent times EU Justice and Home Affairs measures and the Good Friday Agreement have supplemented and strengthened the relationship. These include, since January 2004, the European Arrest Warrant (EAW). The EAW has been particularly important in streamlining the extradition process between the Ireland and the UK. This phase of history and co-operation is coming to an end. The UK’s membership of the EU has now ceased, and a transition period during which the UK remains part of the EAW will end on 31st December 2020. The extradition relationship between the two is therefore facing a considerable challenge. There are several options open to Ireland, the UK and the EU as a replacement. Time, political will and the interests of third states, however, may well stand in the way of the conclusion of an agreement that optimally serves the interests of all parties and criminal justice. This paper considers the origins of extradition between the UK and Ireland and the alternative methods of extradition open to the UK and Ireland after Brexit. Consideration is given to the likely operation of a Norway-Iceland style agreement and whether such an agreement will be in place by the end of the transition and, if it was, whether its terms are likely to be sufficient for the needs of Ireland and the UK. The possibility of a bilateral arrangement on extradition between Ireland and the UK is also explored. Underlying the discussion is the critical point that the future extradition relationship must retain its ‘special’ characteristics, and therefore maintain the trust and good will that has developed over the years and given rise to an effective extradition relationship between the two countries. In other words, the lessons of history must be remembered.

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The Northern Ireland Civil Service under Direct Rule and Devolution

International Review of Administrative Sciences ◽

10.1177/0020852303069002006 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 69 (2) ◽

pp. 205-217 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Paul Carmichael ◽

Robert Osborne

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Public Administration ◽

Civil Service ◽

The Public ◽

Good Friday ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Asymmetrical Pattern ◽

Key Characteristics

Although the United Kingdom is usually regarded as a unitary state in the mould of the Westminster model, in reality, complete political integration and administrative standardization have never existed. Recent political devolution consolidates an increasingly diverse and asymmetrical pattern of territorial governance. Frequently, however, notwithstanding some notable exceptions, this differentiation within the UK's governmental arrangements is overlooked in much of the literature. To help correct this oversight, this article reports on the longstanding differences in the public administration arrangements of one of the UK's smaller component countries, Northern Ireland. Specifically, the article focuses on the role of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and charts some of the key characteristics and trends that have emerged under both the period of Direct Rule from London (since the end of the Stormont devolution in 1972) and in the newly-restored devolved settlement that was introduced in 1999, following the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.

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The British–Irish Council and Devolution

Government and Opposition ◽

10.1111/j.1477-7053.1999.tb00482.x ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 287-298 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Vernon Bogdanor

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

The Other ◽

National State ◽

International Treaty ◽

Good Friday ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Belfast Agreement ◽

The Government

THE BRITISH-IRISH COUNCIL SPRINGS FROM AND IS PROVIDED FOR IN the Belfast Agreement signed on Good Friday 1998. Its coming into force depends upon the implementation of the Agreement. The Council is established, however, not by the 1998 Northern Ireland Act, which gives legislative expression to the bulk of this Agreement, but by an international treaty, the British–Irish Agreement, attached to the Belfast Agreement.The Belfast Agreement together with the legislation providing for devolution to Scotland and Wales establishes a new constitutional settlement, both among the nations which form the United Kingdom, and also between those nations and the other nation in these islands, the Irish nation. The United Kingdom itself is, as a result of the Scotland Act and the Government of Wales Act, in the process of becoming a new union of nations, each with its own identity and institutions – a multi-national state, rather than, as many of the English have traditionally seen it, a homogeneous British nation containing a variety of different people.

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The Irish Border

10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.644 ◽

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.

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Equality and Devolution in the United Kingdom: A Story in Three Acts and a Sequel

Social Policy and Society ◽

10.1017/s1474746421000191 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Paula Devine ◽

Grace Kelly ◽

Martina McAuley

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Great Britain ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Peace Agreement ◽

Good Friday ◽

Left Behind ◽

The Past ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Uk ◽

The Way

Within the United Kingdom (UK), many of the arguments driving devolution and Brexit focused on equality. This article assesses how notions of equality have been shaped over the past two decades. Using a chronology of theoretical, political and public interpretations of equality between 1998 and 2018, the article highlights the shifting positions of Northern Ireland (NI) and the rest of the UK. NI once led the way in relation to equality legislation, and equality was the cornerstone of the Good Friday/Belfast peace agreement. However, the Equality Act 2010 in Great Britain meant that NI was left behind. The nature of future UK/EU relationships and how these might influence the direction and extent of the equality debate in the UK is unclear. While this article focuses on the UK, the questions that it raises have global application, due to the international influences on equality discourse and legislation.

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Northern Ireland and Brexit: Three effects on ‘the border in the mind’

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations ◽

10.1177/1369148117711060 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 497-511 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Cathy Gormley-Heenan ◽

Arthur Aughey

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Identity Politics ◽

Political Stability ◽

The European Union ◽

Good Friday ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The People ◽

Waking Up ◽

The Mind

For those who spoke on behalf of Leave voters, the result on 23 June 2016 meant the people of the United Kingdom were taking back ‘control’ or getting their ‘own country back’. However, two parts of the United Kingdom did not vote Leave: Scotland and Northern Ireland. Here, the significant counterpoint to ‘taking back control is “waking up in a different country”’, and this sentiment has unique political gravity. Its unique gravity involves two distinct but intimately related matters. The first concerns the politics of identity. The vote was mainly, if not entirely, along nationalist/unionist lines, confirming an old division: unionists were staking a ‘British’ identity by voting Leave, and nationalists an Irish one by voting Remain. The second concerns borders. The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement of 1998 meant taking the border out of Irish politics. Brexit means running the border between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom across the island as a sovereign ‘frontier’. Although this second matter is discussed mainly in terms of the implications for free movement of people and goods, we argue that it is freighted with meanings of identity. Brexit involves a ‘border in the mind’, those shifts in self-understanding, individually and collectively, attendant upon the referendum. This article examines this ‘border in the mind’ according to its effects on identity, politics and the constitution, and their implications for political stability in Northern Ireland.

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