The Northern Ireland Question
The reminder that sometimes there is a need to repeat well considered nationalist shibboleths and certainties was again brought to attention with the recent post on Joint Authority – resurrecting a pamphlet that hasn’t aged since first appearing in 1994.
With that in mind, this post covers a series of four books published 1991-2000, edited jointly by Patrick Roche and Brian Barton.
The series drew on international scholars of Irish history, political philosophy, economics, sociology and law; from the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States. The books explore a number of themes; the history and political/ideological character of nationalism and unionism; the origins and implementation of Partition; and informed and in some cases ‘revisionist’ insight into the dynamics of the terrorism that engulfed Northern Ireland for decades in the latter half of the twentieth century.
The broad based discussions around the ‘Northern Ireland Question’ series of three books remains very current. The addition of the fourth provides some early thoughts on revising structures, and being specific to the Belfast Agreement has been in some respects overtaken by events – though not in respect of some of the underlying themes.
The Northern Ireland Question: Myth and Reality
First published in 1991 the book draws on the expertise of scholars in Irish history, political philosophy, sociology, demography and criminal and constitutional law to provide a major contribution to understanding the dynamics of the terrorist conflict that engulfed Northern Ireland for thirty years. The legal dimension of the book provides accessible understanding both of the use of the criminal law in response to terrorism and of the constitutional status of Northern Ireland prior to the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
The Northern Ireland Question: Myth and Reality explicates the civic character of unionism which differentiates unionism as a form of political identity from the ethnicity of traditional Irish nationalism. The contributions explore the ambiguities of southern Irish politics with respect to ‘the Northern Ireland question’ and challenge a conventional and widely accepted understanding (inimical to unionism and unionists) of the genesis of the terrorist conflict in Northern Ireland and the extent of discrimination under the Stormont administration but without loss of objectivity and professional detachment.
The Northern Ireland Question: Nationalism, Unionism and Partition
in 1994 Barton and Roche brought together leading Irish historians to examine the history and political/ideological character of Irish nationalism and unionism and the origins and implementation of Partition. The book also draws on the expertise of historians, political analysts and economists to explore ‘North-South relations’ in post-Partition Ireland and the extent of socio-economic and political discrimination in Northern Ireland after 1920.
The Northern Ireland Question: Nationalism, Unionism and Partition (also on Kindle) offers a ‘revisionist’ challenge to Irish nationalist claims (in, for example, the Report of the New Ireland Forum published in 1984) about the nature and extent of ‘discrimination’ in Northern Ireland and to Irish nationalist claims about the economic viability of the political unification of Ireland. The book concludes with an overview of unionist and nationalist thinking in the 1990s during the crucial period of the beginning of the ‘peace process’ and the negotiations that led to the Belfast Agreement in 1998.
The Northern Ireland Question: The Peace Process and the Belfast Agreement
The troubles in Northern Ireland were brought to an end by a peace process now regarded as a template for conflict resolution. First published in 1999, this book examines how the Belfast Agreement came about, what role the Republic of Ireland and the United States had in it, its impact on unionism, nationalism, the paramilitaries, the balance of electoral support for local parties and Northern Ireland’s constitutional position. It also discusses the moral issues raised by the Agreement and whether it has laid the basis for lasting peace.
The Northern Ireland Question: The Peace Process and the Belfast Agreement also provides a comprehensive assessment of the origins and political repercussions of the Northern Ireland peace process and the Belfast Agreement and considers the extent to which the Agreement may be an exercise in political cynicism or the basis of lasting peace in Ireland.
The Appeasement of Terrorism and the Belfast Agreement
The Appeasement of Terrorism and The Belfast Agreement is a clear and critical analysis of the concessions to Irish nationalism and Sinn Fein/IRA terrorism in the Belfast Agreement. Published in 2000 this offers an immediately response to the Good Friday Agreement. Throughout the book the claims of Irish nationalism are rigorously demolished and the final section of the book outlines a basis for devolved government in Northern Ireland grounded on the intrinsic merits of unionism rather than on the appeasement of ‘Irish republican’ terrorism.
Editor