The perfect collection for any institution with courses on Irish history, literature, humanity, politics and religion. Written by esteemed professors and researchers, these works provide insightful perspectives on Ireland’s complex past and present.
The collection covers key themes such as the intersections of politics and religion and the unique dynamics of Northern Ireland, off ering valuable insights into the multifaceted dimensions of Irish identity and society.
| Key series |
| Irish Society |
| Studies in Early Modern Irish History |
| Collection year | Titles |
| 2025 titles | 6 |
| 2023/4 titles | 5 |
| 2003-2022 titles | 129 |
| Total collection | 143 |
| Themes |
| Migration |
| Terrorism |
| Conflict |
| Peace |
| Politics |
| Religion |
| Economy |
| Inequality |
| Culture |
| History |
| Gender |
| Diplomacy |
| Subjects |
| Colonialism and imperialism |
| Comparative politics |
| Cultural Studies |
| European History |
| History and Archaeology |
| International relations |
| Literary Studies: c1600 to c1800 |
| Migration, immigration and emigration |
| Peace studies and confllict resolution |
| Political Science and theory |
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Irish Studies collection
Whilst abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019, the commissioning of abortion services by the Department of Health has taken years to secure. Before and after legal change activists have continued with their work providing material support to abortion seekers, attempting to shift mindsets on abortion rights and decentralising the state in abortion care and politics. In this way, abortion politics provides an imaginative political opening to shift our understandings of how care is provided, who we should care about and the role of the state in defining these relationships. The aim of this chapter is to interrogate abortion care provided outside of the state in activist networks, through the ‘unsettledness’ of Northern Ireland politics and to argue that the intransigency of, and dissatisfaction with, contemporary political structures can provide spaces from within which more radical political activity can emerge and different political futures can be imagined and enacted in contemporary political practice.
This chapter summarises the book’s main findings and discusses their implications. It highlights that while there have been successes in terms of gender politics in Northern Ireland, the success story narrative is seductive and only presents a surface level understanding of gender politics, ignoring the complex and nuanced ongoing struggles for gendered rights. The chapter provides an analysis of where Northern Ireland sits within the literature on global contemporary feminist organising and feminist peacebuilding efforts and highlights ways in which feminist organising in Northern Ireland can provide lessons for other contexts in how to transform conservative social and political gender orders.
Feminist political movements are comprised of a broad array of actors working towards a range of visions of gender equality or freedom. There is a strong culture and history of organising on gendered political issues and for feminist goals in Northern Ireland. However, the complexity of politics and the dominance of the conflict narrative means that other strands of political activity can be invisible or deemed of secondary importance. One factor which has made NI feminism more prominent internationally is the abortion rights movement and its success in decriminalising abortion in 2019, but this is only one strand of the ongoing feminist movement building and collective action. The aim of this chapter is to contextualise and situate contemporary feminist organising and movement building both as counterpart to the broader politics of Northern Ireland and within global contemporary feminist movements. In this way, it paints a picture of how feminism has claimed space in the politics of contemporary Northern Ireland from which to advocate collectively for women’s rights. This chapter focuses on how a movement has been built and the continuing challenges in feminist movement building.
Feminist engagement in formal political processes in Northern Ireland has resulted in some moments of success, in particular the inclusion of women within negotiations to the Agreement. However, these moments of success are rare and the commitments made, for example the right to women’s political participation or the inclusion of civil society in formal politics in the form of a Civic Forum, have not been fully realised. The male domination of institutions and the marginalisation of gender and feminist issues within political domains has bred frustration but not disengagement from these institutions and policy-making processes. Feminist actors continue to build relationships, evidence, strategies and networks to engage with state processes and ensure that gender and feminist perspectives on issues are put forward in public debate and the political domain.This chapter considers how gender and gender expertise operate in formal political and policy-making spaces. In particular, the chapter interrogates how feminist actors can work to influence and shape these spaces and if it is possible to make tangible feminist change in male-dominated political spaces which give primacy to ethno-national identity.
Gender, whilst often portrayed as of peripheral importance to the operation of politics, is an integral mechanism dictating both access to, and the ability to shape, political spaces. The primary framing of politics and identity in Northern Ireland is through the lens of violent conflict and its relationship to ethno-national identities. Gender is baked into these identity constructions, with specific roles being allocated to men and women. This chapter gives an account of gender, its relationship to ethno-national identity, its inclusion within the political structures of Northern Ireland and the constraints it puts on women’s political activity helping to frame the following chapters of the book and providing the context from within which feminist actors work politically.
This chapter provides a contextual introduction to the book, presenting the core frameworks which shape the following chapters. The chapter considers feminist interpretations of social and political transformation and where Northern Ireland sits within this. The research questions and background to the case study are introduced and an outline of the book chapters are provided.
An end to conflict following a peace agreement is often presented as an end to violence. Peace processes prioritise a return to ‘normality,’ an end to public violence and the rebuilding and transfer of power back to the state and its institutions. The aftermath of conflict can also mean a return to traditional and often conservative gender roles. The disproportionate effects of conflict on women is now well-established and gender-based violence in conflict is now an internationally recognized phenomenon. The development of international policy including UN Security Council 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) has however conceptualised this violence through a focus on widespread and systemic rape strategically used in war which has continued to render invisible other gender-based harms and violence such as intimate partner violence and sexual harassment. This chapter argues that there is a continued silence around gender-based violence in Northern Ireland which is difficult to break but continues to impact access to justice and to shape contemporary masculinities. Whilst there has been work on bringing a gendered or feminist perspective to peacebuilding in NI focusing heavily on the WPS agenda, this focuses much more substantively on participation than on violence. The chapter demonstrates that in order to address gender-based violence in the present we must take account of violence in the past and its continuing impact on contemporary masculinities and justice.
Feminist movement building is largely theorised and understood from the view of established peaceful liberal democracies. This book illustrates, through rich empirical data and analysis, that there is much to be gleaned from an exploration of feminist and gender activism in a society emerging from division and violent conflict. Taking the 1998 peace agreement in Northern Ireland as a critical juncture point, Claire Pierson argues that alternative political identities, namely feminism, have created spaces both within and outside formal politics to articulate a collective feminist voice and pursue feminist goals. Drawing on theoretical debates in feminism on movement building, policymaking, abortion rights, gender-based violence and the UN women, peace and security agenda, Pierson examines both the opportunities and ongoing challenges in articulating a feminist vision and creating feminist spaces in a society and politics dominated by ethno-national antagonisms. Women’s Troubles sets out to capture the complexities of feminist movement building in a divided society and contribute to ongoing analysis of contemporary global feminisms.
The Caimbeulaich were the main beneficiaries of the collapse of the lordship of the Isles and established a hegemony over much of Scotland’s western seaboard. The earls of Argyll were, to a large extent, aided by events in Ireland and enjoyed a longstanding alliance with the Uí Dhomhnaill of Tír Chonaill. Indeed, on the eve of Flodden there seemed little to stand in the way of the Caimbeul juggernaut. Nevertheless, the catastrophic Scottish defeat at Flodden and the death of the second earl saw Caimbeul advances thrown into reverse. The Meic Domhniall of Dunyveg and Antrim were quick to capitalise on these developments and began re-asserting themselves in both Scotland and, importantly, Ireland. Under the leadership of Alasdair Cattanach Mac Domhnaill, the Meic Domhnaill re-established a cordial relationship with the court of James V and managed to prise the Uí Dhomhnaill away from their alliance with the Clann Chaimbeul. With this measure, the Meic Domhnaill had effectively shut the Chaimbeulaich out of Irish affairs. By drawing upon a range of neglected sources from Ireland and Scotland, this paper traces the North Channel’s profound political reconfiguration during the early 1500s. It examines the factors underpinning the Meic Domhnaill recovery post-1513 but also explores how the Caimbeul earls eventually regained the initiative in Ireland during the 1550s. In doing so, the paper argues that events in Ireland were of far greater strategic importance to the Caimbeul earls than has previously been acknowledged.
This paper explores different interpretations of the code of ideal Highland chiefship, from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, through discussion of Gaelic panegyric or praise poetry. This corpus, produced by the Highland nobility for their own consumption, grants us unique insight into contemporary ideals and expectations of how noblemen should behave in peacetime and in warfare. Compositions which offer less orthodox perspectives on this chiefly code, to better present the nuanced spectrum of views on violence within the Highland society, challenging inherited perceptions of Gaelic Scotland as inherently more barbaric and violent than Lowland Scotland. With Highland attitudes better understood, a preliminary comparison can be made with them and the chivalric culture of the Lowland nobility, raising questions regarding the extent to which the views of the Scottish nobility as a class shared coherent views of martial honour and courtly conduct, in spite of linguistic and ethnic divisions.