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politics would surface dominated not by Sinn Féin squabbles but Gaelic in character and structure and shaped by the usual topics that animated European politics. This politics would also be decolonised, in that it would not be primarily focused on relations with the former colonial power. The period between 1923 and 1927 is often seen as one where not much happened politically, a lull between the end of the civil war
). The 2011 general election presented a watershed moment for Irish protesters. Opposition parties had challenged austerity and the conditions of Ireland’s bailout during the election campaign ( BBC 2011 ). With their campaign rhetoric, opposition parties contributed to a generalised sense among protesters that Irish governments had some measure of agency in European politics and in negotiations with EU
, with CNN trying to explain ‘why that’s so controversial’. But those headlines do capture the profound repercussions of the rise of a party that is such an anomaly in the European political context. Of course, the unmistakable left-turn that the electorate was signalling by voting for a party that put forward a programme for radical change in terms of social policy was noteworthy in a country that had until then seemed comfortable with a neoliberal and rather conservative agenda. Similarly, the party’s very history and its
European environment to the policy programme that had been an important condition of the Celtic Tiger economy in Ireland in the 1990s, which had relied on direct public investment. Within this broader politics of the European political economy, Ireland nonetheless occupied a distinctive position. It sat with Greece, Portugal and Spain as part of the periphery facing simultaneous financial and fiscal crises
subsidies and industrial development in Ireland’. The Economic and Social Review 11 ( 2 ): 77–98 . Schmidtke , H. ( 2016 ) ‘The differentiated politicisation of European tax governance’. West European Politics 39 ( 1 ): 64–83 . Scott , S. & F. Convery ( 1999 ) ‘ Cohesion countries
]. Jones , R. ( 2016 ) Violent borders: refugees and the right to move . London : Verso . Kostakopoulou , D. ( 2010 ) ‘An open and secure Europe? Fixity and fissures in the area of freedom, security and justice after Lisbon and Stockholm’. European Security 19 ( 2 ): 151–167 . Laffan , B. ( 2016 ) ‘Europe’s union in crisis: tested and contested’. West European
: public support for the EU in the wake of Maastricht’. West European Politics 18 ( 3 ): 101–117 . Garry , J. , M. Marsh & R. Sinnott ( 2005 ) ‘Second-order versus issue-voting effects in EU referendums: evidence from the Nice Treaty referendums’. European Union Politics 6 ( 2 ): 201–221 . Gilland , K. ( 2002 ) ‘Ireland and European integration’, in
’. Journalism 9 ( 4 ): 398–422 . Sweetman , J. ( 2008 ) ‘Tickle the Republic: the success of Irish versions of UK tabloids – a case-study of the Irish Daily Mail ’. Media, Culture and Society 30 ( 4 ): 573–580 . Tjernström , V. ( 2008 ) ‘Nordic newspapers on the EU: European political journalism after “non” and “nee”’. Journalism
: Routledge, 2005), p. 179. 15 Nagle, ‘Between Conflict and Peace’, p. 401. 16 Jocelyn Evans and Jon Tonge, ‘Social class and party choice in Northern Ireland’s ethnic blocs’, West European Politics , 32(5) (2009), 1012–30, pp. 1016–17. 17 O’Kane, ‘Perpetual Peace Process?’, p. 527. 18 Ibid., p. 526. 19 Nagle, ‘Between Conflict and Peace’, p. 401. 20
How has it been possible for Irish political leaders to not just accept but actively promote two of the largest challenges to Irish nation-statehood: the concession of sovereignty to the European Union (EU) and the retraction of the constitutional claim over Northern Ireland? This book argues that, rather than indicating a pragmatic retreat, such decisions (and their justification on the public stage) reveal the unique power and enduring relevance of nationalism to Irish and European politics today. As a detailed study of official discourse in twentieth-century Ireland, it traces the ways in which nationalism can be simultaneously redefined and revitalised through European integration. The text moves from an overview of the origins and development of Irish official nationalism to analyse the connections between its response to profound internal and external challenges to Irish nation-statehood. The genius of the Irish approach to such challenges has been to employ innovative EU-inspired concepts in finding agreement with and within Northern Ireland, whilst simultaneously legitimising further European integration on the grounds that it fulfils traditional nationalist ideals. Thus, Irish political leaders have been successful in not only accommodating potent nationalist and pro-European discourses, but in making them appear complementary. The book concludes with an assessment of likely changes in this symbiotic relationship in the post-EU enlargement, post-Celtic Tiger era.