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From Partition to Brexit is the first book to chart the political and ideological
evolution of Irish government policy towards Northern Ireland from the partition
of the country in 1921 to the present day. Based on extensive original research,
this groundbreaking work assesses the achievements and failures of successive
Dublin administrations, evaluating the obstacles faced and the strategies used
to overcome them. Challenging the idea that Dublin has pursued a consistent set
of objectives and policies towards Northern Ireland, this timely study reveals a
dynamic story of changing priorities. The picture that emerges is one of complex
and sometimes contradictory processes underpinning the Irish Government’s
approach to the conflict.
Drawing on extensive archival research and
interviews, the author explores and explains the gap between the rhetorical
objective of Irish unity and actual priorities, such as stability within
Northern Ireland and the security of the Irish state. The book explains why
attempts during the 1990s to manage the conflict in Northern Ireland ultimately
proved successful when previous efforts had foundered. Identifying key
evolutionary trends, From Partition to Brexit demonstrates how in its relations
with the British Government, Dublin has been transformed from spurned supplicant
to vital partner in determining Northern Ireland’s future, a partnership
jeopardised by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
Informed,
robust and innovative, From Partition to Brexit is essential reading for anyone
interested in Irish or British history and politics, and will appeal to students
of diplomacy, international relations and conflict studies.
This timely collection explores British attitudes to continental Europe that explain the Brexit decision. Analysing British discourses of Europe and the impact of British Euroscepticism, the book argues that Britain’s exit from the European Union reflects a more general cultural rejection of continental Europe: Britain is in denial about the strength of its ties to Europe and needs to face Europe if it is to face the future. The volume brings together literary and cultural studies, history, and political science in an integrated analysis of views and practices that shape cultural memory and the cultural imaginary. Part I, ‘Britain and Europe: political entanglements’, traces the historical and political relationship between Britain and Europe and the place of Europe in recent British political debates while Part II, ‘British discourses of Europe in literature and film’, is devoted to representative case studies of films as well as popular Eurosceptic and historical fiction. Part III, ‘Negotiating borders in British travel writing and memoir’, engages with border mindedness and the English Channel as a contact zone, also including a Gibraltarian point of view. Given the crucial importance of literature in British discourses of national identity, the book calls for, and embarks on, a Euro-British literary studies that highlights the nature and depth of the British-European entanglement.
No one saw Brexit coming. Certainly not David Cameron when he announced the in/out referendum for 23 June 2016, a prime minister who had seen off two previous referendums, on Scottish independence in 2014 and on electoral reform with the alternative vote referendum in 2011. Clearly Cameron was a man who knew how to hold and win referendums and while he called the in/out referendum on EU membership, he did so fully expecting that he would win it. There was a broader general complacency, perhaps derived from previous referendums, that incumbency
Introduction Northern Ireland was largely ignored during the 2016 Brexit referendum. It became, however, the main stumbling block to the conclusion of the withdrawal negotiations and almost jeopardised an orderly UK withdrawal from the EU. The central issue was how to avoid a physical hardening of the border on the island of Ireland once the UK left the EU
are surely less contemptuous of their European neighbors than they were when Italian journalist Luigi Barzini in 1983 colorfully characterized their view of the continentals. But are they? The 2016 referendum forcing the UK to begin negotiations to leave the European Union – a process known as “Brexit” – suggests that many Brits still see a wide cultural, political and economic channel between themselves and “the Europeans.” The 2016 referendum favoring by a close margin British departure from the European Union was a shock to British politics and to the European
seems ironic that Northern Ireland had a relatively low profile during the Brexit referendum campaign of 2015 and 2016. 2 This was certainly true in Britain, where it was subsumed under the white-hot debate over immigration and media-friendly slogans of the Leave campaign's assertions about ‘taking back control’ of the UK borders. Even in the Northern Ireland context Brexit was a relatively low-key issue, at least initially – which, given subsequent events, seems a little surprising
The focus of this chapter is on the emerging implications of the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union (Brexit) for the lives of migrants on both sides of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Brexit is likely to reduce the rights and entitlements of future prospective immigrants to Northern Ireland but it is becoming increasingly likely that the impact on many migrants from European Union countries, and in particular those from countries that joined the EU after 2004, may be mostly
The European Union after Brexit addresses the ways in which Brexit has changed and will change European Union politics: the forces, mechanisms and stakes of an unprecedented transformation of the European polity. How will the EU operate without one of its key diplomatic and international military partners? What will happen to its priorities, internal balance(s) of power, and legislation without the reliably liberal and Eurosceptic United Kingdom? What are the effects of the Brexit negotiations on the EU? In general, what happens when an ‘ever closer union’ founded on a virtuous circle of economic, social, and political integration is called into question? This book is largely positive about the future of the EU after Brexit, but it suggests that the process of European integration has gone into reverse, with Brexit coming amidst other developments that disrupt the optimistic trajectory of integration. Contributors focus on areas spanning foreign policy, political economy, public policy, and citizenship, with chapters covering topics such as international trade, the internal market, freedom of movement, the European legal system, networks, security relations, social Europe and the impact of Brexit on Central and Eastern Europe. Chapters are grounded in comparative politics, political economy, and institutionalist approaches to politics and economics.
Originally Brexit was going to be this book's punchline. It neatly marked the end of forty years of Treasury history, starting with one existential crisis for the institution and ending in another. It also seemed to mark forty years of the rise and fall of Britain's particular neoliberal experiment. The Exchequer had played a vital role in shaping that system, positioned as it had been at the centre of an intellectual and institutional nexus, connecting British elites from Whitehall to the City. But since the referendum, there have been
nonetheless lives on – and it might be strengthened, becoming more precise and more effective, in an EU without the UK. This chapter first discusses relevant underlying social dynamics within the EU, principally to do with labor mobility, and how Brexit will change them. The UK has been the labor market of last resort for the continent for some years, and that has shaped careers, life chances, and policy options for all EU member states. Without the UK labor market as part of Europe, options for Europeans, and for British policymakers, will change. In general, it will be