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4147 Inglis–Are the Irish different_BB_Layout 1 29/07/2014 09:26 Page 54 6 The Irish political elite Kieran Allen Why don’t the Irish protest? This became a familiar question after the economic crash of 2008. Diarmaid Ferriter, in his column in the Irish Independent, suggested that Historians in the future will contrast the wave of protests and mobilisations in other countries where incompetence and greed were exposed, with the absence of such activity in Ireland, even when the extent of the bankers’ betrayal and contempt for their fellow citizens became public
financial crisis did see some increased criticism of the EU, that subsequently diminished. If anything, Ireland emerged from the financial and Brexit crises with a stronger pro-EU consensus among its parties. Irish parties have found a way of expressing their nationalism through the EU rather than against it, so that Irish politics is marked more by this ‘Euro-nationalism’ than by Euroscepticism
4 Irish political Catholicism from the 1530s to 1660 David Finnegan The reconstruction of the institutions of the Irish polity attendant upon Henry VIII’s pursuit of imperium in the 1530s presented his Irish subjects, both old and new, with fundamentally new political realities. The introduction of Reformation via the parliament of 1536–37, and the elevation of the Irish lordship into a kingdom in 1541, began the slow transformation of the island’s religio-political landscape. Of more immediate consequence though was the destruction of the Fitzgeralds of
118 The Cato Street Conspiracy 7 State witnesses and spies in Irish political trials, 1794–1803 Martyn J. Powell This chapter looks at the use of spies and state witnesses in trials of United Irishmen and their Defender allies in Ireland and Britain in the years leading up to the 1798 rebellion, the rebellion itself, and the alleged and planned uprisings of 1802–3. This period saw numerous high-profile trials of figures active in the United Irishmen, the radical reform movement that had pushed towards a republican, separatist agenda by the second half of the
The Irish mind has enabled the Irish to balance and accommodate imagination and intellect, emotion and reason, poetry and science. The notion of cultural difference is not just an Irish story, but a story of nations and ethnic groups all over the world. The story of modernity revolves around people coming to see and understand themselves as belonging to nations. Although there were other European nations that made Catholicism a keystone of national difference, there were many factors that made the Irish project different. The idea of creating a society that had a collective vision and commitment without being socialist became an ideal of the Catholic Church during the latter half of the twentieth century. The Church did, nevertheless, have a profound influence on Irish society and culture. The extent to which the Catholic Church shaped and influenced Irish politics has been the subject of much research and debate. The power of the Catholic Church in politics stemmed from the power it developed in the modernisation of Irish society and, in particular, the controlling of sexuality, marriage and fertility. During the first half of the twentieth century, the Irish developed a particular aversion to marriage. For many nations and ethnic groups, what binds people together is that they speak the same language. It may well be that for generations many Irish people identified the Irish language, music and sport as an inhibitor in embracing a less insular and more urbane, cosmopolitan disposition.
The Orange Order began as an Irish Protestant society in rural Co. Armagh, following the Battle of the Diamond against the Catholic 'Defenders' on 21 September 1795. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the organisation had consolidated its position as a Loyalist, anti-Catholic bulwark against revolution in Ireland and had begun to spread across the rest of the British Isles. Exploring the experience of Orangewomen in England, Scotland and Canada tells us far more than just how and why they became members of the Orange Order. This book demonstrates how largely ordinary, working-class women engaged in conservative associational life and political activism during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, subverting various gender norms in their public work. Through migration and diasporic networks, these women were connected to their Orange sisters throughout the world and played a central role in upholding a British imperial identity well into the twentieth century. The Orange Order is often characterised as a thoroughly masculinist brotherhood, associated with Irish sectarian violence. While the Order in Scotland was largely dominated by working-class women, in England we see the organisation embracing a far broader spectrum of social backgrounds. Irish politics and identity were clearly important to Potter and the many thousands of women who were members of Canada's Ladies' Orange Benevolent Association (LOBA). The world of Protestantism conventional gender ideologies and women's public activism, came to prominence through the women's Orange Order.
This book focuses on the historical debate beyond the Irish revolution and introduces a new study of post-revolutionary experience in Ireland at a county level. It begins to build an image of regional political and social life in the immediate post-revolutionary period. The book discusses the turbulent years of 1922 and 1923, the local electorate's endorsement of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the beginning of domestic Irish politics in what was a vastly altered post-treaty world. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London and confirmed dominion status on a twenty-six-county Irish Free State. The book further examines four major themes in rural agrarian society: land, poverty, Irish language, and law and order. It establishes the level of deprivation in local society that the Cumann na nGaedheal government had to confront. Finally, the book attempts to relate the political record of the county to the existing socio-economic realities of local life. Particular emphasis is placed on the election campaigns, the issues involved, and the voting patterns and trends that emerged in Galway. In east Galway agrarian agitation shaped the nature of civil war violence. The civil war fanned a recrudescence in acute agrarian agitation in the west. In the aftermath of the civil war, the August 1923 general election was fought on the Free State government's terms.
This book focuses on the drama and poetry published since 1990. It also reflects upon related forms of creative work in this period, including film and the visual and performing arts. The book discusses some of the most topical issues which have emerged in Irish theatre since 1990. It traces the significance of the home in the poetry of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Vona Groarke. The book also focuses on the reconfigurations of identity, and the complex intersections of nationality, gender and race in contemporary Ireland. It shows how Roddy Doyle's return to the repressed gives articulation to those left behind by globalisation. The book then examines the ways in which post-Agreement Northern fiction negotiates its bitter legacies. It also examines how the activity of creating art in a time of violence brings about an anxiety regarding the artist's role, and how it calls into question the ability to re-present atrocity. The book further explores the consideration of politics and ethics in Irish drama since 1990. It talks about the swirling abundance of themes and trends in contemporary Irish fiction and autobiography. The book shows that writing in the Irish Republic and in the North has begun to accommodate an increasing diversity of voices which address themselves not only to issues preoccupying their local audiences, but also to wider geopolitical concerns.
strings. The implication, therefore, is that concepts of meritocracy and legitimate entitlement are superseded by notions of special advantage through unorthodox and clandestine influence. This is a study of the history of corruption in Ireland which, by inference, reveals a hidden chronicle of Irish politics. This book will outline specific corruption incidents since the foundation of the state to determine if this proverb of a corrupted harp has some resonance or if the eloquence and exaggeration of the Irish storytelling tradition is in evidence. The purpose
5306ST New Patterns-C/lb.qxd 3/9/09 16:45 Page 34 3 Mediating forces and the domestic polity Brid Quinn and Bernadette Connaughton Introduction The effects of Europeanisation have been filtered by Ireland’s complex history, distinctive political and social culture, nationalistic penchants and strongly centralised political-administrative structures. This chapter outlines the key elements of Irish political and social culture and analyses the way in which these factors have moderated the Europeanisation process. It looks at the underpinnings of Irish society