Unionism

Post-Brexit Northern Ireland: Between Two Unions

Abstract

The UK’s withdrawal from the EU posed a significant challenge to the progress that had been achieved in Northern Ireland –one of the most impoverished post-conflict societies in Europe. Brexit could raise significant frictions along the territorial border between the two sides of Ireland and its all-island economy. If the UK had decided to remain in the single market and the EU customs union after Brexit, the vast majority of these challenges would have been avoided. However, since Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech, it became clear that the UK would not be part of the single market and the customs union after Brexit took place. So, the negotiations for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU were haunted by an almost unsolvable riddle.  How could the UK and the EU keep the Irish border free of any physical infrastructure without jeopardising the integrity of the EU single market?

 

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Posted by Nikos Skoutaris in Case Studies, 0 comments

Northern Ireland and the Antimonies of Unionism

Abstract

Unionism swept back to power in the United Kingdom in December 2019 in a new Conservative government whose Prime Minister is also Minister for the Union. It committed itself to swift withdrawal from the European Union, with the likely effect of weakening the Union with Scotland and with Northern Ireland. Meanwhile unionism in Northern Ireland – in the form of the Democratic Unionist Party – has already undermined the union by its support for – and eventual betrayal by – hard-line British Conservatism. Why unionisms – which promise progressive and flexible politics – have such effects is the topic of this article. (This is the theme of a Special Issue of Irish Political Studies, edited by Jennifer Todd and Dawn Walsh, to be published in 2020. See Todd 2019).

 

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Posted by Jennifer Todd in Case Studies, 0 comments