“Éire Go Brách” the Development of Irish Republican Nationalism in the 20Th Into the 21St Centuries
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“Éire go Brách” The Development of Irish Republican Nationalism in the 20th into the 21st Centuries Alexandra Watson Honors Thesis Dr. Giacomo Gambino Department of Political Science Spring 2020 Watson 2 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Literature Review: Irish Nationalism -- What is it ? 5 A Brief History 18 ‘The Irish Question’ and Early Roots of Irish Republicanism 20 Irish Republicanism and the War for Independence 25 The Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921, Pro-Treaty Republicanism vs. Anti-Treaty Republicanism, and Civil War 27 Early Statehood 32 ‘The Troubles’ and the Good Friday Agreement 36 Why is ‘the North’ Different? 36 ‘The Troubles’ 38 The Good Friday Agreement 40 Contemporary Irish Politics: Irish Nationalism Now? 45 Explaining the Current Political System 45 Competing nationalisms Since the Good Friday Agreement and the Possibility of Unification 46 2020 General Election 47 Conclusions 51 Appendix 54 Acknowledgements 57 Bibliography 58 Watson 3 Introduction In June of 2016, the people of the United Kingdom democratically elected to leave the European Union. The UK’s decision to divorce from the European Union has brought significant uncertainty for the country both in domestic and foreign policy and has spurred a national identity crisis across the United Kingdom. The Brexit negotiations themselves, and the consequences of them, put tremendous pressure on already strained international relationships between the UK and other European countries, most notably their geographic neighbour: the Republic of Ireland. The Anglo-Irish relationship is characterized by centuries of mutual antagonism and the development of Irish national consciousness, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of an autonomous Irish free state in 1922. That process included the controversial partitioning of the island into the twenty six county ‘Saorstat Éireann’ (later the Republic of Ireland in 1937) and the six county province of Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. This is essentially how the island remains to the present day. In the divorce settlement process between the UK and the EU a major complicating factor persisted regarding the only land border the United Kingdom has with the EU, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Historically, the Irish quest for sovereignty was fraught with struggle and violence. Particularly in Northern Ireland in a three decade period in the late 20th century known as ‘The Troubles,’ was characterized by acts of terrorism and is the most recent chapter of that struggle between two diametrically opposed ideologies: “nationalism” (the ideological belief in politically a united Ireland) and “Unionism” (the commiment to the bond with Great Britain). The Good Friday Agreement, the treaty that largely brought an end to the period of sectarian violence, which was successful due to its ability Watson 4 to legitimize two mutually exclusive ideologies by maintaining certain ambiguities in either’s superiority. Over twenty years later, however, Brexit forces the reconsideration of Northern Ireland, one of the most contested geopolitical conflicts of the 20th century, and ipso facto, the revisitation of the ‘Irish Question’ i.e. a united Ireland. Such a reality calls for the revisiting of Anglo-Irish relations and, specifically, Ireland, Irish nationalism, and the possibility of a united Ireland. The events that began with the referendum on June 22 2016 did not occur within a vacuum -- in fact, understanding motives on all sides reveals a fuller picture. This project seeks to investigate, complicate, and draw significance from such a question through an Irish lens, tracking Irish nationalism as an ever changing, evolving, and devolving ideology over time. The origin of Irish nationalism, as a political movement, dates back to the 19th century, “when nationalism began to spread throughout Europe, the conflict between the Irish and English continued as efforts were made from London to retain Ireland in the centralized state.”1 The Irish ‘story of struggle’ is critical to fully conceptualizing Irish nationalism. It is rooted in the perception that the Irish culture, religion, and socioeconomic class being distinct from that of their British counterparts -- a perception which is advocated for by the Irish and endorsed by the British. Thus, all types of Irish nationalism involve this origin story that is born of the centuries-old struggle between the Irish and the English. Irish nationalism, as it developed over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st, evolves in response to the changing political landscape; the most significant historical landmarks are the Irish Revolution/War for Independence (1916-1921), the Anglo-Irish Treaty and Civil War (1920-1923); establishment of the Irish Republic (1937) and departure from the British 1 Louis L. Snyder, Encyclopedia of Nationalism (New York: Paragon House, 1990), 150. Watson 5 Commonwealth (1949); and the Good Friday Agreement (1999). Each landmark reoriented competing nationalisms around new political groupings/identities and political programs. The political landscape since 1920, which was reinforced by the Good Friday Agreement, points to a typology consisting of 3 types: unionist nationalism, constitutional nationalism, and republican nationalism (see Appendix on pp. 53-55). Post 1999, the aftermath of ‘The Troubles,’ the Good Friday Agreement, and normalized Anglo-Irish relations into the 21st century have elevated the status of constitutional nationalism as the dominant form of Irish nationalism in contemporary Irish establishment politics. Constitutional nationalism appears as a kind of moderate type of nationalism, which while recognizing the eventual ‘destiny’ of a united Ireland, is largely based on liberal rule of law and toleration (regarding the politics of partition) that moves away from strong forms of cultural nationalism. However, like any contentious relationship, the now normalized Anglo-Irish relationship and tension between republicans and unionists in the North (and south), are not airtight. Brexit and the result of the February 2020 General Election within the Republic are curveballs that upset the settled position of constitutional nationalism as the dominant and prevailing ideology for the past two decades as it reopens the discussion on a united Ireland in an urgent and even more crucial manner. Literature Review: Irish Nationalism -- What is it ? To begin, one must acknowledge that any nationalism, no matter what its form or purpose, is not an entity which manifests organically (i.e. it is a social construct). Benedict Anderson’s canonical work Imagined Communities, proposes the following theoretical framework through which to analyze nationalisms, stating: I propose the following definition of the nation: it is an imagined political community-and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. It is imagined Watson 6 because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.... Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined.... Finally, [the nation] is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately, it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willing to die for such limited imaginings.2 Fundamentally, any nationalism is a kind of ideology, which as per Ball and Dagger’s definition, serves four functions: the explanation of current social, economic and political conditions; the evaluation of those conditions, the mobilization and orientation of political actors behind a common identity; and a prescribed programme of collective action.3 Nationalism is a particular kind of ideology that seeks to explain current conditions in terms of an origin story that is inclusive of a creator(s) and, more importantly, an audience that act as vehicles through which the idea can be amplified. In the academy it is also similarly noted by political scientist, Hugh Seton-Watson that -- a nation exists when a significant number of people in a community consider themselves to form a nation, or behave as if they have formed one. It is not necessary that the whole of the population should feel, or so behave, and it is not possible to lay down dogmatically a minimum percentage of a population which must be so affected. When a significant group holds this belief, it possesses ‘national consciousness,’4 Or, stated differently, the existence of nationalism is only true if there are stakeholders who actively subscribe to such an idea or notion for. As it is described by Anderson, “it is the magic of nationalism to turn chance into destiny.”5 Nevertheless, as argued by Seton-Watson, this 2 Benedict R. O'G Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, revised edition. ed. (London: Verso, 2006). 3 Terence Ball, Richard Dagger, and Daniel I. O'Neill, Ideals and Ideologies: A Reader, 10th ed. (New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2017), 1. 4 Hugh Seton-Watson, Nations and States: An Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism (New York, NY: Routledge, 2019), 93. 5 Anderson, Imagined Communities,.. Watson 7 support does not