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Scotland and Northern Ireland: Constitutional Questions, Connections and Possibilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Graham Walker
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Extract

IN HER SUBMISSION TO THE OPSAHL HEARINGS ON THE NORTHERN Ireland problem in 1993, the literary and cultural critic Edna Longley made a simple point about the ‘Anglo-Irish Agreement’. This term for what was a pact between the UK and Republic of Ireland governments is, she argued, a misnomer: ‘[It] obscures the contested area, and panders to the belief – in both London and Dublin – that the UK is coterminous with England.’ Longley later urged that the Northern Ireland problem should be viewed more widely, in its proper context as part of the ‘melting pot’ of cultures of the two islands, Britain and Ireland.

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Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1998 , pp. 21 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1998

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References

1 See Pollak, A., A Citizen's Inquiry, Dublin, Lilliput, 1993, pp. 339–41.Google Scholar

2 Longley, E., ‘Challenging Complacency’, Fortnight, 315 (03 1993).Google Scholar

3 See discussion of this episode in Walker, G., Intimate Strangers: Political and Cultural Interation between Scotland and Ulster in Modern Times, Edinburgh, John Donald, 1995, pp. 179–84.Google Scholar

4 Lynch, P., ‘The Northern Ireland Peace Process and Scottish Constitutional Reform: Managing the Unions of 1800 and 1707’, Regional and Federal Studies, 6: 1 (Spring 1996). pp. 45–62 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dyer, M., ‘Scotland: Does Northern Ireland make a Difference?, Parliamentary Brief (11 1994), pp. 84–85.Google Scholar

5 An excellent guide to the Act and to the operation of devolution in Northern Ireland is provided in Ward, A. J., The Irish Constitutional Tradition, Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1994, ch. 5.Google Scholar

6 See Kendle, J., Ireland and the Federal Solution, Montreal and Kingston, McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1989 Google Scholar; and Walker, Intimate Strangers, ch. 2.

7 See Ward, op. cit.; Bogdanor, V., Devolution, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1978 Google Scholar, ch. 3; Wilson, T., Ulster: Conflict and Consent, Oxford, Blackwell, 1989, ch. 9.Google Scholar

8 See Purdie, B., ‘Lessons of Ireland’, in Gallagher, T. (ed.), Nationalism in the Nineties, Edinburgh, Polygon, 1991.Google Scholar

9 Ward, op. cit., pp. 122–3.

10 Cornford, J., ‘Constitutional reform in the UK, in Tindale, S. (ed.), The State and the Nations, London, IPPR, 1996.Google Scholar

11 The Royal Commission on the Constitution (Kilbrandon) Report, Cmnd. 5460, 1973, part X, p. 54, 380.

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15 There is no reference to the Northern Ireland case in the only substantial study of the referendum, Bochel, J. et al. (eds), The Referendum Experience, Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1981.Google Scholar

16 See Gallagher, T., Glasgow: The Uneasy Peace, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1987, p. 327.Google Scholar

17 See the report on the spat between Alex Salmond (SNP leader) and George Galloway (Labour MP) as reported in the Scolsman, 5 August 1994.

18 See Brand, J., The National Movement in Scotland, London, RKP, 1978, pp. 150–4.Google Scholar

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31 See Mitchell, J., Strategies for Self‐Government, Edinburgh, Polygon, 1996, pp. 286–7.Google Scholar

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41 Ascherson, N., ‘National Identity’, in Radice, C. (ed.), What Needs to Change: New Visions for Britain, London, HarperCollins, 1996.Google Scholar

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43 See Kearney, Post‐nationalist Ireland.

44 For example, McGarry, J. and O'Leary, B., Explaining Northern Ireland, Oxford, Blackwell, 1995 Google Scholar; and Ruane, J. and Todd, J., The Dynamics of conflict in Northern Ireland, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Longley, E., ‘The Irish Republic: Part of the Problem/Part of the Solution’, Times Change, 8 (Summer/Autumn 1996), pp. 9–15.Google Scholar

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