This chapter begins with a brief look at Daniel O'Connell, the man who was inextricably linked with the nationalist movement in the early decades of the nineteenth century. It examines the key issues that shaped the policies of the Repeal Association after 1840, in particular the emergence of a dynamic group of writers who founded the Nation newspaper. The Nation embodied a new type of cultural nationalism that had its roots both in European romantic nationalism and in the political debates that accompanied the American War of Independence, the French Revolution, and the 1798 uprising in Ireland. Despite the tradition of physical force, the Nation and its supporters were firmly committed to achieving independence though the constitutional methods advocated by Daniel O'Connell. The emergence of Young Ireland added a fresh dynamism to the Repeal movement, but its energy, popularity, and strict code of behaviour brought it into conflict with O'Connell and his favourite son, John. These differences became more pronounced following O'Connell's retreat at Clontarf in 1843. The seeds, therefore, were sown for a battle, not with the British government, but between the two main sections of the Repeal movement. At the same time, the revival of a nationalist movement that was confident, organized, highly visible, and increasingly Catholic, alarmed a number of Protestants and, while Young Ireland actively sought to win Protestant recruits, a new form of militant loyalism was emerging simultaneously.

Three constant issues have tended to underpin the drink question in Britain in all its various forms: social order, health, and economic responsibility. These are inflected by broader social frameworks, not least changing ideas about class, gender, and national identity. The period from the mid-1970s to the establishment of the Alcohol Health Alliance is the first time that a population approach has been established in which the definition of moderate drinking has been given quantifiable parameters. When looking critically at news coverage of binge drinking, it is tempting to see it as a species of moral panic. A number of recent studies have argued that the issues of binge drinking, a deregulated retail market, and the wider culture of alcohol consumption are ‘more than simply a reinvention of the long-standing “problem” of British drunkenness’. Perhaps the most fundamental contradiction that the drink question has exposed is that between the competing conceptions of freedom. The question is whether or not intoxication itself can be understood an expression of freedom.

This chapter addresses the issue of how to read and critically decode spectral messages. It analyses the literary qualities of spirit messages. Some of the literary works that are analysed in this chapter include Eliot's ‘The Lifted Veil’, where it explores the relationship between the literary imagination and clairvoyance. This chapter also takes a look at Browning's poems in order to examine the mysterious transmission of literary ideas.

The two main components in the organisational infrastructure of the Nordic parliaments have comprised the system of specialist and permanent standing committees, and the network of parliamentary party groups (PPGs). PPGs are central parliamentary actors: they participate in the formation and policy-making of governments, whilst for the opposition PPGs are policy sub-systems in their own right, generating policy alternatives, not least in the form of a 'shadow budget'. The chapter sets the scene by mapping a series of common denominators, that is, properties and practices that are shared by the parliaments across the region. Anders Sannerstedt has referred to a distinctively Scandinavian form of parliamentarism, precisely because in Denmark, Norway and Sweden minority cabinets have been obliged to engage in dialogue with parties in opposition. In his words, 'negotiations between the political parties in the parliament are more common in the "Nordic model" than in other types of democratic systems'.

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of why has so little been written about Ireland in 1848 and its place in the spectrum of European revolutions. It then sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine 1848 in Ireland in the context of the longer-term development of both nationalist and unionist ideologies in Ireland. In particular, it analyses the emergence of cultural nationalism, which became a powerful force in the late nineteenth century, but which had its intellectual roots in the contributors to the Nation newspaper. Following and developing the model provided by Saville, Ireland in 1848 is placed not only within the Paris and London triangle, but also within its wider British, European and transatlantic contexts. Consequently, a key argument of the book is that, even before the rise of the Fenians, as early as 1848 Irish nationalism was being encouraged and assisted by external supporters. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.

It was not just in America that the ideas of the commonwealth tradition proved influential during the 1760s and 1770s. The escalation of the American situation coincided with domestic controversies associated with the colourful journalist and politician John Wilkes. Like the American conflict, the Wilkes controversies raised issues that were central to the British commonwealth tradition, not least the relationship between liberty and authority, the tendency for power to become corrupt, and the importance of representative government and free speech in countering that corruption. Moreover, these themes resonated in France too, against the background of the conflict between the Crown and the parlements, and especially the Maupeou Coup. The events of the 1760s and 1770s in America, Britain and France thus breathed new life into the old commonwealth texts and rendered them of relevance once more on both sides of the Atlantic.

This chapter explores the conceptualisation of ‘governance’ in Irish official discourse in relation to both the Irish ‘state’ and the European ‘polity’. ‘State’ and ‘polity’ constitute the broad conceptual and institutional supporting frameworks for the meaning and significance of governance in nation-statehood and European Union (EU), respectively. The traditional narrative of the state is national self-determination. The traditional model of the state is sovereignty. One aspect of the new model of the European polity is the conception of multilevel citizenship, with the coexistence of national and European citizenship. This chapter explores how the traditional and new frameworks, narratives, and models of the state and the European polity have been brought together in Irish official discourse since the 1970s. After a summary of the traditional conception of the Irish state, it discusses the way in which this conception has been upheld in Ireland's approach to the EU. This then leads into an analysis of how the conception of the Irish state has been influenced by the EU-inspired conception of polity in Irish official discourse on Northern Ireland.

This chapter identifies several conclusions that can be drawn from the present research. This includes the observation that European integration is important for Basque selfgovernment. It then considers a series of research questions that investigate the impact of European integration on patterns of conflict and cooperation between central and Basque authorities and on Basque political power. This chapter stresses that these conclusions do not close the debate on the impact of the EU on Basque politics, but it does identify what is at stake in the changing context of postwar European politics.

The case of Ireland epitomises the enduring power and potential of official nationalism even in a context of immense upheaval. The contradictory nature of nationalism is made manifest in the complexity of official discourse. Politicians' redefinition of key words, their elaboration of the same myths in different contexts, and their changing of core principles on the pretext of bringing goals closer enable the ‘nation-state’ to remain the critical constant in a changing global environment. Through examination of official discourse, this book has shown the ‘productive paradoxes’ within Irish nationalism which have enabled significant adjustments to be made in touchstone areas of state sovereignty, — that is, Northern Ireland and European integration. These changes have been made in and around the three ideological pillars of identity, borders, and governance. Some traditional conceptions of nation, territory, and state have been reinforced in official discourse on the European Union (EU), whilst some new ‘EU-inspired’ conceptions of community, space, and polity have been utilised in justifying the concessions necessary for political agreement on the island of Ireland.