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Rethinking Northern Ireland
Rethinking Northern Ireland provides a coherent and critical account of the Northern Ireland conflict. Most writing on Northern Ireland is informed by British propaganda, unionist ideology or currently popular 'ethnic conflict' paradigm which allows analysts to wallow in a fascination with tribal loyalty. Rethinking Northern Ireland sets the record straight by reembedding the conflict in Ireland in the history of an literature on imperialism and colonialism.
Written by Irish, Scottish and English women and men it includes material on neglected topics such as the role of Britain, gender, culture and sectarianism. It presents a formidable challenge to the shibboleths of contemporary debate on Northern Ireland. A just and lasting peace necessitates thorough re-evaluation and Rethinking Northern Ireland provides a stimulus to that urgent task.
Written by Irish, Scottish and English women and men it includes material on neglected topics such as the role of Britain, gender, culture and sectarianism. It presents a formidable challenge to the shibboleths of contemporary debate on Northern Ireland. A just and lasting peace necessitates thorough re-evaluation and Rethinking Northern Ireland provides a stimulus to that urgent task.
342 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1998
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About the author
David Miller
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May 8, 2020
'Rethinking Northern Ireland: Culture, Ideology and Colonialism’, edited by David Miller is an excellent collection of academic essays on a range of different issues that offer a refreshing rejoinder to a lot of existing work.
David Miller’s opening essay sets the tone for the book by analyzing and picking apart various failed accounts of the conflict and begins to center the role of British colonialism as the historic and ongoing cause of Northern Ireland ‘conflict’. Such a perspective is not surprising to anyone who has listened to or read the work of those people who’ve been struggling for a United Ireland. Yet Miller cites text after text of people who seemed to have either inadvertently missed this or willfully ignores the evidence.
In chapter two, Pamela Clayton continues this theme by analyzing the settler colonial history and related ethnic differences. Clayton rejects the sociological accounts that embrace a reductive view of the conflict as simply religious/sectarian in nature and thereby totally ignore the role of British colonialism and ongoing British policies that shape(d) Ireland and the 'conflict’. Miller and Clayton's chapter, and the subsequent chapters, use this framework of re-examining the ‘conflict’ through a colonial lens. Each chapter problematizes this wide spread pattern across disciplines, and mediums—from books, films, and even cultural events—that fail to account for this and reduce the ‘conflict’ to intransigent or irrational mad men and ignore the fundamental role of British policies and security forces. Even though this book was published in 1998 and does not cover more recent events or literature, the strength of the book that gives it enduring relevance is its framework for understanding both past and recent events.
David Miller’s opening essay sets the tone for the book by analyzing and picking apart various failed accounts of the conflict and begins to center the role of British colonialism as the historic and ongoing cause of Northern Ireland ‘conflict’. Such a perspective is not surprising to anyone who has listened to or read the work of those people who’ve been struggling for a United Ireland. Yet Miller cites text after text of people who seemed to have either inadvertently missed this or willfully ignores the evidence.
In chapter two, Pamela Clayton continues this theme by analyzing the settler colonial history and related ethnic differences. Clayton rejects the sociological accounts that embrace a reductive view of the conflict as simply religious/sectarian in nature and thereby totally ignore the role of British colonialism and ongoing British policies that shape(d) Ireland and the 'conflict’. Miller and Clayton's chapter, and the subsequent chapters, use this framework of re-examining the ‘conflict’ through a colonial lens. Each chapter problematizes this wide spread pattern across disciplines, and mediums—from books, films, and even cultural events—that fail to account for this and reduce the ‘conflict’ to intransigent or irrational mad men and ignore the fundamental role of British policies and security forces. Even though this book was published in 1998 and does not cover more recent events or literature, the strength of the book that gives it enduring relevance is its framework for understanding both past and recent events.
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