The constitutional relationships that have governed the island of Ireland and our nearest neighbour, Britain, are in flux, where traditional rigidities have fallen away, but are not yet replaced by new, solid foundations.
In Political Change Across Britain and Ireland: Identities, Institutions and Futures, scholars have inquired deeply into issues involving England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and, separately, the Republic.
So much can be placed at the door of Brexit, which was presented to British voters “as a simple, straightforward constitutional act, devoid of negative consequences”. Instead, it “disentangled” long-standing, stable political relationships.
The exiting was “a hankering after an absolutist concept of sovereignty” that poses “a profound challenge” to the devolutionary drift that marked the late 1990s under Tony Blair, even if he did not always understand what he had created.
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Instability is the new norm, the authors largely argue, where stability is not possible “within our lifetimes”. In fact, there are questions about whether there is a need “for new rules of the game”, since the old ones have failed.
[ ‘The Republic needs to start listening’: Young SDLP members on Irish unityOpens in new window ]
Undoubtedly, they conclude, the United Kingdom is in trouble, needing new ways “of forging a new doctrine of Union”, but one that ensures London’s proper recognition of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“The UK’s Unions days are not done yet, but there is an uncertainty about its stability, durability and definition,” write John Coakley, Paul Gillespie and Nicola McEwan in the book’s concluding chapter.
If it manages to resist the pressures for independence in Scotland and, to a lesser but growing extent, Wales, along with the demands in Ireland for unification, what form of union will it be, they ask.
In their chapter, Mary C Murphy and Cera Murtagh challenge old shibboleths about identity by looking at how political identities, attitudes and allegiances in Ireland have transformed over the last 30 years.
Looking South, they note the longstanding, if rather shallow, consensus surrounding unification, with the previous “Four Green Fields” narrative replaced “by a more moderate, banal nationalism limited to the 26 counties”.
The questions well posed in Political Change Across Britain and Ireland are not easy to answer. Perhaps they are impossible to resolve, but they will consume the attention of a generation of politicians and others in the years ahead. This work offers a fine guide.
