The Politics of Northern Ireland: Beyond the Belfast Agreement

216 Pages·2005·1.48 MB·English

by  Arthur Aughey

The Politics of Northern Ireland
ThePoliticsofNorthernIrelandiswrittenbyoneoftheleadingauthorities
on contemporary Northern Ireland and provides an original, sophisticated
and innovative examination of the post-Belfast Agreement political
landscape. The Agreement was a model of democratic ingenuity and
political inclusion, and intimated the emergence of a new style of politics
based on the principles of consent and mutual responsibility. It had the
potential to transform Northern Ireland from a political culture of conflict
to a political culture of accommodation. However, the implementation of
the Agreement has been plagued by the mistrust of people in Northern
Ireland and the imaginative institutions of government have had a fitful
existence,operatinginapermanentatmosphereofcrisis.Thisbookexplains
the experience ofhope and frustrationthrough asystematic analysis ofthe
ambiguouspoliticallegacyofthepeaceprocess.Writteninafluid,eloquent
and accessible style, the book explores:
. howtheBelfastAgreementhaschangedthepoliticsofNorthernIreland
. whether the peace process is still valid
. the problems caused by the language of politics in Northern Ireland
. what conditions are necessary to secure political stability
. the inability of unionists and republicans to share the same political
discourse
. the insights that political theory can offer to Northern Irish politics
. the future of key political parties and institutions.
This text is an outstanding contribution to the literature on contemporary
NorthernIrishpoliticsandhistoryandisessentialreadingforstudentsand
scholars in these areas.
Dr Arthur Aughey is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Ulster
at Jordanstown. He is a member of the Northern Ireland Advisory
Committee of the British Council and the management board of the
Institute of Ulster-Scots Studies.

The Politics of
Northern Ireland
Beyond the Belfast Agreement
Arthur Aughey
For Sky
Firstpublished2005
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
1 Introduction 1
PARTI
Conditions 5
2 Fate and choice 7
Fate and choice 10
Iron cage and self-construction 18
Process and action 22
Conclusion 23
3 Means and ends 25
Nostalgia and imagination 27
Conservatism and radicalism 33
Conclusion 38
4 Winning and losing 42
Insight and vision 46
Transition and transformation 54
Conclusion 58
PARTII
Modifications 61
5 New ideas and old arguments 63
Inwardness and outwardness 65
vi Contents
Democratic transformation 72
Historic compromise 77
Conclusion 80
6 The Belfast Agreement: archaeology and exposition 81
The archaeology of the Agreement 83
Institutions of the Belfast Agreement 87
Conclusion 96
7 New beginning and modification of circumstances 98
Agreement: duck or rabbit? 102
A new beginning 106
Modification of circumstances 112
Conclusion 116
PART III
Consequences 119
8 Anxiety and expectation 121
Unionist expectation 122
Anxiety of process 124
Anxiety of influence 128
Nationalist expectation 131
Anxiety of frustration 134
Anxiety of impatience 137
Conclusion 140
9 Lies noble and ignoble 142
The noble lie 143
Constructive ambiguity 148
Axioms and maxims 155
Conclusion 158
10 For better and for worse 160
Narrative of progress 161
Narrative of regress 166
Verschlimmbesserung: for better and for worse 172
Conclusion 176
Contents vii
11 Afterword 178
References 182
Index 201
Acknowledgements
IwouldliketothankProfessorHenryPattersonoftheUniversityofUlsterat
JordanstownandProfessorPaulBewofQueen’sUniversity,Belfastfortheir
insightfulcommentsonanearlierversionofthiswork.Iwouldalsoliketo
thankmyHeadofSchoolinEconomicsandPolitics,CarmelRoulston,who
also read part of the manuscript and who has been very supportive of the
project from its inception. Some of the arguments in this book are
developments of ideas first given a public airing elsewhere. Chapter 8
generalizesaparticularthesisonpost-Agreementunionistpoliticspresented
inthesecondeditionofM.Cox,A.GuelkeandF.Stephen(eds)AFarewell
toArms?From‘LongWar’toLongPeaceinNorthernIrelandpublishedby
Manchester University Press in 2004. Chapter 9 expands an interpretation
explored tentatively in an article in Irish Political Studies in 2002. I am
grateful to both sets of editors for their kind permission to reproduce
aspects of those arguments in this work.
1 Introduction
The historian A. T. Q. Stewart once observed that the political divisions in
NorthernIrelandarenottheresultofamisunderstandingbetweenunionists
and nationalists. Rather, the divisions are a consequence of unionists and
nationalists understanding each other all too well. Both communities are
adept at the translation and interpretation of the other side’s messages.
Insteadofextremists,whocanbemanagedinademocracy,government
(wherever it resides) has to deal with two hostile populations who
cannot agree on definitions. Words like ‘democracy’, ‘liberty’, ‘rights’,
‘esteem’ become porous, and the parrot-cries of party no longer offer
any guide to truth. And no one involved in the situation can really be
impartial.
This, Stewart argued, was ‘the labyrinth out of which the politicians must
find a way’ (2001: 180). The Northern Ireland problem, then, can be
definedasaprofounddivisionovertheendsofpoliticsaswellasthemeans
to achieve them. These have been questions that political argument in
NorthernIrelandhasbeenunabletoresolvebyreasoneddebate.Equally,it
has not proved possible to resolve them by political violence. Hence the
30-year impasse. Nevertheless, it has been the consistent objective of the
BritishandIrishGovernments–asithasbeentheconsistentassumptionof
liberal opinion – that it is indeed possible to reach agreement on these
questions. The Talks about the future of Northern Ireland, from which
issuedtheBelfastAgreement,werebasedonanumberofsuchexpectations.
Political negotiations on an inclusive basis would establish a new platform
oftolerancefromwhichprogresscouldbemadeandwouldprovideaform
ofpoliticaltherapythroughwhicharationalconsensusonprinciplescould
be reached. Lasting political bargains would be struck in a satisfactory
balanceofgainsandlossesandonthosefoundationstheAgreementimplied
the emergence of a new and stable political dispensation.
Recent works on Northern Ireland such as Ed Moloney’s analysis of
republicanism (2002) and Dean Godson’s study of David Trimble (2004)
have provided enormously detailed and insightful accounts of the peace