The Northern Ireland Question

Book excerpt: Barton and Roche have drawn on the expertise of scholars in Irish history, political philosophy, sociology, demography and criminal and constitutional law to provide a major contribution to understanding the dynamics of the terrorist conflict that engulfed Northern Ireland for thirty years. The legal dimension of the book provides accessible understanding both of the use of the criminal law in response to terrorism and of the constitutional status of Northern Ireland prior to the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The Northern Ireland Question: Myth and Reality explicates the civic character of unionism which differentiates unionism as a form of political identity from the ethnicity of traditional Irish nationalism. The contributions explore the ambiguities of southern Irish politics with respect to 'the Northern Ireland question' and challenge a conventional and widely accepted understanding (inimical to unionism and unionists) of the genesis of the terrorist conflict in Northern Ireland and the extent of discrimination under the Stormont administration but without loss of objectivity and professional detachment.