Northern IrelandHow do we bring an end to political violence? And what is the relationship between conventional politics and the politics of what some have tended to call armed struggle?
These vital questions are thoughtfully addressed, in an Irish context, by the eminent contributors to From Political Violence to Negotiated Settlement: The Winding Path to Peace in Twentieth-Century Ireland. Ireland offers an ideal case study through which to approach difficult and daunting questions. Conflicts in 20th-century Ireland have been serious and durable, and they have involved the major forces shaping political conflict throughout the world (nationalism, the State, ethno-religious attachment and - from time to time - socialism); but they have also reached something like resolution, thereby allowing for consideration of major political change over time.
This book emerged from a conference organised in 2001 by the Institute for British-Irish Studies at University College, Dublin. Established in 1999, the institute has frequently brought together academics and political figures in mutually beneficial ways. (A reflective piece in this volume by John de Chastelain on decommissioning exemplifies the helpful trend.) As a whole, the book includes coverage of the Home Rule crisis, the various shades of Irish nationalism and unionism in the early 20th century, modern republican struggle and unionist politics in Northern Ireland and the legacy of Irish political violence.
Several important themes emerge. Moderation (rather than extremism) turns out to be the ultimate home of most Irish politics. As Michael Laffan suggests in his essay on early 20th-century revolutionary republicanism, the vast majority of Irish people were perfectly happy to endorse compromise rather than more absolutist political outcomes. The eye-catching nature of Irish revolutionaries - from Patrick Pearse to Bobby Sands and beyond - should not obscure from view the comforting reality that most people are less aggressively demanding in their designs on how the rest of us live.
Again, it turns out that Ireland's 20th century was not as bad as is frequently implied. I have long thought that the notion of Ireland having had a terrible last 100 years might elicit a wry smile from, for example, an Israeli or European Jew, a Palestinian, a Rwandan, a Czech, an Algerian . . . and so on around much of the world. The editors of this book wisely locate their analysis of Irish violence within an international, comparative context, and they sharply point out that "while the Irish experience may have been an unhappy one, it could have been much worse".
This will, of course, come as little comfort to those who have suffered so terribly from Irish political violence, whether committed by republicans, loyalists or the State; and John Coakley reminds us of the civilian identity of so many victims (with Northern Irish republican and loyalist paramilitaries, for example, being much more likely to kill and maim civilians than to damage each other).
But there are some grounds for optimism about developments in the North. True, a deep lack of trust remains, as do serious problems with the establishment of a Northern Ireland which both communities consider thoroughly legitimate. But, as numerous contributors here suggest, some key progress has been made; and the achievement of a stable, legitimate state in the North surely represents the most pressing challenge facing Ireland in the new century.
Political violence has, in Ireland and beyond, profoundly altered the evolution of states and societies. But it has tended to change things in ways markedly different from the anticipatory vision of its various practitioners; and it has always left terrible wounds of a kind that should haunt its agents and defenders.
Richard English is Professor of Politics at Queen's University, Belfast. His last book, Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, is published in paperback by Pan
From Political Violence to Negotiated Settlement: The Winding Path to Peace in Twentieth-Century Ireland Edited By Maurice J. Bric and John Coakley UCD Press, 257pp. €25