Emotion norms: Ireland, Brexit, backstops and protocols

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 2016 decision of the UK electorate to withdraw from the European Union drew to a halt a decades-long process of shared Irish/UK Europeanisation. Brexit also posed near existential challenges to the Irish state across the public policy spectrum, initiating something of a debate on Ireland’s strategic position vis á vis the UK and EU26 and the future of the Irish peace process. This paper seeks to assess the emotional content of these debates surrounding the impact of the Brexit crisis on bilateral British–Irish relations and the mediating role of Ireland’s EU membership in the Union’s subsequent negotiations with the UK. The article will argue that Brexit shattered newly developed and instantiated emotion norms, resulting in some reversion to earlier historical emotional patterns but then also a reversal in emotional stereotypes which had long define the bilateral relationship.