How the British have misunderstood Ireland and Northern Ireland

Abstract

This article probes the mainstream UK structure of feeling—to use the classic term invented by Raymond Williams—on the Irish question. It argues that there was, and is a historic inability in a largely peaceful stable society to face up to the life and death issues, more recently those connected with political violence, posed by Ireland. The material covered ranges from the Irish famine of 1846 to 1850, to the war of independence 1919 to 1921 and the modern Ulster Troubles. It notices how often the need to preserve a comfortable often, but not always, liberal self-image involves a significant neglect of Irish realities. The article arises from a British Academy Lecture delivered on 31 May 2023.