Ireland and Brexit: A Roundtable

Abstract

A panel of five historians and political scientists, from the United States, Ireland, and Britain respond to questions regarding Brexit vote of the United Kingdom in June 2016 and historic and present-day attitudes toward the European Union (EU) in Britain and Ireland. The authors consider regional variations in attitudes toward the EU within both countries. They offer commentary on the implications of the Brexit vote on future British-Irish relations, particularly with regard to the nature of the land border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the future. The article closes with a discussion of how the nature of nation-states has been called into question by the vote, requiring that political actors and nations reconcile states and multi-state entities with nations in a new context.