Northern Ireland: A state beyond reform

Abstract

Continuing political and military unrest in Northern Ireland is, for many, concrete proof that historical materialism is unable to explain what is—for them at least—a conflict rooted in religion or ethnicity. In the following short analysis Donnell Graham shows that the struggle around the state clearly has socio-economic foundation. The religious or national form which the contained civil war takes only obscures this basic fact. As Graham shows, the political economy of Northern Ireland, and its administration, has shown, and continues to show, marked bias in favour of protestants. Put crudely, the best land was taken over by the protestants during the plantation in the 17th century, the best jobs were reserved for protestants thereafter. Northern Ireland was and remains a protestant state for protestant people. Ten years of Direct Rule from London (since 1972) has done little, if anything, to change this basic truth. Reform of Northern Ireland is impossible, the state remains immune to change, or, as Graham puts it, beyond reform: his brief survey demonstrates the material reasons for this, and why the Provisional I.R.A. will remain potent force in the Northern Ireland situation.