The Governance of Northern Ireland: From Modernity to Postmodernity?

Abstract

The northern Irish Nationalist and Ulster Unionist imagined communities have witnessed profound change since 1920 when the Government of Ireland Act proposed two Irish parliaments, one for the six counties in the north and one for the 26 counties in the south. The beginning of the modern state context for Ireland, which entailed the territorial separation of Ulster Unionists and northern Irish Nationalists from the rest of the Irish nation, was confirmed in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. Although the Treaty granted governing status to the whole island of Ireland, an article in the Treaty permitted the Northern Ireland parliament to opt out of the jurisdiction of the Irish Free State constitution and retain its status under the 1920 Act, which it promptly did. From 1921 until 1969, Ulster Unionists maintained hegemonic control in Northern Ireland (O’Leary and McGarry, 1993, pp. 133–4). Through hegemonic control, this dominant group successfully established its truth-claims as the basis of socio-political order in Northern Ireland. The culture-bound knowledge of northern Irish Nationalists was perceived to be the extension of the Catholic and Gaelic socio-political group that dominated in the South.