Irish Political Culture Research Articles

Trickster's Metempsychosis in the Mythic Age of Globalization: The Recurrence of the Leprechaun in Irish Political Culture

Tribunals, public inquiries and similar institutions, increasingly common in the political culture of the United Kingdom, the European Union, and in America, can be seen as exemplifying the auto-correcting, self-reflexive capacity of political institutions in information-rich and communicatively fluent societies. They represent the modernization of political culture guided by communicative rationality, paralleling the accelerated modernization of globalization. This view is elaborated and modified by an interpretation based on a philosophy of history as recurrence or “metempsychosis” (Nietzsche, Vico, Joyce) and the mythic figure of Trickster as formulated in anthropology and psychoanalysis (Radin, Hyde, Jung). Specifically, the political culture of globalization is cast in terms of the reconfiguration of the archaic and an intensification of myth (Benjamin). An examination of the ongoing Tribunal of Inquiry into Payments to Politicians in Ireland shows how tribunals are theaters in which the politician appears as a recurrence of a Trickster archetype adept at negotiating and playing this liminal and changing context. Tribunals struggle not so much to eradicate and replace Trickster by systems of formal rationality, but to redeem his vital energy and creativity.

Afterimage of the Revolution: Kevin O’Higgins and the Irish Revolution

KEVIN O'Higgins once famously referred to himself as one of most conservative-minded revolutionaries that ever put through a successful (2) This comment, however revealing, seems to have obscured later historical views of O'Higgins, which have largely focused on the conservative and ignored the revolutionary side of his legacy. Recent works, in fact, have depicted him as the arch counter-revolutionary, helping to snuff out any promise of radical change inherent in the Irish revolution. His own boast notwithstanding, the term counter-revolutionary is misleading when applied to O'Higgins. As used in the literature on the Irish revolution, the term is often conceptually vague and assumes that there was in fact one monolithic Irish revolution that Kevin O'Higgins and his cronies struggled to overturn. There were, instead, multiple ideas and ideals contained within the Irish revolution, and O'Higgins--like de Valera, Collins, or any other Irish revolutionary--drew on a number of these in constructing his vision of post-independence Irish society. Certainly, O'Higgins's focus on self-determination and self-government was part of the Sinn Fein tradition, and to describe him as a counter-revolutionary masks the deep changes that he sought to make in Irish political culture, falsely disconnect him from the Irish revolution that brought him to power. O'Higgins's own vision of the revolution centered on self-determination, which he saw as its greatest fruit. For O'Higgins Irish self-government would have to be accompanied by a change in the Irish political mentality whereby the Irish people would assume responsibility for their own affairs and accept that the Dail was the proper place to settle those affairs. Britain could no longer be blamed for all of Ireland's problems, nor could every violation of law be seen as heroic and politicized. Ireland, according to O'Higgins, needed to develop a sense of civic virtue, understanding the fact that rights and responsibilities flowed both ways between state and people. This was the heart of Kevin O'Higgins's revolution. This relationship between Kevin O'Higgins and the Irish revolution needs to be reexamined and recovered, and he needs once again to be placed in his revolutionary context. Arguably, O'Higgins was much more important in the development of modern Ireland than Michael Collins, whose early death robbed him of a chance to make much more than an indirect mark on the new Irish Despite this, the larger-than-life Collins has received considerably more attention from historians than the less dashing O'Higgins. There has still been only one full-length biography of O'Higgins: Terence de Vere White's Kevin O'Higgins, first published in 1948. (3) After over fifty years this biography remains the most favorable treatment of O'Higgins, depicting him as a committed democrat who was tragically misunderstood by colleagues, enemies, and the Irish public alike. De Vere White also characterized O'Higgins as the strongman of the Cumann na nGaedheal government, the person who unwaveringly and almost singlehandedly crushed the anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War. F.S.L. Lyons's textbook, Ireland since the Famine, is also fairly complimentary to O'Higgins, recognizing his ability and vision as well as the tremendous void left by his premature death. (4) A recent work by Tom Garvin--much of whose analysis of Civil War republicanism could have been written by O'Higgins himself--also gives credit to technical virtuosity displayed by the pro-Treaty leaders in putting together a new, democratic, and generally law-bound state. (5) However, this has not been the usual view of O'Higgins, whose reputation has suffered generally at the hands of historians. Overall assessments have ranged from outright condemnation to benign neglect, but generally when O'Higgins is discussed his conservative, reactionary, or counter-revolutionary credentials have been placed at the forefront. …

The Spectacle of Terrorism in Northern Irish Culture

Few aspects of Northern Irish political culture are as denuded as those that attempt to locate and understand the terrorist act. From the exasperation of Margaret Thatcher’s outburst at the time of the Hunger Strikes that ‘it is not political, it is a crime’, to the exhausted freedom fighter/terrorist binary opposition recently pressed back into service by Peter Mandelson, terrorism has consistently been perceived as an act that defies the realm of civic discourse. Indeed, it has been the traditional role of language in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist atrocity to present itself as unable to capture the overwhelming materiality of the event itself. What, so the argument runs, can words offer in the face of such violence? Understood as such, every terrorist outrage becomes unspeakable.

«Papistes» ou «catholiques» ? «Papisme» ou «catholicité» ? Terminologie confessionnelle et culture politique en Irlande et aux États-Unis à la fin du 18e et au début du 19e siècle

This article shows how the different uses of this confessional terminology, which was common in political discourse, developed according to political cir¬ cumstances in Ireland and the U.S.A in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. In Ireland in the early 1830s, common usage distinguished the political and religious aspects of the term 'popery5, but this separation was both temporary and problematical, and the terminology of confessional struggle was one of the basic elements of Irish political culture. In the U.S.A., with the separation of Church and State, confessional terminology was absent from political vocabulary ; warnings against the errors of 'popery5 were thus acceptable when made from the pulpit, but were considered as an 'abuse of language5 on political platforms.

Seventeenth-Century Ireland and the New British and Atlantic Histories

THERE IS A SPECTRE HAUNTING IRISH HISTORIOGRAPHY, one more ominous perhaps than revisionism or nationalism-the spectre of the 'British Problem,' carrying with it the threat of another colonial impulse. So begins Willy Maley's review of two works on the New in a recent issue of History Ireland.' How legitimate are these concerns? Should the British Problem be regarded as some sort of academic imperialism intent on subverting the study of early modern Irish history and of polluting a distinctive historical tradition? Certainly, Ireland's often tortured relationship with England remains a particularly sensitive issue and the source of many scholarly debates.2 Yet, like it or not, England ruled Iieland as a colony for much of the early modern period. The English legal and parliamentary systems, the sovereign, and the Protestant faith had a dramatic impact on the formation of the Irish state, Irish political culture, and the Irish mind. Any discussion of the British Problem or the New must begin with J. G. A. Pocock's seminal article of 1974-1975, in which he attempted to redefine the field of history and set an agenda for its study within the context of the English-speaking Atlantic world.3 Pocock implored Irish, Scottish, and, above

The Dunnes payments scandal, Charles Haugheyy and contemporary Irish political culture

This article offers interpretation and commentary regarding the Tribunal of Inquiry (Dunnes Payments) which was established to look into large sums given by Ben Dunne, a leading Irish businessman, to senior Irish politicians, most notably the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, and Michael Lowry who was a cabinet minister at the time. The article attempts to place this affair within the general context of contemporary Irish political culture, and the relatively unique, ‘cult of the personality’ personified by Charles Haughey. The article notes that it has been the convention to assume that Irish political culture reflects features commonly associated with the prevalence of traditional and conservative social and political values. The article argues that Irish political culture is now unmistakably in step with the trends observed throughout the European Union, while at the same time acknowledging that certain particular factors still remain distinctive. Despite Haughey's long tenure as the most powerful politician of his day, the privileges accorded by his lofty position alone cannot fully account for his political actions nor, in particular, his dubious ethics in relation to his personal finances. The article considers the contents of the McCracken Tribunal itself and concludes with a brief discussion of the Tribunal findings, the nature of corruption in Irish politics and the corresponding implications for Irish political culture.

Symbolic and Utilitarian Political Value of a Tradition: Martyrdom in the Iranian Political Culture

Martyrdom has been a recurring theme in the Iranian political culture. This article presents an analysis of its sociological and historical significance and delineates the causes of its politicization and popularization since the 1960s. In order to understand this tradition in its broader cultural context, the relationship between the preeminence of tragedy in Iranian pre and post-Islamic popular culture and martyrdom is explored. By examining the writings of the major literary and political figures, the metamorphosis and political utilization of this tradition in recent political history of Iran are propounded. The article demonstrates how martyrdom as a symbol has functioned to forge a sense of solidarity, enhance mass mobilization, and preserve the sacred values of the community. In this context, the leading intellectuals and lay thinkers alike perceive of martyrdom as a symbol of communal cleansing and regeneration. The symbolic and utilitarian use of this tradition are also analyzed in the pre-and postrevolutionary period.

Exporting Iran's Islamic revolution: Steering a path between Pan‐Islam and nationalism

This article focuses on the question of whether Iran's foreign policy over the period 1979–94 was a pure reflection of the clerical regime's millenarian crusade and its stated doctrine of exporting the Islamic revolution worldwide. Taking, inter alia, the controversy surrounding Iran's takeover of the island of Abu Musa in 1992, the article argues that Iran's actions were determined by a persistent sense of nationalism which was not less potent than its pan‐Islamic vision. Iran's nationalist tradition has been able to survive as a major force in Iranian political culture, its sometimes ‘Islamicized’ form notwithstanding.

Iran: political culture in the Islamic Republic

Foreword Mansour Farsang 1. Introduction: Iran's political culture Samih K. Farsoun and Mehrdad Mashayeki 2. Gharbzadegi: the dominant intellectual discourse of pre- and post-revolutionary Iran Mehrzad Boroujerdi 3. Iran's Religious Establishment: the dialectics of politicization Mohammad Borghei 4. The Politics of Nationalism and Political Culture Mehrdad Mashayekhi 5. Islamic Man and Society in the Islamic Republic of Iran Manoucher Parvin and Mostafa Vaziri 6. Shi'ism and the State in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohsen Milani 7. Education and the Culture of Politics in the Islamic Republic of Iran Rasool Nafisi 8. Islamizing Film Culture in Iran Hamid Nafici 9. Populism and Corporatism in Post-Revolutionary Iranian Political Culture Manosher Dorraj 10. Power Politics and Political Culture: US-Iran relations Thomas Ricks

The water and the fish: Public opinion and the provisional IRA in Northern Ireland

Abstract The methods and goals of the Provisional IRA make it difficult to categorize it simply as a “terrorist” group. Its longevity and its affinity to Irish political culture suggest that it will not be defeated by force but by being rendered irrelevant. This is likely to come about as a result of the state demonstrating its own legitimacy among those sections of the Catholic community which have been understandably reluctant to give the state their full allegiance in the past. Survey evidence supports the contention that the Provisional IRA's goals and grievances are shared by many who would spurn their tactics.

The Irish Judiciary. By Paul C. Bartholomew. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1972. Pp. xi, 86. $3.95, paper.) - The Irish Political Elite. By Al Cohan. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1972. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 4. Pp. 76. £1.00, paper.) - Chairman or Chief? The Role of Taoiseach in Irish Government. By Brian Farrell. (Dublin:

The Irish Judiciary. By Paul C. Bartholomew. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1972. Pp. xi, 86. $3.95, paper.) - The Irish Political Elite. By Al Cohan. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1972. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 4. Pp. 76. £1.00, paper.) - Chairman or Chief? The Role of Taoiseach in Irish Government. By Brian Farrell. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1971. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 1. Pp. xiii, 110. £1.00, paper.) - The Founding of Dáil Éireann: Parliament and Nation-Building. By Brian Farrell. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1971. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 2. Pp. xx, 89. £1.00, paper.) - Irish Political Parties: An Introduction. By Maurice Manning. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1972. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 3. Pp. 120. £1.00, paper.) - Volume 68 Issue 2

The Irish Judiciary. By Paul C. Bartholomew. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1972. Pp. xi, 86. $3.95, paper.) - The Irish Political Elite. By Al Cohan. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1972. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 4. Pp. 76. £1.00, paper.) - Chairman or Chief? The Role of Taoiseach in Irish Government. By Brian Farrell. (Dublin:

The Irish Judiciary. By Paul C. Bartholomew. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1972. Pp. xi, 86. $3.95, paper.) - The Irish Political Elite. By Al Cohan. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1972. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 4. Pp. 76. £1.00, paper.) - Chairman or Chief? The Role of Taoiseach in Irish Government. By Brian Farrell. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1971. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 1. Pp. xiii, 110. £1.00, paper.) - The Founding of Dáil Éireann: Parliament and Nation-Building. By Brian Farrell. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1971. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 2. Pp. xx, 89. £1.00, paper.) - Irish Political Parties: An Introduction. By Maurice Manning. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1972. Studies in Irish Political Culture, No. 3. Pp. 120. £1.00, paper.) - Volume 68 Issue 2

Chairman or chief?: the role of the taoiseach in Irish government. By Brian Farrell. Pp xii, 110. Dublin : Gill and Macmillan. 1971. £1.00 (Studies in Irish Political Culture, 1) - The founding of Dáil Éireann: parliament and nation-building. By Brian Farrell. Pp xx, 89. Dublin : Gill and Macmillan. 1971. £1.00. (Studies in Irish Political Culture, 2)

Chairman or chief?: the role of the taoiseach in Irish government. By Brian Farrell. Pp xii, 110. Dublin : Gill and Macmillan. 1971. £1.00 (Studies in Irish Political Culture, 1) - The founding of Dáil Éireann: parliament and nation-building. By Brian Farrell. Pp xx, 89. Dublin : Gill and Macmillan. 1971. £1.00. (Studies in Irish Political Culture, 2)

Irish political parties : an introduction. By Maurice Manning. Pp 120. Dublin : Gill and Macmillan. 1972. £1.00. (Studies in Irish Political Culture, 3) - The Irish political elite. By Al Cohan. Pp 76. Dublin : Gill and Macmillan. 1972. £1.00. (Studies in Irish Political Culture, 4)

Irish political parties : an introduction. By Maurice Manning. Pp 120. Dublin : Gill and Macmillan. 1972. £1.00. (Studies in Irish Political Culture, 3) - The Irish political elite. By Al Cohan. Pp 76. Dublin : Gill and Macmillan. 1972. £1.00. (Studies in Irish Political Culture, 4)