Irish Politics Research Articles

John Day Tully . Ireland and Irish Americans, 1932–1945: The Search for Identity . Irish Academic Press . 2010 . Pp. x, 182. $69.95.

Identity is slippery. It changes and evolves over time. Groups and individuals define themselves with reference to others, not in isolation. It follows that understanding “Irish American” or “Irish” identities demands reference to a host of relationships, contexts, actors, and contingencies. The story of Irish and Irish American identity formation is inextricably bound up with its “exiles,” men and women who left Ireland under duress. Even before the Irish Famine of 1845–1851, Ireland's sons and daughters fled their homeland in astonishing numbers, hoping to find a better life or simply to survive. Later, many looked back to Ireland through rose‐colored glasses, just as those left behind saw emigration as a disease every bit as damaging as the potato blight. The resulting relationship certainly shaped both groups—especially in terms of political nationalism. At various points, Irish Americans such as John O'Mahony tried to define the terms and strategies of the nationalist struggle in Ireland. At other times, Irish politicians such as Charles Stewart Parnell and Éamon de Valera hoped that support in America would shift politics at home.

When Terrorism as Strategy Fails: Dissident Irish Republicans and the Threat to British Security

The use of terrorism as a strategy for obtaining political goals by non-state actors persists in the international system, despite attempts by states to counter the phenomenon. This article explores the resurgent threat posed to British security by dissident Irish republicans in order to illustrate the limited utility of terrorism as a strategy in the current sociopolitical context. Therefore, it has three objectives: First, it explains how strategic theory can aid in constructing a conceptual framework for explaining the persistence of terrorism, in general, and dissident republican violence, in particular. Second, it examines the dissident threat in light of the general failure of “armed struggle” to achieve republican goals in Irish politics. It is argued here that dissident republicans have confused “means” with “ends” and that this, ultimately, demonstrates the futility of their violence. Finally, the article suggests ways of tackling the dissident republican variant of terrorism.

Ireland's Architecture of Containment: Concealed Citizens and Sites Bereft of Bodies

With Irish Independence being granted in1922, the Irish Catholic Hierarchy and the Irish Politicians with their new found power embarked on the complex and highly fraught project of forging a new Irish Nationalist identity. In the decades which followed, the officially named “Irish Freestate” became a nationwide network of asylums, reformatory schools, industrial schools, Magdalen Asylums and Mother and Baby homes. A mere two years after the declaration of Irish independence, it was reported that “there were more children in industrial schools in the twenty-six counties of Ireland than were in all the industrial schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together,” (Raftery, O'Sullivan: 1999: 69, 72). Likewise, Rafferty and O'Sullivan claim that between 1869 and 1969 approximately 105,000 children were committed to industrial schools and that at its peak, the system consisted of 71 such institutions (1999: 20). This paper will draw on the experiences of my younger brother and I as we spent a combined total of 18 years in four such institutions in the Republic of Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s. In the terms of much of the current literature on what is sometimes referred to as “coercive confinement” (O'Sullivan & O'Donnell, 2008: 32) we are amongst thousands of survivors of a state-sponsored and Church-administered system that as An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern acknowledged in his ‘apology’ speech of 1999, all too often “denied children the care and security that they needed”, and worse still, perpetrated “grave wrongs”. With the recent conclusion of our 17 year legal battle with the Irish Catholic church and State and with research I am undertaking for my PhD project, “Remembering and (Re)Presenting Lives Within Care” I will recall the event where my brother and I were taken beneath the Four Courts in Dublin, an airless subterranean trap, and asked to trade away our voices. We have learned that in the face of the most insidious forms of State violence, one doesn't breathe to speak, one needs to speak to breathe. This is the story of our combat breathing.

Routes Irish: ‘Irishness’, ‘authenticity’ and the working class in the films of Ken Loach

Although the filmmaker Ken Loach possesses a reputation for dealing with Irish politics and history in his films and television plays, his portrait of the Irish in Britain has been much less commented upon. This article indicates how a discourse of ‘Irishness’ is threaded through his work set in England and Scotland and how this involves appealing to Irish-Catholic elements of working-class experience as a means of reinforcing the sense of ‘authenticity’ and working-class disadvantage that is the hallmark of his work. At the same time, it also involves invoking the working-class camaraderie and, in some cases, political resistance that is prompted by social and economic inequality. In this respect, Loach's films may be seen to rely on relatively familiar images of the Irish – variants of the ‘slum Irish’ and the ‘fighting Irish’ – while simultaneously complicating conventional understandings of the ‘British’ working class.

Rage Against the Machine: Who is the Independent Voter?

One particular type of minor candidate outside of the party circle is the independent. Perhaps the most exceptional feature of the Irish political (party) system, the persistence and significance of independents have exceeded that of many minor parties. This presence is pretty unusual in most liberal democracies, where independents are seen as irrelevant at best, and a menace at worst. This article assesses the support bases of these candidates. Beginning with aggregate data, it details where independents have experienced success and the consistency (or lack) of their vote. Using individual‐level data, the nature of the independent voter is determined. It is found that there are few social bases to such a vote. Localism, personalism and protest are significant factors, but an independent vote is more of an expression of apathy towards parties rather than a specific antipathy.

Online Discussion Forums

It has been suggested that interaction in online learning programmes promotes student-centred learning, encourages wider student participation, and produces more in-depth and reasoned discussions than traditional face-to-face programmes (Karayan and Crowe (1997) and Smith and Hardaker (2000) cited in Davies and Graff (2005: 1)). In this article, the participation rates and usage patterns by undergraduate political science students of online discussion forums are examined. The study is guided by a number of questions: (1) Are students willing to participate in online discussion forums? (2) Do students enjoy participating in such forums? (3) What discourages a student from participating in online discussion forums? (4) Is there a link between participation in discussion forums and grade performances in coursework? and (5) Does class size have an impact on forum participation rates? The study focuses on two groups of students studying introductory Irish politics courses in University College Cork, Ireland. The article considers student feedback on the use of online discussion forums, compares the level of participation with course grades, and finally presents an account of the author's reflections on the use of online discussion forums in teaching.

Immigrant Candidates and Politics in the Republic of Ireland: Racialization, Ethnic Nepotism, or Localism?

Recent waves of new immigration distinct from postcolonial-era migrations can be identified in many Western countries. More than 40 such “new immigrant” candidates contested the 2009 local government elections in the Republic of Ireland. This article draws on interviews with just under half of these and on official responses from each of the Republic's five political parties to a study of “new immigrant” participation in Irish politics. It also draws on a specific locality case study of the border town of Dundalk where support for Sinn Féin, Ireland's most distinctly ethno-nationalist political party, is relatively high. Our analysis of “new immigrant” candidate participation in Irish politics suggests that a number of factors influence responsiveness to these; this article focuses on the salience of theories of racialization, ethnic nepotism, and localism. In particular, the findings emphasize how local identities as manifested by immigrant candidates potentially mediate racial and ethnic barriers.

Developing a Political Science Curriculum for Non-Traditional Students

In keeping with practices elsewhere in Europe, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in Ireland have in recent decades adopted access policies for non-traditional students (not recent school leavers). This paper assesses a particular initiative to facilitate access to HEIs to non-traditional students. However, due to the initiative's origins as a non-accredited certificate for asylum seekers and refugees, specific attention will be paid to the immigrant community. This paper assesses the details of a new programme in Irish politics and political leadership for non-traditional students in Ireland. It will present the curriculum and document the teaching strategies that were selected while exploring the role for universities and political science departments, in particular in facilitating integration. Student-centred learning provides the overarching framework for the curriculum. Three teaching approaches – KWL, service learning, and enquiry- or problem-based learning – have been selected as the pedagogical underpinnings of this Certificate programme. The paper explores all three approaches and provides examples of how these will be employed. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of how the programme could be adapted in other jurisdictions and its uses in integrating citizens from new communities across European democracies.

DUBLIN'S NORTH INNER CITY, PRESERVATIONISM, AND IRISH MODERNITY IN THE 1960S

ABSTRACTThis article examines changes to Dublin's built environment in the 1960s through a study of the north inner city. It first discusses Dublin Corporation policy in the area and then studies three efforts to resist these changes, by the Irish Georgian Society, Uinseann MacEoin, and the Dublin Housing Action Committee. It argues that, due to the deficit of urban regulation emanating from central government, these groups could use preservation as a way to articulate a variety of discontents. The three campaigns all had very different conceptions of what was worth preserving in the urban environment, resisted Corporation policy in very different ways, and ultimately came into conflict. This urban activism raised issues about the nature of the city in the Irish cultural imagination, the effects of urban modernization, and the role of voluntary bodies in shaping the urban environment. Through addressing these themes this article makes a fundamental contribution to the historiography of the 1960s in Ireland by assessing the complexities of Irish modernity and the continued impact of a multiplicity of pasts on Irish politics and culture.

Immigrants in Irish Politics: African and East European Candidates in the 2009 Local Government Elections

High levels of immigration to Ireland have left an impact on the economy and society, but arguably less of an impact on politics. Though immigration has been an issue in party politics and the subject of a controversial referendum, the immigrants themselves have had little direct impact on parties or the political system. This article treats the immigrant as the political actor of interest, and through a series of interviews examines individual motivations for political participation, status factors (i.e. residency/citizenship) and finally, how social capital interacts and combines with other forms of capital (human and cultural capital) in impacting the political agency of immigrants.

The Impact of British Colonialism on Irish Catholicism and National Identity: Repression, Reemergence, and Divergence

Ireland’s long and contested status as an internal colony of Britain has been important in the historical development of how the Irish remember their past. This article analyzes the historic relationship between religion and politics in Ireland by focusing on the impact of British rule in Ireland and its aftermath on the formation and evolution of Irish identity. My research suggests that one cannot appreciate the role of religion in Irish politics without taking into consideration the impact of British rule in Ireland.

A ‘New Politics’ Without the Seanad: Concerns from a Human Rights Perspective

Ireland currently finds herself in a time of economic and constitutional crisis. Part of the response to this has been the proposal from the main opposition party - Fine Gael - for abolition of the upper house of parliament (the Seanad) and a move towards a unicameral parliamentary system. This proposal is contained within a broader programme of political reform entitled New Politics. In this short essay I identify the main claims for abolition of the Seanad within the New Politics agenda and argue that, in fact, a convincing argument for so fundamental a shift in constitutional structures has not been made out. The perspectives presented in this paper are clearly rooted in a concern with the effective protection of human rights in Ireland and with ways in which parliamentary reform (both structural and attitudinal) can contribute to the cultivation of a rights-based ethic in Irish politics. In this respect there are three main areas of concern: the extent to which parliamentary structures themselves reflect and vindicate basic democratic principles, the extent to which the parliamentary process takes human rights into appropriate account in designing and debating legislation, and the extent to which legislation in fact introduced protects and vindicates human rights as enshrined in the Constitution and the various international instruments to which Ireland is a party. The essay starts by putting the New Politics agenda into its broader political context and by outlining the five basic claims for the abolition proposal contained in New Politics. The paper then proceeds to reject the abolitionist case around two arguments. They are, first, that Seanad abolition has the potential to pose a serious threat to individual rights whereas a reformed upper house together with appropriate reform of both the Dail and political practice holds potential for more effective rights protection; and, second, that a re-imagined and reformed Seanad constructed around principles of democracy, representativeness and expertise has the potential to meaningfully enhance Irish democracy.

Change and Continuity in Irish Politics: The General Election of 2007

Bertie Ahern, the incumbent Taoiseach or Prime Minister of Ireland, was elected to a third term in the general election of 24 May 2007. While Ahern's party, Fianna Fáil, was able to retain its governing coalition, the level of support of some of the other parties changed dramatically. Fine Gael, the principal opposition party, saw its number of seats in the parliament, Dáil Éireann, increase by nineteen. Some of the minor parties did less well than expected or compared to previous elections. Only the Greens maintained their six representatives. As a result, they were rewarded with a share in the new government. This election suggests that, while Irish society is changing rapidly, the political system is changing more slowly and subtly. This article examines the election results in terms of the fate of the political parties and focuses on one constituency, Tipperary South, to illustrate trends in Irish electoral politics.

The Progressive Unionist Party of Northern Ireland: A Left-Wing Voice in an Ethnically Divided Society

The Progressive Unionist party (PUP) was formed in the late 1970s and is one of the smallest political parties in Northern Ireland, both in terms of its membership size and its share of the vote, which translates into only a tiny number of elected representatives. Yet, supporters and critics alike have marked it out as one of the most distinctive voices in Northern Irish politics—in the main because of its democratic socialist ideology and its class-based character. This article examines the PUP's political programme, its membership and support base, its role in the peace process and its relationship with illegal loyalist terrorist organisations. It does so by drawing on current debates in the political science literature about ethnic parties in divided societies. Moreover, it focuses on the often neglected relationship between ethnicity and class in the PUP in order to explain how the party understands and contributes towards the peace process and democratic stability in Northern Ireland.

Archival Triage: Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh's Notebook at the Harry Ransom Center

Archival Triage:Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh's Notebook at the Harry Ransom Center Molly O'Hagan Hardy (bio) In the spring of 2006, the Harry Ransom Center (HRC) in Austin, Texas, displayed "Technologies of Writing," an exhibition with over 200 items from the Center's collection. After passing by clay tablets from 1980 BCE and a Thai accordion-style book, I stopped at the "Power Writing" case to admire one of the smallest items in the exhibition. Tucked between a grand Napoleonic Decree and a Charles V letter appointing Hernando Cortez governor of Spain was a tiny notebook opened to Éamon De Valera's signature (Fig. 1).1 The size of the two documents served to highlight a greater contrast—the case's unifying theme, "power"—applied in starkly different ways. The decrees of Napoleon and Charles V were written manifestations of imperial dominance, testimony to Bishop Avila's observation to Queen Isabella in 1492, "Language is the perfect instrument of empire," whereas the notebook was emblematic of Ireland's efforts to caste off the shackles of imperialism in the 1916 Easter Rising. To put it bluntly, the large documents were about having power, and the small one was about a lack of power, a struggle for power. And yet, as the [End Page 31] exhibition was in part highlighting, all these items are now housed together, harmoniously coexisting in the HRC archives. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Éamon De Valera's signature. The "Technologies of Writing" exhibition invited visitors to contemplate the importance of the written record: "Writing . . . is what enables language to be copied and stored. Writing is memory. It is what makes us human" (HRC press release 2005a). Items in the exhibition testified to this curatorial claim, showcasing seminal moments in the development of the written record as analogs to human development. The exhibition provided a coherent depiction of progress and innovation, but the notebook that caught my attention challenged that depiction. Filled with affect and mystery, the piece defied the exhibition's and the archive's classification of it. [End Page 32] How that tiny notebook got into the "Power Writing" case is the story I want to tell here. The notebook serves as a meditation on the triage inherent in all archives: what gets bought by a wealthy collector and what remains in the hands of a frustrated auctioneer; what gets catalogued and what gets left in unmarked boxes awaiting the next archivist to be hired or grant to come through; and finally, what makes it to the exhibition cases to be admired by the public and what gets left on the shelves of the closed collections to languish in obscurity. In the last decade, feminist scholars such as Karen Steele, Sinéad Mc-Coole, and Margaret Ward have recovered the stories and contributions of women involved in Irish politics from 1916 to 1923. Because the dominant historical narrative had long overlooked the political and social commitments of women like Kathleen Clarke, Anne Cooney, and Linda Kearns, these scholars had to delve into the archives. In her recent investigation of revolutionary women's writing during the Irish Revival, Karen Steele explains this historical erasure: "Their stories . . . fit uneasily in the well-established nationalist narratives that prescribe women as symbol, icon, or emblem of the nation" (2007, 201). The result of this "uneasiness" is that "the women writers of advanced nationalism, who actively maneuvered around, revised, and sometimes rejected their appointed roles as passive embodiments of modest maidens, have largely been overlooked in Irish history and literature" (206). Steele's study of newspapers in the first decades of twentieth-century Ireland aims to show that these women "have left behind intricate textual legacies that challenge many of the standard narratives of Ireland's literary and political revival" (207). In No Ordinary Women: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900-1923, Sinéad McCoole looks at women who were similarly active but did not leave behind the journalistic record that Steele traces. To write her book, McCoole consulted autograph books both in the Kilmainham Gaol collection and in private collections. In her introduction to McCoole's book, Margaret Ward describes McCoole's...

‘Rosy Catholics’ and ‘Dour Prods’: President Clinton and the Northern Ireland peace process

This article challenges the orthodox, ‘pan-nationalist’ view of the impact of the Cold War and President Clinton's role in the Northern Ireland peace process. It is argued that this orthodox view places much faith in the ‘front stage’; self-congratulatory accounts of political actors who sought to enhance their reputations through involvement in the peace process. A theatrical metaphor is deployed to ‘go behind the scenes’ and produce a more nuanced account of the influence of the US President. It is argued first, that the pan-nationalist charade deliberately exaggerated Clinton's role in order to demonstrate the power of ‘unarmed struggle’ and win over a key republican audience to the peace process. Second, the British government, to some extent, played its ‘villainous’ role in the pan-nationalist charade because it understood the Sinn Fein leadership's problems in bringing a united republican movement into a ceasefire. Third, the peace process was emerging well before the US President took his cue from Irish nationalist politicians to enter the political stage. Fourth, the ‘pan-nationalist’ view does not consider the malign impact of the US role on unionism, which underlined unionist isolation and undermined pro-Agreement unionism. Finally, it is argued that President Clinton's grasp of the ‘realities’ of Northern Irish politics was not firm and the President oscillated between an overoptimistic ‘modernising’ view of the conflict and over-pessimistic primordial – ‘Rosy Catholics’ and ‘Dour Prods’ – view neither of which accurately describes the conflict.

The United States, Northern Ireland and the ‘War on Terror’: A Reply to Christopher P. Cunningham

In his article ‘Northern Ireland and the “War on Terror”: Political Perceptions’ (Irish Political Studies, 24(3) (September 2009), pp. 285–302), Christopher P. Cunningham attempts to gauge the impact of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the peace process in Northern Ireland. Whilst his conclusions regarding the event's non‐effect on British policy are broadly correct, his assumption that UK support for the United States' ‘War on Terror’ led the US to refrain from contradicting British policy in Northern Ireland is not. By acknowledging the structural autonomy granted to US special envoys to Northern Ireland, this article demonstrates that disagreements between US and British officials were common throughout the post‐Agreement period. The article also shows that, pace Cunningham, British officials failed to prevent US Special Envoy Richard Haass from promoting policy in Northern Ireland with which they disagreed precisely because of the ‘War on Terror’. Therefore, this article will suggest that Cunningham's interpretive error could have been avoided by engaging a full literature review and perhaps employing a different methodological design for his study.

In the Shadow of War: Irish Press Frames and Political Discourses on the Israeli-Hezbollah War (July–August 2006)

Political developments in Lebanon have long resonated with the Irish political and public imagination, principally because of the long-standing involvement of the Irish defence forces in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from 1978 to 2001. When the Israeli-Hezbollah war began on 12 July 2006, the issue of Lebanon again found itself placed at the centre of political, foreign policy and media discourses. This article traces the ways in which three Irish national 'quality' newspapers ( Irish Times, Irish Independent and Sunday Independent) framed the Israeli-Hezbollah war during the period from 12 July to 27 August 2006. A frame analysis was undertaken on all editorial and opinion/analysis/ commentary features that displayed a significant mention of 'Lebanon' during this time period, generating a total sample size of 138 items. Four different frames were identified the Israeli security/'War on Terror' frame, the Israeli aggression/ Lebanese resistance frame, the Lebanese democracy/regional stability frame and another round of futile violence in the Middle East frame. This study also analyses the interactions that occurred between these media framing trends and the surrounding foreign policy/political discursive environment. The theoretical focus of this integrated media-political relational analysis is to assess the extent to which media and/or political factors influenced the Irish government's resultant foreign policy responses.

<em>The Duel: Castlereagh, Canning and Deadly Cabinet Rivalry</em>, by Giles Hunt

Reviewed by: The Duel: Castlereagh, Canning and Deadly Cabinet Rivalry Nancy LoPatin-Lummis (bio) The Duel: Castlereagh, Canning and Deadly Cabinet Rivalry, by Giles Hunt; pp. xiii + 214. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008, £20.00, $37.00. On 21 September 1809, Foreign Secretary George Canning and Lord Castlereagh, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, fought a duel. On the surface, this might not seem extraordinary; the infamous and deadly duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had taken place only five years earlier. But Britain was at war with Napoleon and in the middle of economic chaos. Whatever would possess two members of the government to engage in such cavalier behavior? Answering this question is the purpose of Giles Hunt's biographical and ideological study in political ambition and contrasting success in the age of high politics and war. Organizing the book in chapters that contrast their early lives, education, and political careers, Hunt argues that Canning and Castlereagh came to serve His Majesty's government from two very different paths. On the one hand, Canning's father had been disowned for his choice in marriage, leaving the family bankrupt when he died during Canning's infancy. While his grandfather held estates in Northern Ireland, the young Canning relied upon his uncle and only upon his grandfather's death was his grandmother able to pay for his formal schooling at Eton. Robert Steward, later Lord Castlereagh, on the other hand, descended from an Ulster Scots plantation fortune and the commercial wealth of an Indian nabob. He was born into privilege and grew up at his grandfather's estate, Mount Stewart, experiencing the social and education expectations of his rank. Canning landed a place at Christ Church at Oxford with the assistance of a family friend. Brought up as a Foxite Whig, he became "Pittized" (33); the new alliance brought him to the House of Commons for Newton, nominated by the Prime Minister, and soon allowed him to join the Foreign Office under William Grenville. Castlereagh also rejected family political connections to the Whigs. He went to Cambridge rather [End Page 169] than Trinity College, Dublin, under the influence of his step-grandfather, Lord Camden. He launched his political career with the calculated choice to govern Ireland "by force" rather than "by reason" (32), openly opposing Henry Grattan and the Irish Parliament. By 1794, Castlereagh severed himself from Irish politics and embarked upon a political future in Westminster. The drama, Hunt shows, started to manifest itself as early as 1801 when William Pitt resigned and was replaced by Henry Addington over the failure of Catholic Emancipation. When war resumed with France merely a year after the Peace of Amiens, an attempt to bring Pitt back into power divided political loyalties and Canning and Castlereagh assumed leadership roles in the cabinet. When Pitt died in January 1806 his government fell and both men were now in opposition to the Ministry of all the Talents. They should have found common ground, particularly after King George III dismissed the coalition government and asked the aging Duke of Portland to form a government. But others' ambitions were stirring up policy differences, generating criticism, and otherwise undermining one by evoking the name of the other. In the end, Canning was forced to resign and a humiliated Castlereagh challenged him to a gentlemen's duel. Meeting at Putney Heath at five o'clock in the morning on 21 September, the standard gentlemen's resolution could have ended the conflict. Canning, however, did not fire in the air on the first shot, putting Castlereagh in the awkward position of restoring his damaged political reputation by showing "superiority not by trying to kill him, but by shooting him, literally and metaphorically, in the foot" (137). When Canning aimed for a second shot, Castlereagh shot Canning in the thigh, nearly hitting his femoral artery. What did this all mean? Hunt argues that the duel impacted public opinion, personal reputation, and political legacies, even more so than the political backbiting and squabbling going on behind the scenes. Criticism of the two cabinet ministers dueling during a foreign war was nearly universal. Castlereagh panicked about Canning's...

In the Shadow of War: Irish Press Frames and Political Discourses on the Israeli-Hezbollah War (July-August 2006)

Political developments in Lebanon have long resonated with the Irish political and public imagination, principally because of the long-standing involvement of the Irish defence forces in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from 1978 to 2001. When the Israeli-Hezbollah war began on 12 July 2006, the issue of Lebanon again found itself placed at the centre of political, foreign policy and media discourses. This article traces the ways in which three Irish national 'quality' newspapers {Irish Times, Irish Independent and Sunday Independent) framed the Israeli-Hezbollah war during the period from 12 July to 27 August 2006. A frame analysis was undertaken on all editorial and opinion/analysis/commentary features that displayed a significant mention of 'Lebanon' during this time period, generating a total sample size of 138 items. Four different frames were identified— the Israeli security/'War on Terror' frame, the Israeli aggression/Lebanese resistance frame, the Lebanese democracy/regional stability frame and another round of futile violence in the Middle East frame. This study also analyses the interactions that occurred between these media framing trends and the surrounding foreign policy/political discursive environment. The theoretical focus of this integrated media-political relational analysis is to assess the extent to which media and/or political factors influenced the Irish government's resultant foreign policy responses.