Leading academics explore the causes and consequences of the Partition of Ireland in a series of authored talks, developed by Queen’s University Belfast with support from the BBC.
Leading academics explore the causes and consequences of the Partition of Ireland in a series of authored talks, developed by Queen’s University Belfast with support from the BBC.
Contributor:
Professor Alvin Jackson
Talk Title:
Rethinking unionism and partition, 1900-1921
Talk Synopsis:
This talk explores how the partition of Ireland was ‘an evolving set of events, rather than a single act.’ It describes the ‘long-term drift within Irish unionist politics… towards a local, northern predominance’. And it looks at how partition changed from being a ‘tactical ploy’ for unionists to a ‘negotiating goal’ and how what had been intended as a ‘soft border between different parts of the British imperial world was… displaced by a newly minted international frontier.’ It suggests that partition ‘underlines the operation of the law of unintended consequences in Irish politics’ and explains how it led to the division of Ireland and its people and also ‘the division of unionism itself.’
Short Biography:
Alvin Jackson is Richard Lodge Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh. He is an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Further Reading:
Partition in Ireland, India and Palestine: Theory and Practice – T.G. Fraser Home rule: an Irish history, 1800-2000 – Alvin Jackson Ireland 1798-1998: War, Peace and Beyond – Alvin Jackson Judging Redmond and Carson: Comparative Irish Lives – Alvin Jackson The partition of Ireland, 1911-25 – Michael Laffan The partition of Ireland, 1918-1925 – Robert Lynch