dublin/europe/dublin || ideological shifts

Ideological ShiftsInterpreting Northern Ireland by John Whyte; Northern Ireland: Questions of Nuance byPadraig O'Malley; The Future of Northern Ireland, 1990 by John McGarry; Brendan O'LearyReview by: John DarbyThe Irish Review (1986-), No. 10, Dublin/Europe/Dublin (Spring, 1991), pp. 118-122Published by: Cork University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29735598 .

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118 IRISH REVIEW

The thought occurs that perhaps the chronicler and the ethnographer are

surrogates, consolidating perceptions in the name of a typicality which does

not exist, or rather exists only because of how plausible its textual represen? tation can make it seem. At least Surrogate City does the reader the favour of

assuming that his or her experience of the world will have been complex, various and troubling. Hugo Hamilton presents his material in the name of

that complexity, making what is written an enactment of social actualities

rather than a report of them. It is not enough to have material. Something must be made of it that does not violate its origins. Anything else is exploita? tive. Not to violate origins means, in the first place, not subjecting them to the

censorship of simplification, thereby preserving the potential for full en?

gagement with the world of the book, a world which were it not for the

troublesome novelist might be even more well lost than it already is.

GEORGE O'BRIEN

Ideological Shifts

John Whyte. Interpreting Northern Ireland. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. ISBN

0-19-827848-9. Stg ?35.00.

Padraig O'Malley. Northern Ireland: Questions of Nuance. Belfast: The Blackstaff

Press, 1990. ISBN 0-85640-454-3. Stg ?5.95.

John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary. The Future of Northern Ireland, 1990. ISBN

0-19-827329-0. Stg ?40.00.

I can think of no higher tribute to John Whyte, who died before the publica? tion of Interpreting Northern Ireland, than to say that he is as judicious in print as he was in person. No-one had a greater ability to accept criticism - not

simply the skill we all try to adopt at disguising the initial visceral resent?

ment, but a genuine eagerness to hear his views challenged. This is a rare gift among academics. It has led to a remarkable book, distinguished by an

authority which comes from encyclopedic knowledge of his subject.

Whyte set out to examine the nature of Northern Ireland's community divide and the different interpretations used to explain the Northern Ireland

conflict. He refers to more than 500 studies, and draws on many more. His

approach is to review the evidence on each side of the major themes, and to

assess their relative merits. Certainly some of the authors quoted will contest

his assessments, but it is hard to see how many could disagree with the

objectivity of his descriptions. An example is his acceptance of the Northern

Ireland conflict as essentially religious. It seems to me, for example, that this

judgement hinges on the extent to which religion is regarded as a descriptive term rather than one relating to a body of religious belief. The strength of the



REVIEWS 119

book, however, is that the case is argued with such impartiality as to allow

one to contest his conclusions from his own evidence.

One of his more depressing conclusions is the suggestion that this mountain

of research may not have been worth the candle. This judgement may un?

derrate the very intellectual shifts chronicled in his book. Before the 1970s the

literature was dominated by nationalist and, to a lesser degree, unionist,

polemicists. They were toppled from their perches during the 1970s by Marxist scholars. Today these approaches are thin on the ground. For those

closely involved in the study of Northern Ireland's conflict it is easy to forget that the landscape can be altered completely by imperceptible shifts in di?

rection. Two examples illustrate the point. First, it is easy to forget, given the

vast body of subsequent research into Northern Ireland's segregated educa?

tion system, that the first general survey into educational divisions was

published as late as 1976. The second reminder is that the initial draft papers

establishing the Community Relations Unit, a body set up in 1987 to oversee

community relations policy, did not even mention the issue of fair employ? ment, which now dominates much of its concerns.

The central theme of John Whyte's book provides a third example. Whyte estimates that almost two thirds of the analyses published on Northern

Ireland have adopted what he calls the internal-conflict interpretation. Indeed

he claims that 'it is not far from being a dominant paradigm'. This view of the

conflict should be regarded in opposition to more traditional approaches which dominated until the 1980s - the nationalist interpretation, the unionist

interpretation and Marxist analyses. All of these approach the Northern

Ireland problem from a strong ideological stance. The impression is sometimes

given that the facts are squeezed into this pre-determined corset, allowing it

to bulge as long as it does not break, occasionally ignoring embarrassing realities that cannot be fitted in comfortably. None of them provide an

adequate explanation of the conflict, nor a realistic approach to dealing with

it. As a result, researchers have increasingly come to base their work on

Northern Ireland's sometimes confusing and contradictory empirical realities.

The result has been to shift the focus of the problem away from external

factors and towards the internal community divisions which remain regard? less of the broader constitutional context.

The internal conflict analysis has often been misrepresented, most recently

by some reviewers of Whyte's book, who have suggested that the argument

ignores the importance of external factors. Few would seriously dispute that

developments in Great Britain and the Irish Republic, and to some extent the

United States and Europe, have sometimes been major actors in Northern

Ireland's history. The question is one of emphasis. According to Daithi

O'Conaill, articulating the core belief of traditional nationalists, 'England was, and remains, the cause of the suffering in Ireland'. The greatest value of

Whyte's analysis is to show clearly, on the evidence, that however valid this

nostrum was in the past, it has become a distraction from tackling the real

problems today. It is clear that the Northern Ireland problem exists and will



120 IRISH REVIEW

continue to exist, regardless of England or any other external actor. He

directs our attention, and hopefully our energy, to what is the root of the

problem, has been the root of the problem since the seventeenth century and,

barring catastrophe, will remain the root of the problem for ever. That is, how

the people occupying the contested counties of Northern Ireland can live

together in a more tolerable relationship than in the past. This debate has much more than an academic, or even analytical, impor?

tance. It has major implications for determining the policies adopted by successive administrations in Northern Ireland. Security and constitutional concerns have dominated approaches to the conflict for most of the last

twenty years, at the expense of tackling fundamental structural divisions and

inequalities. Only in the last four years have there been signs of a concerted

policy realignment towards issues of equity, education and community re?

lations. Is it a coincidence that this shift has followed the changes in research

focus during the same period?

Padraig O'Malley is described by John Whyte as a member of the internal

conflict school, and this is at least partly confirmed by his most recent book,

Questions of Nuance. This is an up-date to O'Malley's magisterial The Uncivil

Wars, and includes supplementary interviews with politicians from both

parts of Ireland and Britain. As with O'Malley's previous work, it is beautifully written and deeply depressing. In search of a less pessimistic conclusion, he

directs our attention to eastern Europe. 'Perhaps with other ethnic conflicts to

refine their reflections the two communities in Northern Ireland might begin to realize that you cannot create a lasting peace if you empower one minority

by creating another.' This, the nearest O'Malley comes to optimism, seems to

offer only a parity of misery, the guilty satisfaction that comes from infecting

acquaintances with one's own influenza. Nor is John Whyte's approach to

solutions a lot more cheerful. His presentation of integrated education,

alongside nine other constitutional options, as a possible solution is a position which no serious scholar has taken in recent years, and seems to reflect a lack

of confidence in the alternatives. His own contribution to the debate is that, rather than look for a single solution for all of Northern Ireland, 'different

arrangements will be required in different areas.' It is certainly crucial, and

difficult, to convey to outsiders the importance of regional variations within

Northern Ireland. But it is thin gruel for those seeking a way ahead.

The papers gathered by McGarry and O'Leary in The Future of Northern

Ireland, are a thoughtful and positive addition to discussion on possible solutions to the conflict. The arguments are explored by specialists, and the

editors supply essential background information, including two up-to-date

appendices on the pattern of violence and party support. They set out 'to counter one facile, thought-stopping and pessimistic article of faith which

has come to dominate academic, administrative, and intelligent journalistic

commentary on Northern Ireland. This 'idea' is the notion that there is no

solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland.' Welcome relief, indeed. Sometimes it seems that pessimism is a natural condition for Irish political scientists.



REVIEWS 121

Certainly there has been a plethora of careful analyses, since Richard Rose's

1976 A Time for Choice, vigorously demonstrating how none of the available

constitutional options can possibly work. This may arise from an unhealthy

tendency to overrate the importance of politics in relation to other aspects of

life. If one recognises that the Northern Ireland problem is really a tangle of

problems -

psychological, educational, security, social and legal - not only

does the need for a multi-dimensional approach become obvious, but the

opportunities for progress become more flexible. Who is to say that issues of

fair employment, integrated schoolng or recognition of cultural diversity are

not as important as finding an acceptable constitutional formula? Who can

deny that significant advances have been made in some of these fields while

attempts to crank up political talks are, once again, languishing? In the last chapter of his book John Whyte suggests that 'the time has come

when we should start looking for a new paradigm', to move the debate to the

next level beyond internal-conflict analysis. In fact one is suggested by his own anlaysis

- the need to shift our energies from analysis to prescription, from poring over the thumbed texts of our own experience to examining how

other societies have approached their difficulties.

By this formulation Northern Ireland's problems are better regarded as

broadly ethnic rather than narrowly constitutional, and comparable to those

in many other societies. The comparative study of ethnic conflict offers at

least four insights relevant to Northern Ireland:

1 Ethnic tension is not an aberrational condition. It is normal.

Recent cross-national socio-political surveys confirm that virtually every

country has experienced or is experiencing problems associated with

ethnic or racial minorities. There is no peculiarly Irish attraction to ethnic

violence.

2 Ethnic conflict is exceptionally persistent. The Irish experience of periodic eruptions of community violence is now

mirrored in the Soviet Union and most eastern European countries,

despite its apparently successful suppression by strong central control

for half a century. The revival of Corsican separatism in the 1970s fol?

lowed decades when many scholars thought the issue had been resolved.

Ethnic loyalty appears to thrive from persecution.

3 Problems of ethnic diversity are notoriously difficult to tackle.

Despite the growing evidence that problems of ethnic diversity will not

fade away, strategies for tackling them have rarely been regarded as a

priority. The inadequacies of international diplomacy, as currently re?

vealed in the Gulf, are immeasurably more sophisticated than the ap?

proaches used by governments to deal with internal ethnic problems.

4 It is possible to tackle them.

Nevertheless, problems created by ethnic diversity have been tackled in



122 IRISH REVIEW

situations more bitter and complex than Northern Ireland, and with more

successful outcomes. Switzerland's linguistic and religious wars, Holland's

religious bitterness of the 1910s, Malaysia's mosaic of ethnic tensions - all

have accomplished greater stability than Northern Ireland, and each has

approached its problems with greater ingenuity, adopting innovative ap?

proaches to decentralisation, cultural pluralism, social pillarisation and elec?

toral reform. The key to approaching ethnic conflict is not to try to solve it.

Rather it should be regarded in much the same way as we regard the ageing process

- an inevitable condition which can be treated and improved, rather

than one which can be avoided.

Whyte's study confirms beyond reasonable doubt that the key to under?

standing the nature of the conflict lies within Northern Ireland. To treat it, we

should pay more attention to the example of others.

JOHN DARBY

The Politics of Development Richard Breen, Dami?n Hannan, David Rottman and Christopher Whelan,

Understanding Contemporary Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1990. ISBN

0-7171-1741-3. IR?9.99pb.

Liam Kennedy, The Modern Industrialisation of Ireland, 1940-1988. The Eco?

nomic and Social History Society of Ireland, 1989. ISBN 0790-2913.

Brian Girvin, Between Two Worlds: Politics and Economy in Independent Ireland,

Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1989. ISBN 0-7171-1545-3. IRE27.50.

John F. McCarthy (ed.) Planning Ireland's Future: The Legacy of T.K. Whitaker, Dublin: Glendale Press, 1990. ISBN 0-907606-81-4. IR?12.95.

Robert Allen and Tara Jones, Guests of the Nation: People of Ireland versus the

Multinationals, London: Earthscan Publications, 1990. ISBN 1 -853-164-X.

Stg?7.95.

In one sense, all these books may be read as reassessments of the much

celebrated policy departures of the 1950s and 1960s associated with Sean

Lemass and T.K. Whitaker. These initiatives seemed to illustrate the capacity of the Irish state to promote socio-economic development and they were to

provide a charter for the growth in the state's role in Irish society over the

next two decades.

Events since the mid-1970s have altered the retrospect however. The

achievements of the 1960s now seem more transient with the return of

mass emigration and high unemployment and with the plunge into a major

public debt crisis. Moreover, politicians and civil servants are now more

prone to proclaim the limits rather than the potentialities of the state's role in

development. Neo-liberals' belief in the primacy of market forces, and in



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