Border Ireland
When the 1998 Good Friday Agreement brought an end to decades of conflict, which was mainly focused on the existence of the Irish border, most breathed a sigh of relief. Then came Brexit. Border Ireland: From Partition to Brexit introduces readers to the Irish border. It considers the process of bordering after the partition of Ireland to the Good Friday Agreement and attendant debordering to the post-Brexit landscape. The UKs departure from the EU meant rebordering in some form. That departure also reinvigorated the push for a united Ireland and borderlessness on the island.
As well as providing a nuanced assessment that will be of interest to followers of UK/Irish relations and European studies, this books analysis of processes of bordering/debordering/rebordering helps inform our understanding of borders more generally. Students and scholars of European studies, border studies, politics, and international relations, as well as anyone else with a general interest in the Irish border will find this book an insightful and historically grounded aid to contemporary events.
Cathal McCall is Professor of European Politics and Borders at Queens University, Belfast, UK.
Routledge Borderlands Studies
Borderlands are spaces of transition between cultures, societies and states. Often, like in the case of the US and Mexico, they are understood as static territorial lines and buffer zones, subservient to the development of states and state territories. However, borderlands can also be fluid and ambiguous spaces, moulded by processes of economic and political integration or shifting geopolitical dividing lines. Moreover, borderlands cultures can be found far from borders, in cities, multicultural neighbourhoods and diasporic communities. They also exist as both future-oriented geographical imaginations and imaginaries with profound historical roots. Today, globalisation, integration and new transnational forms of communication change the complex interrelationships between state, society, space and borders. Consequently, borderlands become more and more places in their own right, reflecting broader supranational patterns of political, economic and social change.
With this series we encourage inter- and multidisciplinary investigation on borders and borderlands throughout the world. We engage with the political, social and historical richness of borderlands, reflecting their unique (geo)political and cultural significance in contexts of colonial rule, nation-building and integration. The Series will explore, among other things, shifting social and political relations and place-related identities that emerge in borderlands, as well as cross-border interaction and the historical memories of every-day life at borders. With this series, we will both contribute to the rich tradition of North American and European borderlands studies and provide a forum for new growing interest in research on borderlands in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Remapping Security on Europes Northern Borders
Edited by Jussi P. Laine, Ilkka Liikanen and James W. Scott
Border Ireland
From Partition to Brexit
Cathal McCall
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Borderlands-Studies/book-series/BORDERLAND
First published 2021
by Routledge
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2021 Cathal McCall
The right of Cathal McCall to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McCall, Cathal, 1966- author.
Title: Border Ireland: from partition to Brexit/Cathal McCall.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge borderlands studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021005895 (print) | LCCN 2021005896 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138587045 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032047997 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429504211 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: European UnionIreland. | European Union Great Britain. | IrelandBoundariesNorthern Ireland. | Northern IrelandBoundariesIreland. | IrelandHistory Partition, 1921.
Classification: LCC HC240.25.I73 M23 2021 (print) | LCC HC240.25.I73 (ebook) | DDC 341.242/209415dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005895
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005896
ISBN: 978-1-138-58704-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-04799-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-50421-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
At the Queens University of Belfast, I have been fortunate to enjoy the comradeship of my long-standing border studies compadres James Anderson, Hastings Donnan, Liam ODowd, and Tom Wilson. I have also reaped the rewards of collegiality in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy, and Politics and across the university, with special gratitude to Elizabeth Meehan and to Aine Egan, Valerie Miller, Emma Derleta, Viviane Gravey, Debbie Lisle, David Phinnemore, Lee McGowan, Timofey Agarin, Peter McLoughlin, Yvonne Galligan, Richard English, Margaret OCallaghan, Brendan OLeary, John Coakley, Keith Breen, Margaret Topping, Caroline McNeill, Cillian McBride, Scott Dixon, Elodie Fabre, John Garry, Mark Phelan, Dave Robb, Des ORawe, John Morison, Brian Mercer Walker, Maria Adriana Deiana, and Milena Komorova. Special thanks to my PhD student, Darren Litter, who read and commented on a draft of this book.
In 20178, I was honoured to be a visiting fellow in the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute. Particular thanks to Brigid Laffan, Director of Centre. Bons baisers eta besarkadak to Xabier Itaina, CNRS, Sciences Po Bordeaux, my long-time research colleague and friend. Metaphorical handshakes (we may never again know the real thing) to James Scott, Ilkka Liikanen, and Jussi Laine, University of Eastern Finland, for rewarding research collaboration on EUBORDERSCAPES. Thanks also to my former PhD student Amalia Campos Delgado, Leiden University, for a delightful supervision experience and enlightening discussions on Mexico as a border zone.
Another former PhD student (and now a co-author), Jaume Castan Pinos, University of Southern Denmark (USD), continues to be tirelessly inquisitive and an ongoing torture, happily endured, long after he flew the supervisory coop. I am also grateful to his colleagues at USD, Katarzyna Stokosa, Dorte Jagetic Andersen, Steen Bo Frandsen, and Martin Klatt, for fruitful academic engagement on borders and border regions research. As always, sincere thanks to James Mitchell, University of Edinburgh, and to the staff at the National Library of Scotland.