ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South

In this month’s ARINS podcast, our host Rory Montgomery is joined by Anne Devlin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the ESRI, to unpuzzle the findings from the ISIA paper she co-authored with Seamus McGuinness, Adele Bergin and Emer Smyth: 'Education across the Island of Ireland: Examining Educational Outcomes, Earnings and Intergenerational Mobility' (muse.jhu.edu/article/884143).

In this, our first episode exploring education north and south, Devlin explores how economic background impacts educational attainment and the way in which education in turn impacts the labour market north and south.

In comparing levels of educational attainment, one measure, early school leaving for example, is known to have long-term ramifications for individuals shaping their labour market outcomes as well as their overall well-being.

Other measures shaping education attainment include work status and the interaction between social background, measured by parental education and the impact on educational success or failure.

Devlin and her colleagues explore why it is that in 2005 educational attainment north and south was broadly similar but by 2014 the mean wage gap was 27 percent in favour of Ireland, approximately 25 percent of this difference can be explained by lower levels of educational attainment in Northern Ireland.

Anne Devlin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Economic Analysis Division having joined the ESRI in December 2020. Her research interests include labour economics and the economics of disability as well as a particular interest in economic inactivity in Ireland, north and south.

She completed her PhD in Economics at Queen’s University Belfast in June 2021. Her PhD research investigated the high levels of disability in Northern Ireland and whether there is a relationship with the ‘Troubles’.

This is episode 22 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.
Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

How did the Good Friday Agreement happen?

In this month's podcast host Rory Montgomery, no stranger to the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement negotiations, is joined by two former colleagues from the Department of Foreign Affairs, David Donoghue and Tim O'Connor. 

In sharing their recollections of the negotiations culminating in the signing of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement twenty-five years ago this week, Rory's guests reflect on the foundation, formulation and implementation of the Agreement. In so doing we glean an invaluable insight into the challenges faced by civil servants, and their capacity and creativity in drafting and delivering the Agreement and the process. 

David Donoghue was part of the Anglo Irish division at the Department of Foreign Affairs,  joint secretary of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental conference and author of "One Good Day” (Gill Press) his account of the Good Friday talks. David was at different times, Ireland’s ambassador to Russia, Austria and Germany and from 2013-2017, Ireland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and instrumental in the creation of the Strategic Development Goals. 

Tim O’Connor is a former official of the Department of Foreign Affairs, having served 28 years from 1979-2007 and was part of the Anglo-Irish team, inaugural Joint Secretary of the North/South Ministerial Council in Armagh from 1999-2005; Consul General of Ireland in New York from 2005-2007 and Secretary General to President McAleese from 2007-2010, and instrumental in getting the North South institutions launched in December 1999. He is currently part of the Irish government’s independent reporting commission on paramilitaries.  

This is episode 21 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

In this month’s ARINS podcast Rory Montgomery speaks to Professor Pat Brereton from DCU’s School of Communication and Des O’Rawe from the School of Arts, English and Languages and the Mitchell Institute at QUB about the trouble with filming the Troubles and Northern Ireland.

Drawing on Professor Brereton’s article on Troubles and Northern Ireland: Representations in Film of Belfast as a Site of Conflict and Dr. O’Rawe’s response addressing the smoke and mirrors approach to filming conflict. Brereton's 'Teases out the Allusions' takes our understanding further.

Together Brereton and O’Rawe interrogate the ways in which we view and represent ourselves and each other in film. The discussion explores how three films, Belfast, 71, and Odd Man Out, exhibit the way in which film plays with innocence, representation, fractional identity, conflict, cliché, and nostalgia. By examining the way film can adopt and adapt historical narratives and often reimagine history, we can determine not only the ways in which cinema is propaganda but also the ways in which we process and understand conflict.

Prof Brereton’s article on Troubles and Northern Ireland: Representations in Film of Belfast as a Site of Conflict: muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/article/856565

Dr O'Rawe's response, Smoke and Mirrors: muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/article/859216

Prof Brereton's reply, Teasing out Allusions: muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/article/859217

This is episode 20 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

In this month’s podcast host Rory Montgomery explores the inspiration, creation, and collaboration behind the 2022 ARINS/Irish Times survey with John Garry, Professor of Political Behaviour at Queens University Belfast, and Brendan O’Leary Lauder Professor of Political Science at University of Pennsylvania. Together the authors of the survey discuss their division of labour, the importance of collaborative support from colleagues in ARINS and how marrying qualitative focus group findings with quantitative face-to-face polling research methods delivers the detailed insights into what matters most to us North and South when we consider our collective futures in a shared Ireland.  

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The  Irish Times articles explaining the survey and the results can be found: arinsproject.com or on www.irishtimes.com/politics/2022/12/03/taking-the-pulse-of-ireland-north-and-south/

This is episode 19 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

In this month’s ARINS podcast, host Rory Montgomery is joined by Róisín Costello, Assistant Professor in Law at DCU and author of, 'To be British, Irish, or Both: Understanding Language Rights as a Tool for Reconciliation in Northern Ireland' and Brian Ó’Conchubhair, Associate Professor of Irish Language and Literature at University of Notre Dame, author of the 'Politics of language in a (dis)United Ireland'. Together they explore the history of Irish language policy and navigate the modern and every-day language challenges of symbols, rights, politics and policies surrounding the use, the visibility and the protection of Irish and Ullan on our shared island.

Brian Ó’Conchubhair's article 'Politics of Language in a (Dis)United Ireland' can be read here muse.jhu.edu/article/846817

Róisín Costello's article ‘To Be British, Irish, or Both’:

This is episode 18 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

In this month’s podcast host Rory Montgomery discusses John FitzGerald’s article, one island two labour markets with the author, and respondent and Nevin Economic Research Institute's Tom McDonnell, investigating how divergent paths taken by Ireland and the United Kingdom have shaped two distinct labour markets north and south connected through Britain.

Historically few people loved north to south, with one exception, L/Derry men marrying Donegal women, whereas great numbers moved to Britain from both jurisdictions. Today the picture is different. After a century of emigration the Republic of Ireland is experiencing the return of educated homing pigeons returning to Ireland to raise families with educated professional partners from elsewhere in tow. In Northern Ireland large numbers of graduates leave, but the returnees are not yet in evidence. To entice returning graduates, Ireland north and south must direct their respective electorates to support a great investment in education, and the environment for the next generation.

John FitzGerald, MRIA, is the former Head of the Macroeconomics and Resource Economics Division at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI.)

Tom McDonnell is co-director of the Nevin Economic Research Institute and is based in the Dublin office.

This is episode 17 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

In this month’s podcast, Mike Tomlinson and Seamus McGuinness explore Social Security provision models in a United Ireland with host Rory Montgomery. Tomlinson outlines the differences and similarities in tax systems, public expenditure, pension provision, poverty and welfare rates, child benefit, and long-term sickness and disability benefits in Ireland north and south. Going beyond comparison, the discussion examines the impact of the experience of conflict in Northern Ireland on the health of the population, on social welfare provision, and long-term sickness and disability benefits. Tomlinson deftly accounts for British Treasury decisions and anticipates the power of precedent in pension provision in a United Ireland.

You can read Mike Tomlinson's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, doi.org/10.1353/isia.2022.0011

This is episode 16 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

The ARINS podcast theme this month considers the benefits of cross-border cooperation in the arts.

Drawing on a report commissioned by ARINS, produced by the Audience Agency and co-funded by Department of Foreign Affairs, the lead author of the report Dr. Steven Hadley, Research Fellow Trinity College Dublin, and Darren Ferguson, CEO of Belfast based organization, Beyond Skin that harnesses the arts as a mechanism for dialogue to develop a society free from racism and sectarianism, join our host Rory Montgomery to discuss the future of cross-border cooperation in the arts. 

This is episode 15 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

The discussion explores demographic, electoral, and political changes, slowly and steadily shaping Northern Ireland. Should these slow, steady changes accelerate referenda on the future of Northern Ireland? 

In this month’s episode, host Rory Montgomery and Brendan O’Leary, Lauder Professor of Political Science, at the University of Pennsylvania, discuss Brendan’s latest book Making Sense of a United Ireland, Should it Happen, How Might it Happen? published today. 

O’Leary counsels against premature calls for referenda arguing that it would be inappropriate to hold a referendum in Northern Ireland where there is not sufficient evidence that a majority in Northern Ireland would be likely to vote for a united Ireland. Referenda should not be called until such point that it is clear that there has been a shift in opinion.  

O'Leary calls for timely preparation and detailed deliberation by the Irish government in the event of successful referendums north and south. He advocates for a series of processes including a standing constitutional all party forum and for systematic evaluation of difficult questions by way of deliberative forums on small dimensions of the momentous questions of Irish reunification.  To avoid being unprepared in advance of a British government decision to initiate a referendum at any time O'Leary champions the case for the Irish government to create a ministry for unification. A ministry would support efforts seeking to shape arrangements and create models and mechanisms to better determine how a united Ireland might successfully operate. 

O’Leary makes sense of it all from government ministries to ideological mindsets.

This is episode 14 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

What happens when you merge two distinct legal, administrative and judicial systems with legacy concerns? The reunification of Germany is arguably the closest and most recent example of the systemic complexities faced should referenda on both sides of the Irish border allow for the processes of Irish unification to begin. In this ARINS podcast Tobias Lock and Aoife O’Donoghue discuss the lessons learned from German Unification and how we might best apply them.

You can read the article by Tobias Lock, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at doi.org/10.1353/isia.2022.0010.

Tobias Lock, is Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law School of Law and Criminology Maynooth University.

This is episode 13 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.