Contributor:

Professor Richard English

Talk Title:

The IRA and the Partition of Ireland

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores the ‘substantial and complex politics that lay behind the IRA’s violence’. It focusses on the views and outlook of Ernie O’Malley and Peadar O’Donnell and suggests that there was a paradox inherent in their politics inasmuch as what was ‘alluring to the followers of Irish republicanism’ was ‘off-putting and repellent to those of a unionist tradition’. It also looks at the politics of the Provisional IRA and suggests that violence (from whatever source) had the effect of deepening polarisation and division ‘on this island and these islands more broadly’. And it concludes by making a case for ‘historical and contemporary empathy’ and the benefits of a ‘patient and listening approach’ to the concerns and experiences of others.

Short Biography:

Richard English is Professor of Politics at Queen's University Belfast. His books include the award-winning studies Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA and Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Further Reading:

Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA – Richard English