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Abstract
The Irish border has historically been one of the most contested borders in Europe. In the context of the peace process and EU membership, co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has been encouraged, supported and normalised, although internal borders of segregation stubbornly remain. This paper offers a conceptualisation of borders in conflict cases and a theoretical account of how European integration can affect their transformation. Analysis of the Northern Ireland case shows there are ambiguities within integration that allow for a ‘rebordering’ of identities at the same time as the state border diminishes in significance.
Notes
1. The divided nature of the city is encapsulated in the very act of naming it, where one's subject position is assumed to be articulated in the choice to use either ‘Derry’ or ‘Londonderry’. In 2002, the city council granted equal status to the names of ‘Londonderry’ and ‘Derry’.
2. Interview with project officer, Cross Border Women's Development Project, Donegal County Council, October 2004. This interview, as with all the others referenced here, was performed as part of the research for the EUBorderConf project funded by the EU's 5th Framework Programme.
3. Quotations from interview with youth and community worker (north-east Donegal, 6 May 2004).
4. Interviews with youth and community worker (north-east Donegal, 6 May 2004; and with development officer (Derry and Raphoe Action Group, north-east Donegal, 20 May 2004).
5. Interview with Fianna Fáil TD (member of, Dáil Éireann) for Donegal North-East (Dublin, 1 July 2004).
6. Quotations from interview with youth worker (north-east Donegal, 6 May 2004) and interview with project co-ordinator (Holos Project, Derry city, 27 April 2004).
7. Interview with vice-chair of a community association in a loyalist estate (Londonderry, 5 May 2004).
8. For example, ‘Protestant youths attacked by gang in the city centre’ (Londonderry Sentinel 17 April 2002), “The incident apparently started after a crowd of youths wearing Celtic tops spotted a Rangers shirt being worn by a young shopper in the Foyleside centre”.
9. In his study of a different part of the border, Donnan Citation(2006) found that middle-class professionals, such as teachers and clerics, are the ones that tend to drive cross–border and participate in cross-community activity in the local area, which can add a class dimension to local tensions.
10. Interview with development officer (north-east Donegal, 20 May 2004).
11. Interview with youth and community worker (north-east Donegal, 6 May 2004) and an interviewee who wished to remain anonymous.
12. Quotations from interviews with a youth and community worker (north-east Donegal, 6 May 2004), a youth worker (east Donegal, 6 May 2004) and a development officer (north-east Donegal, 20 May 2004).
13. Quotation from interviewee listed in note 12.
14. Interviews with director of Community initiatives (Special EU Programmes Body, Monaghan, 14 July 2004) and development officer (North West Region Cross Border Group, Derry, 14 July 2004).
15. Quotations from interviews with development officer (ADM/CPA, Monaghan, 24 August 2004), director of Community initiatives (Special EU Programmes Body, Monaghan, 14 July 2004), community youth worker (east Donegal, 6 May 2004).
16. Interview with development officer (North West Region Cross Border Group, Derry, 14 July 2004).
17. Interview with director of Community initiatives (Special EU Programmes Body, Monaghan, 14 July 2004).
18. See note 17.
19. See note 17.
20. Interview with community youth worker (east Donegal, 6 May 2004).
21. Interview with community relations officer (Derry, 28 April 2004).
22. Extract from an interview by a member of the Protestants Interface Network (Fountain support from North Belfast, Londonderry Sentinel, 9 June 2004).
23. Quotations from Pat Ramsey, SDLP MLA (Call for end to Fountain petrol bomb attacks, Derry Journal, 1 June 2004).
24. Peter Hain, Statement by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on the restoration of devolution, 9 May 2007, House of Commons Debates, 460(col.159).
