Austerity and consociational government in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This article examines the institutional crisis of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2015 as a case study on the impact of austerity on multiculturalism in Ireland. I make a case for viewing the Assembly as a multicultural institution through pointing to the historical role of community relations policy, which was directed at reconciling “sectarian” Irish nationalists and Ulster unionists. It did so through shifting from an understanding of the conflict as one based on the struggle for Irish national self-determination to one based on conflicting identities. I argue that Sinn Féin’s embracing of multiculturalism is a product of its accommodation to British rule in Ireland. Sinn Féin has made a virtue out of its political volte-face by becoming the strongest advocate of ethnic Irish nationalism in Northern Ireland. The ethnic power politics of Sinn Féin has found its unionist equivalent in the political manoeuvrings of the Democratic Unionist Party. Austerity measures imposed by the Westminster government have created problems for the parties in the power-sharing Assembly, problems that threaten the collapse of the Assembly. It is because of, rather than in spite of, the multicultural mechanisms embedded in the Assembly that the institution has got to crisis point. This is an institutional crisis, not a crisis of multiculturalism.

Keywords:

• multiculturalism
• consociationalism
• Northern Ireland
• austerity
• institutional crisis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The official title is UK Government and Government of the Republic of Ireland, “The Agreement: Agreement Reached in the Multi-party Negotiations.” The Agreement, however, is more commonly referred to as the Good Friday Agreement (usually by Irish nationalists), the Belfast Agreement (usually by Ulster unionists) or the British–Irish Agreement. See O’Leary, “Nature of the British–Irish Agreement”; Wilford and Wilson, Trouble with Northern Ireland.

2. McAleese, “Foreword,” vii.

3. On the crisis of the Agreement see Gilligan and Tonge, “Northern Ireland.”

4. BBC News, “McGuinness Confirms Chuckle Image,” BBC News Online, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7083818.stm (accessed September 25, 2015).

5. Gilligan, “Northern Ireland Ten Years after the Agreement,” 16.

6. Lentin and Titley, “Crisis of ‘Multiculturalism’ in Europe,” 124.

7. Hall, “Conclusion.”

8. Kymlicka, “Rise and Fall of Multiculturalism?,” 101.

9. Pitcher, Politics of Multiculturalism, 3.

10. Ibid.

11. Fanning, Racism and Social Change; Kuhling and Keohane, Cosmopolitan Ireland; Lentin, “Anti-racist Responses.”

12. White, “Law, Policing and the Criminal Justice System,” 70.

13. Connolly, “Race” and Racism in Northern Ireland, 7.

14. Ibid., 5.

15. Ibid., 5–6.

16. Frazer and Fitzduff, Improving Community Relations, 17.

17. Dickey, “Anti-incitement Legislation in Britain and Northern Ireland.”

18. McVeigh, “Is Sectarianism Racism?,” 179.

19. Dickey, “Anti-incitement Legislation in Britain and Northern Ireland.”

20. Spencer, British Immigration Policy since 1939; Lentin, “Anti-racist Responses to the Racialisation of Irishness.”

21. Edna Longley, one of the two essayists in the collection for which McAleese provided the Foreword, was a significant figure in these discussions. See Longley, “Multi-culturalism and Northern Ireland.”

22. See Lyons, Culture and Anarchy in Ireland; Boyce, “Revisionism and the Northern Ireland Troubles”; Ryan, War and Peace in Ireland, 98–117.

23. Gilligan, “Community Responses to Disaster”; Ó Dochartaigh, From Civil Rights to Armalites.

24. For more details see the account by the original Chairman of the CRC in Hayes, Community Relations.

25. Throughout this article I use the term IRA to refer to the Provisional IRA. For more detailed histories of the Provisional IRA (and the Official IRA) see Bell, Secret Army; Moloney, Secret History of the IRA; Mckearney, Provisional IRA.

26. IRA actions that local communities viewed as defensive were generally supported by the Catholic population. There was, however, less support for “offensive” military actions such as the bombing of commercial premises or other non-combatant targets. See Sluka, Hearts and Minds.

27. For useful accounts of the role of the SDLP in the politics of Northern Ireland see Murray and Tonge, Sinn Féin and the SDLP; Murray, John Hume and the SDLP.

28. Griffiths, Community Development in Northern Ireland; Rolston, “Community Politics”; Connolly and Keenan, Racial Attitudes and Prejudice in Northern Ireland.

29. Cunningham, British Government Policy in Northern Ireland, 39.

30. New Ireland Forum, Report.

31. FitzGerald, All in a Life, 462–72.

32. Gilligan, “Irish Question and the Concept ‘Identity,’” 614.

33. Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom, Anglo-Irish Agreement, 1985.

34. Ibid., Article 5, clause (a).

35. Osborne, “‘Evidence’ and Equality in Northern Ireland”; Todd and Ruane, “Beyond Inequality?”

36. Knox and Hughes, “Local Government and Community Relations”; Gallagher, “Approach of Government”; NicCraith, Culture and Identity Politics in Northern Ireland.

37. A more detailed outline of this policy area, by some of its key advocates, can be found in Cultural Traditions Group, Varieties of Irishness; Cultural Traditions Group, Varieties of Britishness; Fitzduff, Approaches to Community Relations Work.

38. A detailed account of political vetting, by community activists involved in opposing it, can be found in O’hAdhmaill and Watt, Political Vetting of Community Work in Northern Ireland.

39. Bean, New Politics of Sinn Féin, 16–90.

40. The correspondence between Sinn Féin and the SDLP on self-determination, unionism and the nature of British rule can be found in Sinn Féin, “Sinn Féin/SDLP Talks.”

41. Gilligan, “Peace or Pacification Process?”; Bean, New Politics of Sinn Féin; Ryan, “From the Centre to the Margins.”

42. This TUAS Document is reproduced in the Appendices of Moloney, Secret History of the IRA, 498–501.

43. Bean, New Politics of Sinn Féin; Ryan, “From the Centre to the Margins.”

44. Taylor et al., Consociational Theory; O’Leary, “Nature of the British–Irish Agreement.”

45. O'Leary, “Nature of the British-Irish Agreement”; Gilligan, “Northern Ireland Ten Years after the Agreement.”

46. Taylor, “Belfast Agreement and the Limits of Consociationalism”; Wilford and Wilson, Trouble with Northern Ireland.

47. McGarry and O’Leary, Explaining Northern Ireland, 135.

48. Mitchell, Evans, and O’Leary, “Extremist Outbidding in Ethnic Party Systems.”

49. Mac Ginty and Darby, Guns and Government; Tonge, “Victims of their Own Success?”

50. Rabushka and Shepsle, Politics in Plural Societies, 86, cited in Mitchell, Evans, and O’Leary, “Extremist Outbidding in Ethnic Party Systems,” 399.

51. Ibid., 403.

52. Gormley-Heenan and Macginty, “Ethnic Outbidding and Party Modernization.”

53. BBC News, “NI Talks Issues Explained: Flags, Parades, the Past and Welfare Reform,” December 12, 2014, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25429676 (accessed September 25, 2015).

54. BBC News, “NI Talks: Broad Agreement is Brokered on Some Key Issues,” December 23, 2014, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-30589804 (accessed September 25, 2015).

55. Dunne, “Sinn Féin Manifesto.”

56. McDonnell, “SDLP Right.”

57. BBC News, “Sinn Féin Blocks Welfare Bill in Northern Ireland Assembly,” March 9, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-31798766 (accessed September 25, 2015).

58. BBC News, “Northern Ireland Welfare Reform Bill Fails to Pass,” May 27, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-32894371 (accessed September 25, 2015).

59. BBC News, “NI ‘Fantasy Budget’ Passes Second Stage at Stormont,” June 24, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-politics-33255304 (accessed September 25, 2015).

60. BBC News, “Timeline: Northern Ireland Political Crisis over Provisional IRA,” August 28, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-34083430 (accessed September 25, 2015).

61. BBC News, “UUP Decides to Withdraw from Northern Ireland Executive,” August 29, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-34093058 (accessed September 25, 2015).