The impact of the Scottish independence referendum on ethnoregionalist movements in the British Isles

Abstract

Following the Scottish National Party's realisation of a parliamentary majority, a referendum on Scottish independence will be held in 2014. As an example of ethnopolitical mobilisation, the outcome of this event will reasonably impact upon other regional movements in the British Isles and beyond. However, any such impact of the referendum will be largely a function of the current state of ethnopolitical mobilisation in those regions, which varies widely across the cases of Wales, Cornwall, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, the Western Islands of Scotland, and Orkney and Shetland. The constitutional issues raised by a Scottish secession will, along a different vector, stimulate discussion and nationalism in both the ‘Celtic Fringe’ and the English core of the UK. Meanwhile, the Western Isles, and in particular Orkney and Shetland, as constituent parts of Scotland, will be more directly influenced by any institutional changes.

Keywords:

• British Isles
• independence
• nationalism
• referendum
• Scotland
• secession