Dialectics of Conquest: background and context in the emergence of conflict in N. Ireland

Dr Alan Bruce

Universal Learning Systems

Belfast: 9 September 2010

Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?…

Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,Everyone else going home in thought?

Because the night has fallen and the barbarians haven’t come.And some of our men who have just returned from the border sayThere are no barbarians any longer.

Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?Those people were a kind of solution.

Waiting for the Barbarians

Constantine Cavafy

Aim and overview

Origins and causes of unrestContextsLegacies of colonialism Imperialism and the State International contextsPower, control and transformationBack to the future: rights

Where do we start?

The Northern Ireland paradiseThe occupied and oppressed nationThe troublesome isleShared invisibilities

Contours of a history

Celtic dreamscapesChristian fusion and innovation Invasion, absorption and diversityLand and dispossessionThe laboratory of colonialismFear and self-loathing

Memories, memories…

The only memory is the memory of wound Czeslow Milosz

Victims or perpetratorsDisputed pastsWhat do we know?Who are we?Who can we trust?

Contemporary Contexts

Globalization: dynamic and processUrbanized planetInstant, multimodal, pervasive

communicationsViolence and de-humanizationIncreased inequality and restricted resource

accessPost-industrialization

The peace to end all peace

Embedded conflict - the era of permanent war

Embedded inequityHopelessness and exclusionRe-birth of extremismSocio-economic transformationPotential in the margins: the Sartrean soup

The colonial imperative

ContactPenetrationFragmentationDomination

Johan Galtung

Contact

Celts and AfricansChristianizationVikingsNormansTudor re-structuring - integration into the

European game plan

Penetration

Ideologies of conformitySurrender and re-grantLanguageNorms and valuesLearned inferiority

Fragmentation

Destruction of Gaelic aristocracyThe century of warsExpropriation and expulsionPlantationFamine and lossThe emigrant trail

Domination

Integration into EmpireDivide and ruleExclusionReligion’s realmSectarianism and bigotryThe loss of history

The Twentieth Century dawns

AssimilationResistanceFostered divisionsEquity and recognitionNation or provinceThe elixir of nationalism

The colonial process

Instrument of policyConscious European processFrom discovery to destructionThe bottom line: wealth and slaveryPhases of conquest: from trade to settlementWhat about the natives?What about the settlers?

Theorists of colonialism

Bartolomé de las Casas (1484 - 1566)Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809)Aimé Cesaire (1913 - 2008)Frantz Fanon (1925 -1961)Albert Memmi (1920 - )

Impact on Ireland

The oldest colonyLaboratory of experimentUnequal treatmentDiscrimination and differenceContested governance

The Irish Question

Defining IrishnessForms of nationalismReligious overtonesForms of stateIndependence, home rule, unionPartition and unrest

The British Question

Acts of UnionForging identity - the rush to empireClass divisions - the birth of industryBastion of reactionThe myth of four nationsDecline and decay - Tom Nairn

State policy - UK

An ambiguous unionThe Orange StateNeglect and indifferenceSubsidy and supportRights and discriminationResponding to challenge

State policy - Republic of Ireland

Rhetoric and mythThe rush to modernizeClerical mindsets: abandoning social

policyNeglect and denialState or nation?Staring at the chasm

The implosion of 1969

Exposing the cracks: the civil rights agendaEconomic declineThe dynamic of demographicsUncontained expectations: education and

freedomThe heritage of sectarian divisionThe absence of politicsOppression and inequality

Collapse of the Northern State

Inability to address equality Inability to respond to demands for civil rightsStability alone not sufficientFrom Caledon to BurntolletReform of State made impossible by:

– Maintenance of Protestant hegemony

– Need to respond to grievances

Crisis in context

Post-war settlement: end or beginningThe bi-polar worldAmerican Empire: US global reachResistance and liberationThe possibilities of plenty: redistributive

alternativesA dazzling capitalism?

Lessons of resistance

US Civil Rights movementVietnamAlgeriaCubaCzechoslovakiaChile

Legacies of division

India/PakistanSri LankaCyprusSouthern Africa

Dimensions of the crisis

Embedded inequalityDenial of recognitionFacilitated sectarianismDivided peopleExternal dominationThe impossible contradictionLegacy of partition

Conclusions

Not only example: but unique aspectsThe hidden issues: economics and classSocial emancipation and the response of the StatePluralist governance in a divided society Internalized impact of external dominationStripping away illusions: power and controlRights and recognitionEuropean frameworks

Thank you

Dr Alan Bruce

ULS

abruce@ulsystems.com