Dialectics of Conquest: background and context in the emergence of conflict in Northern Ireland
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Transcript of Dialectics of Conquest: background and context in the emergence of conflict in Northern Ireland
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