‘In Northern Ireland, we should have had institutions that respected the differences of the people and that gave no victory to either side’.
Interview of Nobel Prize for Peace, John Hume (1998).
Abstract
the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, appeared to have put an end to the political violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. However, although violence has been reduced after the Good Friday Agreement, the conflict between the two groups, which has deep historical roots, is more likely to be considered a continuous problem on the island. In the Brexit climate where the contested rhetoric of ‘sovereignty’ is salient, the integrationist process of the GFA may reverse into re-segregation and ancient enmities between denominational groups. Therefore, using both psychological and historical analyses, this article discusses how Brexit affects national identity dynamics in post-conflict Northern Ireland from a political psychological perspective.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
John Garry, The EU referendum Vote in Northern Ireland: Implications for our understanding of citizens’ political views and behaviour, Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series (2016–2017), Queens University Belfast, https://www.qub.ac.uk/brexit/Brexitfilestore/Filetoupload,728121,en.pdf.
Northern Ireland Young Life and Times https://www.ark.ac.uk/ylt/quests/accessed 9 October 2019.
References
Amiot, Catherine E., Roxane De la Sablonniere, Deborah J. Terry, and Joanne R. Smith. 2007. Integration of social identities in the self: Toward a cognitive-developmental model. Personality and Social Psychology Review 11 (4): 364–388.
Bloomfield, David. 1997. Peacemaking strategies in Northern Ireland: Building complementarity in conflict management theory. Berlin: Springer.
Brewer, Marilynn B. 1999. The psychology of prejudice: Ingroup love and outgroup hate? Journal of social issues 55 (3): 429–444.
Brown, Kris, and Roger MacGinty. 2003. Public attitudes toward partisan and neutral symbols in post-agreement Northern Ireland. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 10 (1): 83–108.
Cairns, Ed, and John Darby. 1998. The conflict in Northern Ireland: Causes, consequences, and controls. American psychologist 53 (7): 754.
Çoymak, Ahmet, and O’Dwyer Emma. Forthcoming. The future of the peace in Northern Ireland: The multifaceted nature of Good Friday Agreement and Brexit.
Çoymak, Ahmet. 2015. The dynamics of citizenship, multiple identities and intergroup trust amongst young people in Northern Ireland. PhD diss., Queen’s University Belfast.
Darby, John. 1998. Approaches to cultural diversity in Northern Ireland. In Cultural traditions in Northern Ireland, ed. Maurna Crozier and Richard Froggatt, 3–12. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies.
Deaux, Kay. 1991. Social identities: Thoughts on structure and change. The Relational Self: Theoretical Convergences in Psychoanalysis and Social Psychology 77: 93.
Hume, John. 1998. Nobel lecture. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Tue. 12 Nov 2019. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1998/hume/lecture/.
Ferguson, Neil, and Michael Gordon. 2007. Intragroup variability among Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants. The Journal of Social Psychology 147 (3): 317–319.
Gormley-Heenan, Cathy, and Arthur Aughey. 2017. Northern Ireland and Brexit: Three effects on ‘the border in the mind’. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 19 (3): 497–511.
Gough, Brendan, Stephen Robinson, John Kremer, and Rex Mitchell. 1992. The social psychology of intergroup conflict: An appraisal of Northern Ireland research. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne 33 (3): 645.
Heatley, Fred. 1983. Community Relations and the Religious Demography 1800–86. In Belfast: The making of the city 1800–1914, ed. J.C. Beckett et al., 129–134. Belfast: Appletree Press.
Hennessey, Thomas. 1997. A history of Northern Ireland, 1920–1996. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Leach, Colin Wayne, and Wendy R. Williams. 1999. Group identity and conflicting expectations of the future in Northern Ireland. Political Psychology 20 (4): 875–896.
McNicholl, Kevin, Clifford Stevenson, and John Garry. 2018. How the “Northern Irish” national identity is understood and used by young people and politicians. Political Psychology 40(3): 487–505.
O’Connell, James. 1989. Faith and conflict: Religion and politics in Northern Ireland. Bradford: School of Peace Studies, University of Bradford.
O’Leary, Brendan and John McGarry. 1993. The politics of Antagonism: Understanding Northern Ireland. Auditing the antagonism 8–44.
Peroff, Kathleen, and Christopher Hewitt. 1980. Rioting in Northern Ireland: The effects of different policies. Journal of Conflict Resolution 24 (40): 593–612.
Ruane, Joseph, and Jennifer Todd. 1996. The dynamics of conflict in Northern Ireland: Power, conflict and emancipation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shirlow, Peter, and Brendan Murtagh. 2006. Belfast: Segregation, violence and the city. London: Pluto Press.
Soares, Anthony. 2016. Living within and outside unions: The consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland. Journal of Contemporary European Research 12(4).
Stevenson, Jonathan. 2017. Does Brexit threaten peace in Northern Ireland? Survival 59 (3): 111–128.
Tajfel, Henri, and John C. Turner. 1986. The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. Psychology of intergroup relations 5: 7–24.
Terchek, Ronald J. 1977. Conflict and cleavage in Northern Ireland. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 433 (1): 47–59.
Trew, Karen. 1994. What it means to be Irish seen from a Northern perspective. The Irish Journal of Psychology 15 (2–3): 288–299.
Trew, Karen. 2004. Children and socio-cultural divisions in Northern Ireland. Journal of Social Issues 60 (3): 507–522.
Walker, Brian M. 2007. “Ancient Enmities” and modern conflict: History and politics in Northern Ireland. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 13 (1): 103–128.
Whyte, John. 1991. Interpreting Northern Ireland. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Çoymak, A., O’Dwyer, E. Does Brexit Mean a Return to Sectarianism? Beyond ‘the Border Issue’, the Future of Social Identities in Northern Ireland from a Political Psychological Perspective. Development 63, 74–78 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-019-00233-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-019-00233-0