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Contributor:

Professor Bill Kissane

Talk Title:

The Partition of Ireland in a Global Context

Talk Synopsis:

This talk explores partition in an international context and also the similarities and differences between what happened in Ireland and elsewhere, including Cyprus, India and Palestine. It suggests that most partitions are ‘provisional’ because they ‘fail to resolve conflicts’ and looks at ‘the identity shifts that occur when borders change’ and what these meant (and mean) in an Irish context. It looks at how majority rule ‘polarised rather than reconciled’ communities in Northern Ireland and the way in which Partition led to ‘consolidation and identity formation based on religion’ in the decades that followed. And it concludes by considering what the experience and effect of partition might mean for future attempts to resolve deep-seated territorial  conflicts.

Short biography:

Bill Kissane is a Reader in Politics at the London School of Economics.

Further Reading:

Literature, Partition and the Nation State – Joe Cleary
'Ethnic Conflict and the Two State Solution: the Irish Experience of Partition'. Mapping Frontiers, Plotting Pathways, Ancilliary Paper, No.3, 2004. Institute of British Studies. Queens University Belfast – John Coakley
'Shackles Across the Heart: Comparing Ireland's Partition', A Treatise on Northern Ireland Vol 1, pp.370-397 – Brendan O'Leary
Partitions and the Sisyphean Making of Peoples – Dirk Moses.
Partition in Ireland, India, and Palestine: Theory and Practice – T. G. Fraser

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