Comments on: The Europeanization of Party Politics in Ireland, Book Launch – Has the EU Encouraged Reconciliatory Politics?

By: st etienne

st etienne — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:52:09 +0000

“I don’t know if the Irish have yet been Europeanized in this broad sense, and nor have the English.”

As we in the British Isles know too well, water makes natural integration in the manner you describe difficult. Not insurmountable but difficult all the same.

Another point regarding being ‘in it’ for the grants – a big problem is with the EU self-branding: 99% of the time I see the EU flag in Northern Ireland it’s inevitably above an ‘EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation’. There’s a distinct implicit mistrust of a lot of what that money is spent on.

By: Bobballs! | The Europeanization of Party Politics in Ireland, Book Launch – Has the EU Encouraged Reconciliatory Politics? « Gladys Ganiel

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:05:27 +0000

[...] ‘The EU is a model of effective conflict resolution in the aftermath of centuries of devastating war, and could be an inspiration for Northern Ireland,’ says MEP Jim Nicholson (h/t Gladys Ganiel). [...]

By: Tim Moore

Tim Moore — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:12:25 +0000

After reading the above post and Gerard’s comment, I wonder how the differing predominant attitudes between the Republic or Ireland and Great Britain towards the EU have influenced Northern Irish perceptions.

I wonder how the SDLP’s links with the British Labour party in particular influenced John Hume’s European politics. Likewise with Jim Nicholson MEP and the changing role of the British Conservatives in Europe.

By: Gerard Barnes

Gerard Barnes — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:24:59 +0000

There have been notable ‘strong EU-ropeans’ like John Hume and Garret FitzGerald, but I’d say the majority of citizens in Northern Ireland and the Republic see us ‘in it’ for the grants. If membership of the EU has made us all more European I’d like to see field research and other kinds of data on foreign language learning; participation in Erasmus educational schemes; business trips to EU countries; business partnerships between Irish and continental enterprises; transnational weddings; active (rather than symbolical) town twinning partnerships; and cultural collaboration and exchanges across seas and borders between artists, performance arts groups and writers. Europeanization for me would entail a transnational consciousness of shared continental values going back to Greek and Roman times, and embracing those European countries not yet members of the EU, such as Russia. I don’t know if the Irish have yet been Europeanized in this broad sense, and nor have the English.