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The flexibility of Northern Ireland Unionists and Afrikaner Nationalists in comparative perspective
Author(s)
Date Issued
2010
Date Available
2010-08-17T15:23:42Z
Abstract
A common feature of comparisons of Northern Ireland and South Africa prior to
South Africa's transition and the Northern Ireland peace process was the siege
mentality of the dominant communities in the two societies. The paper examines
two attempts to analyse this in greater depth that were published before the major
changes of the 1990s: Michael McDonald's Children of Wrath and Donald Akenson's
God's Peoples. It reviews their arguments in the light of the current situation in
both Northern Ireland and South Africa. Consideration is then given to how the discourse
on the character of both communities changed in the course of the 1990s
and to the comparisons that changing circumstances gave rise to, while a striking
instance of the recent use of the older comparison of the Unionists and Afrikaner
nationalists is noted and discussed. The paper concludes by asking whether the notion
of a siege mentality still has any current applicability in these two cases
Sponsorship
Not applicable
Type of Material
Working Paper
Publisher
University College Dublin. Institute for British-Irish Studies
Series
IBIS Working Papers
99
Copyright (Published Version)
The author, 2010
Subject – LCSH
Northern Ireland--Politics and government
South Africa--Politics and government
Peace-building--Northern Ireland
Peace-building--South Africa
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
Conference Details
Paper presented at the conference 'Protestant Traditions and the Paths to Peace:
Beyond the Legacies of Plantation', Global Irish Institute, University College, Dublin,
9 June 2009
ISSN
1649-0304
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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