Cillian McGrattan | University of Ulster (original) (raw)

Books by Cillian McGrattan

This paper explores the intersections of ideas about truth recovery (specifically, in terms of de... more This paper explores the intersections of ideas about truth recovery (specifically, in terms of dealing with the past in Northern Ireland) and ethical remembering (applied to the longue durée of Irish history). I suggest that the two approaches ought to be read together, as barely analytically distinct, through the lens of a long-term backlash against the 'school' of Irish historical revisionism, which led to a radical deconstruction of nationalist myths and tropes, within and outside the academy during the 1980s and 1990s. 2 The counterrevisionist impulse involves a reappraisal of nationalist shibboleths along an eschatological tangent-shaped by and concerned with the end-times of Irish reunification, a mode of thinking that is verifiable only after the fact. The coincidence of truth recovery and ethical remembering gives way to two arguments, one broad and one more specific. Firstly, although the truth recovery model enjoys a distinguished, yet, with at best, an empirically and heuristically questionable, lineage, its promotion within elements of the Irish political classes is structurally biased in favour of nationalist ideological goals. In other words, the politics of truth recovery involve assumptions about what else, outwith 'truth', is entailed in truth recovery. When allied to an ethics of remembrance or a narrative hospitality-the tolerance for alternative 'truths'-the implications are clear enough: the model works to promote nationalist demands of transition and change while minimize unionist concerns about the direction or pace of travel. Secondly, more specifically with regard to the legacy of the Northern Irish conflict, the truth recovery model represents a condensation of Irish nationalist thought. Truth recovery, ethical remembering and the related concept of 'reconciliation', in effect, work to displace

The consociational power-sharing/power-dividing system of devolved government at Stormont is a te... more The consociational power-sharing/power-dividing system of devolved government at Stormont is a technical fix to a way of thinking about Northern Ireland-a solution to the problem of two incompatible (ethnoreligious) traditions. It's unsurprising that the resort to institutional schema remains the go-to of politicians. However, forcing public debate down pre-prepared channels and, therefore, delimiting the sites (both discursive and physical) where deliberation occurs has profound democratic implications. These implications entail an elitist neutering of debate through agenda-setting. The institutionalization of the public realm, furthermore, forecloses oversight, scrutiny and participation in politics by transferring access to information and the right to discuss to the political class.

In marked contrast to literary, historical and cultural studies, there has been a limited engagem... more In marked contrast to literary, historical and cultural studies, there has been a limited engagement with the concepts and politics of trauma by political science and peacebuilding research.

This book explores the debate on trauma and peacebuilding and presents the challenges for democratization that the politics of trauma present in transitional periods. It demonstrates how ideas about reconciliation are filtered through ideological lenses and become new ways of articulating communal and ethno-nationalist sentiments. Drawing on the work of Jacques Rancière and Iris Marion Young and with specific reference to the Northern Irish transition, it argues for a shift in focus from the representation of trauma towards its reception and calls for a more substantive approach to the study of democracy and post-conflict peacebuilding.

This text will be of interest to scholars and students of peace and conflict studies, ethnic and nationalism studies, transitional justice studies, gender studies, Irish politics, nationalism and ethnicity.

Papers by Cillian McGrattan

Northern Ireland 1968–2008, 2010

In 1921, the mostly Catholic, southern part of Ireland won independence from Britain. The resulti... more In 1921, the mostly Catholic, southern part of Ireland won independence from Britain. The resulting Republic of Ireland occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland; Northern Ireland occupies the remaining one-sixth.

This article argues that it is possible to distinguish between a narrative understanding that fra... more This article argues that it is possible to distinguish between a narrative understanding that frames the historical outbreak of the Northern Irish conflict in either structuralist or agential terms. Both of these discursive starting points are fraught with political implications: the former suggests that in the absence of (continuing) fundamental transformation(s) some of the causes of the conflict remain – and may return; the latter suggests that conflict through the proxy of History is overdetermined and that the focus on abstract narratives obscures the choices and omissions that allowed the violence to persist for so long. The article is interested less in the historical verifiability of the structuralist or agential claims than in how those problematics are reflected in the secondary literature. As such, I map two versions of the structuralist narrative – a stronger and a weaker case – and describe an alternative, agential perspective. The paper concludes with an outline of how...

The Politics of Trauma and Peace-Building, 2015

Small Wars & Insurgencies, 2021

Ireland’s ‘decade of centenaries’ means different things to different people. On the one hand, fo... more Ireland’s ‘decade of centenaries’ means different things to different people. On the one hand, for Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland and the Republic, the term refers to the period bookended by the second reading of the Home Rule Bill in May 1912, which promised a degree of self-government for the island, and the ending of the Irish Civil War in May 1923. On the other hand, for Ulster unionists, the September 1911 march against Home Rule represented a mobilization of some 70,000 people that inspired the following year’s ‘Ulster Day’ where over 500,000 men and women signed the Ulster Covenant pledging resistance to Home Rule. The establishment of a Northern Irish parliament under the premiership of James Craig in June 1921 stands at the end of the unionist decade of commemorations, representing, as it did, a definitive break with the rest of Ireland on the respective basis of a 6/26 county partition. It is partition – the establishment of new political dispensations on the island of Ireland – that is due to be marked in 2021. Therefore, this special issue of Small Wars and Insurgencies is published at an opportune moment to take stock of the transformative changes on the island in the context of both this centenary and also at a time of great geo-political uncertainty triggered by the UK’s decision in 2016 to leave the European Union. One hundred years on from partition, Ireland once again stands at the forefront of world events.

Journal of British Studies, 2020

Labour and the Politics of Disloyalty in Belfast, 1921-39, 2018

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

Political Studies Review, 2017

Coincidentally, I am writing this the day after the death was announced of Sir Anthony Jay, autho... more Coincidentally, I am writing this the day after the death was announced of Sir Anthony Jay, author with Jonathan Lynn of the BBC series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. Jay and Lynn’s comedies were extremely funny and very clever; they were also more or less explicit propaganda for public choice theory, presenting a highly sceptical view of the administrative capacity of the state that went hand in hand with the rise of New Public Management. But 35 years on, the state is still with us. If the 1980s and 1990s were characterised by the claims of some political practitioners (and some academics) that the state had little to offer, the first decade and a half of the current century have refocused attention on it. The response of (some) states to the global financial crisis of 2008 suggested that rather than being hollowed out or superseded, the state could when necessary act quickly, decisively and effectively. However, once the dust generated by the crisis began to settle, many scholars and commentators began to return to a view of the state as deeply compromised by political, institutional and economic constraints – not least by a dependence on the continued prosperity, and therefore the goodwill, of financial markets. The authors of this volume suggest that, while the contemporary state does have to work within a context of dispersed authority and depleted resources, it is premature to suggest that it cannot develop answers – and innovative answers at that – to some of the ‘wicked problems’ of our time. They argue persuasively that the key to the state’s ability to solve problems is its administrative capacity, which can be subdivided into delivery, co-ordination, regulation and analysis. Four early chapters explore each of these subdivisions in turn and are complemented by a chapter which examines the management capacity and performance of European public administrations. Three key policy areas – demographic change and its relation to welfare, sustainability, and infrastructure policy – are then considered in detail, while the third section of the book looks at five aspects of capacity and innovation beyond the single state. As you would expect from a book that forms part of the Hertie School of Governance’s ongoing Governance Programme, this is a collection of very substantial essays by distinguished (chiefly) European scholars, which will be of value both individually and as a collection to specialists in the fields of governance, public administration and public policy.

part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of ... more part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Th e use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

The Challenges of Ethno-Nationalism, 2010

This chapter examines the role that Irish nationalism played in the 30 years of inter-communal vi... more This chapter examines the role that Irish nationalism played in the 30 years of inter-communal violence that have been euphemistically named the ‘Northern Ireland troubles’ (1968–98) and, since the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998, in the decade-long attempt to find common political ground in the North. The chapter eschews a simplistic causal depiction of the ‘Northern Ireland problem’ as being one of antagonistic ideologies and modes of belonging (British versus Irish; unionists versus nationalists; Protestants versus Catholics).1 Instead, it borrows from recent theoretical insights into the importance of political actors and key decisions in constructing ethnic contention,2 and claims that the failure to reach a compromise was not solely due to unionist obduracy but that modern Irish nationalism pursued a consistently maximal policy agenda that effectively ruled out accommodation with moderate unionist tendencies.

Northern Ireland 1968–2008, 2010

The Politics of Trauma and Peace-Building, 2015

Small Wars & Insurgencies, 2021

Journal of British Studies, 2020

Labour and the Politics of Disloyalty in Belfast, 1921-39, 2018

Political Studies Review, 2017

The Challenges of Ethno-Nationalism, 2010

Northern Ireland 1968–2008, 2010

This chapter begins the process of charting how historical decisions exacerbated inter-communal r... more This chapter begins the process of charting how historical decisions exacerbated inter-communal rivalries, political polarisation and entrenchment. It explores the argument that policy choices and historical interventions had a downstream impact — certain choices carried through to constrain and shape later options; and the act of making decisions ruled out once-plausible alternatives, which became evermore remote. Which choices actually carried through? Which events, if any, set in motion the process of escalating polarisation and inexorable division? This chapter’s central claim is that once-viable alternatives to maximalism and entrenchment were discarded in 1971 and that, from that date, Northern Ireland’s political parties pursued divergent policy paths, making rapprochement increasingly unlikely.

Northern Ireland 1968–2008, 2010

This chapter examines the policy direction of the British government and the Northern Irish parti... more This chapter examines the policy direction of the British government and the Northern Irish parties between the collapse of the Sunningdale executive in May 1974 and the Anglo-Irish Agreement in November 1985. The unfolding of historical processes played a determining role in the events of these years. As previous choices continued to work themselves out, the Northern Irish parties became further entrenched within their stated policies and the British government struggled to develop any kind of initiative that would not actually worsen the communal polarisation. Yet, as in previous years, by failing to challenge the inward-focused perspective of the main Northern parties, the absence of consistent or coherent governmental initiatives had the effect of encouraging the pursuit of maximalist goals. For example, Westminster attempted to contain and demoralise the IRA by prolonging ‘secret’ talks during 1975–6. While there is some evidence to suggest that this was successful, it also encouraged republicans to believe that Britain was contemplating immediate withdrawal and heightened tensions within the unionist community which remained highly suspicious of the long-term intentions of London policy-makers.

The Northern Ireland Question, 2009

Although there are strongly divergent views on the series of events that constitute the modern No... more Although there are strongly divergent views on the series of events that constitute the modern Northern Ireland peace process, no account of modern Northern-Irish history and politics can ignore the contribution of Northern nationalism. Until now, much of the academic and journalistic work on Northern nationalism has concentrated on subtle ideological shifts. On the one hand, academics have argued that Northern and Southern political elites have widened nationalist or republican ‘discourses’ to emphasize equality issues, or to reappraise a continued British presence (Ivory, 1999; Todd, 1999; Bean, 2002; Hayward and Mitchell, 2003). A related body of work links these rhetorical shifts to broader institutional changes that have apparently given expression to new aspects of nationalist identity. This ‘institutionalist’-type approach stresses that nationalists are apparently more and more willing to participate alongside Ulster unionists in operating Northern Ireland state structures (Murray, 2003; McGovern, 2004; MacGinty, 2006).

The Northern Irish Westminster general election of 6 May 2010 witnessed a mixture of striking epi... more The Northern Irish Westminster general election of 6 May 2010 witnessed a mixture of striking episodes and more mundane continuities in Northern Ireland. Not for the first time in the history of the Northern state, these changes reflected the ethnic divide – the leaders of the two main unionist parties failed to win a seat (indeed, the First Minister and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Peter Robinson, was unseated), as did the leader of a much-vaunted unionist insurgency, while nationalist politics remained largely as-you-were. The election reinforced divisions at the communal and party political level that have been a hallmark of the 1998 settlement. As such, one of the main results of the general election was to sound a starting pistol for the race for control of the symbolically important post of First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections scheduled for 2011.

Parliamentary Affairs, 2015

This article explores recent proposals to deal with the past in Northern Ireland. Focusing, in pa... more This article explores recent proposals to deal with the past in Northern Ireland. Focusing, in particular, on the 2014 Stormont House Agreement, I argue that it is possible to begin to discern a movement within policy design to respond proactively to what I term a new politics of storytelling. This consists of an emphasis on testimony-work as a means of dealing with unresolved legacies relating to the Troubles. I suggest that that new politics lies at the centre of the proposed legislation but that it could give rise to a range of potential unintended consequences. An alternative to dealing with the past is also contained in the legislation based on historical and forensic methodologies that could act as a counterweight to those problems that I associate with the storytelling approach.