Communications
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9248.00168 |
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| Subject Matter | Communications |
Communications
Brendan O'Leary, `The Conservative stewardship of Northern Ireland,
1979±97: sound-bottomed contradictions or slow learning' Political Studies,
(1997), XLV, 663±76.
Brendan O'Leary asserts that during the period 1975±79 Margaret Thatcher
and her Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Airey Neave, `shifted
the Conservatives from bi-partisanship' and towards a more hardline unionist
stance. (p. 664) Since 1979, the `inconsistencies and contradictions' of Conserva-
tive policy towards Northern Ireland `mask a deeper reality, the slow develop-
ment of a more consistent and sensitive approach to the management of
Northern Ireland'. (p. 663) O'Leary coins the term `Ethno-national Policy
Learning' to account for the `painfully slow learning' process which has been
taking place during 1979±97. He claims: `Amongst British policy makers the
de®nition and understanding of the con¯ict has been transformed in the last
eighteen years.' (p. 675) The result is that by 1997 the con¯ict is now recognized
by the Conservative Government as `ethno-national, and bi-governmental, as
well as bi-national, in nature.' (p. 675) The image is of a unionist-oriented
Conservative Party which, under the right-wing leadership of Margaret
Thatcher has broken with bipartisanship between 1975±79 but then gradually
and painfully over the next 18 years learnt `what Edward Heath mostly under-
stood in 1973.' (p. 676)
This interpretation of the 1975±97 period is unconvincing on four counts.
Firstly, contrary to O'Leary, during the period 1975±79 the Conservative
Opposition did not break bipartisanship over Northern Ireland.1 Both the
Labour government and Conservative opposition took a more unionist position
during that period partly because they were trying to court the support of the
Ulster Unionist MPs in a ®nely balanced House of Commons. The clear victory
at the polls for Margaret Thatcher in 1979 saw both major parties shift away
from their previous more unionist positions.
Secondly, the similarity in Conservative policy towards Northern Ireland
between 1973 and 1979/80 ± the pursuit of power-sharing and an Irish
dimension2 ± suggests relative continuity. It did not require 18 years to learn
what was understood in 1973 because key politicians and civil servants who
developed the 1973 policy ± Willie Whitelaw, Douglas Hurd, Francis Pym,
Quintin Hogg, Lord Carrington, Robert Armstrong ± were still in in¯uential
positions in 1979/80 and constrained Thatcher's Irish policy.3
1 P. Dixon, ` ``A...
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