The Conservative Stewardship of Northern Ireland, 1979–97: Sound-Bottomed Contradictions or Slow Learning?
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9248.00103 |
| Date | 01 September 1997 |
| Published date | 01 September 1997 |
| Author | Brendan O'Leary |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The Conservative Stewardship of Northern
Ireland, 1979± 97: Sound-bottomed
Contradictions or Slow Learning?
BRENDAN O'LEARY1
London School of Economics and Political Science
Oscar Wilde thought it took a heart of stone not to laugh at the demise of the
heroine of one of Dickens' sentimental novels. The same idea arises when asked
to re¯ect upon eighteen years of Conservative government on the politics of
Northern Ireland.2Solemnity is called for, but the oddities of these years mean
that horselaughs are tempting.3Remarkable inconsistencies or contradictions,
as Marxists say, have characterized the Northern Irish policy making and
implementation of the four Conservative governments since 1979, and provide
the food for the occasionally ribald analysis which follows. But, it will be
maintained, these inconsistencies and contradictions mask a deeper reality, the
slow development of a more consistent and sensitive approach to the manage-
ment of Northern Ireland ± and for these reasons mockery must be suitably
restrained.
The Inconsistencies or Contradictions
Consider in succession ®ve related and partially overlapping contradictions in
the Conservative stewardship: (i) the integrationist-devolutionist contradiction;
(ii) the sovereignist-intergovernmentalist contradiction; (iii) the cherished but
#Political Studies Association 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 CowleyRoad, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main
Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
1The author thanks Amanda Francis for help and absolves her of responsibility.
2Spatial constraints prevent concessions to those unfamiliar with Northern Ireland. The
necessary materials are in the following books and surveys: Kevin Boyle and Tom Hadden,
Northern Ireland: a Positive Proposal (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1984); Kevin Boyle and Tom
Hadden, Northern Ireland: the Choice (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1995); John McGarry and
Brendan O'Leary, Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images (Oxford, Cambridge, MA, Basil
Blackwell, 1995); John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary (eds), The Future of Northern Ireland
(Oxford, Clarendon, 1990); Brendan O'Learyand John McGarry (eds), `A state of truce: Northern
Ireland after twenty ®veyears of war', Ethnic and Racial Studies 18 (1995), 4; Brendan O'Leary and
John McGarry, The Politics of Antagonism: Understanding Northern Ireland (London and Atlantic
Heights NJ, Athlone, 2nd ed., 1996); Joseph Ruane and Jennifer Todd, The Dynamics of Con¯ict in
Northern Ireland: Power, Con¯ict and Emancipation (Cambridge, University of Cambridge Press,
1996); and John Whyte, Interpreting Northern Ireland (Oxford, Clarendon, 1990).
3For detailed treatments of these years see Paul Bewand Henry Patterson, The British State and
the Ulster Crisis (London, Verso, 1985); Peter Catterall and Sean McDougall (eds), The Northern
Ireland Question in British Politics (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1996); Michael Cunningham, British
Government Policy in Northern Ireland 1969±89 (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1991);
Brendan O'Duy, Violent Politics: a Theoretical and Empirical Examination of Two Centuries of
Political Violence in Ireland (PhD dissertation, London School of Economics, 1996); and McGarry
and O'Leary, The Politics of Antagonism.
Political Studies (1997), XLV, 663±676
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