Publications
Britain's European Question: The Issues for Ireland
The Irish Question that played so important a part in nineteenth century British history (causing, directly or indirectly, the fall of eleven ministries in the 100 years after the Act of Union) has been succeeded at the end of the twentieth by Britain’s European Question. The issues arising now are no less important for Ireland’s economic and political well-being. They also clearly discomfit the existing Conservative government, and may well continue to create difficulties for future administrations until the questions about the future of Britain, externally and internally, are resolved.
The Institute of International and European Affairs project on which this book is based was conceived in the aftermath of the 1992-1993 Irish currency crisis. The debate continued after devaluation of the Irish pound and broadened to include a wider set of issues concerning Ireland’s relations with Britain in the European Union, most notably Britain’s own position with respect to the Union after the end of the Cold War. In which direction would its economic, political and strategic interests drive it? How would these interests impact on the intensive negotiations designed to find a settlement in Northern Ireland and explicitly designed to bring Northern Ireland and the Republic, Britain and Ireland closer together politically and economically? How should one understand Britain’s own intensive debate about its national identity and its proper role in Europe, that amounts, it is argued here, to an identity crisis?
The IIEA project, which was led by Paul Gillespie and chaired by Garret FitzGerald, involved four seminars, numerous specialist contributors and hundreds of participants – a companion volume to this work contains twenty of the papers presented. The authors are drawn from the project’s steering group and come from academia, business, public affairs and the media.
This work, appearing during Ireland’s Presidency of the EU and chairmanship of the 1996 inter-governmental conference, addresses these questions. A major conclusion is that the interdependence of Ireland and Britain, which has replaced Ireland’s former dependence upon its larger neighbour, needs to be nourished and sustained in a manner that respects the independent interests of both. Only in this way will the twin objectives of Irish policy be attained – peace on the island of Ireland and prosperity within Europe. This challenging and sustained analysis deserves the attention of the policy-making community and media of both islands and of the other EU member states.
Price: € 19 (Hard copy)