Ireland and Scotland: Colonial Legacies and National Identities || Contested Rights and Relationships

Contested Rights and RelationshipsRituals and Riots: Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster, 1784-1886 by Sean Farrell;The Crowned Harp: Policing Northern Ireland by Graham Ellison; Jim Smyth; The Politics ofForce: Conflict Management and State Violence in Northern Ireland by Fionnuala Ni Aolain;Special Relationships: Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland Problem by Paul ArthurReview by: Feargal CochraneThe Irish Review (1986-), No. 28, Ireland and Scotland: Colonial Legacies and National Identities(Winter, 2001), pp. 191-197Published by: Cork University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29736063 .

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growth of a bureaucracy in response to an ideological demand. That demand is not

so much 'national' these days as increasingly regional or local; every place must be

different and have its unique and specific character. And where character is missing

it must damn well be invented! The ideological drive of this is quite clear: it is to

construct differences in such a way as they are contained in the sameness of trans?

national economies, giving us the illusion (and it is an illusion) that there are

differently located 'cultures'.The truth is, surely, that we all, without any exceptions,

live in the mesh of many cultural connections, layers and networks, nearly all of

which are held in common across the modern world. The more we are made cor?

porate the more we seek to evade it. Heritage, it becomes clear, is deeply implicated

in the managerial attempt to fit us into a new world.

This idea surfaces here and there amongst the contributions. Donncha Kavanagh,

writing on 'Management's Heritage', gives us a fine short course in the critical his?

tory of management. He links the blurring of the private and the public economic

sectors (typical of recent years) with the way in which managerial methods have col?

onized what was hitherto thought to be unmanageable -

'culture', the arts, history

and the past. We are now afflicted with reality of the 'cultural managers'. What, he

asks, should be the values of this new social formation? They are

evidently responsi?

ble for more than preservation; analysis and interpretation are embedded in the very

principle of management, and it would be well to make this explicit rather than

allow unspoken assumptions and given meanings to percolate through. As Pat Cooke

writes in his piece on 'The Principles of Interpretation','Increasingly, we are

having

to reckon with the fact that in our contemporary world all values are open to con?

testation. The most effective way to deal with these relativities is to change the

emphasis in interpretation from revelation to exploration' (p. 378).

My conclusion has to be that this book in its very diverse contents provides a

comprehensive survey of matters which everyone concerned with our conjoined,

social relation to the past will need to consider, but that taken as a whole it demon?

strates and embodies the problems of categorization and critical method with

which it has failed to deal.

DAVID BRETT

Contested Rights and Relationships Sean Farrell, Rituals and Riots: Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster, 1784-1886. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000. ISBN 0-8131-2171

X. Stg. ?29.50.

Graham Ellison and Jim Smyth, The Crowned Harp: Policing Northern Ireland. Lon?

don: Pluto Press, 2000. ISBN 0-74531393-0. Stg. ?45.00 hbk; Stg. ?14.99 pbk.

Fionnuala Ni Aolain, Hie Politics of Force: Conflict Management and State Violence in

Northern Ireland. Belfast: BlackstafTPress, 2000. ISBN 0-85640-688-6. Stg. ?14.99 pbk.

COCHRANE, 'Contested Rights and Relationships', Irish Review 28 (2001) 191



Paul Arthur, Special Relationships: Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland Problem.

Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000. ISBN 0-85640-688-0. Stg. ?16.99 pbk.

In one way or another, these four publications deal with various aspects of commu?

nity conflict and official responses to that conflict in the North of Ireland over the

last 200 years.

In Rituals and Riots, Farrell sets out to examine the ritualized nature of commu?

nity sectarianism in Ulster during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

While the focus of the book is on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when

reading it, one is constantly reminded of the modern parallels addressed by the

other volumes in this review. The incident at Dolly's Brae in 1849 (to take one of

numerous examples) bears a striking similarity to the type of community conflict

that continues to divide Northern Ireland today:

In marching to Lord Roden's estate at Tollymore Park, the Orange

processionists had their choice of two routes: an old road leading directly

through Dolly's Brae and a new, more circuitous path. ... In the wake of

the Twelfth celebration in 1848, local Catholics taunted their Orange foes,

circulating a song that condemned the processionists for their cowardice in

taking the new road. Faced with such insults, local Orange lodges decided

to march directly through the disputed area in 1849. As one magistrate put

it, 'I think it was a point of honour with the Orangemen to go through the

Brae', (p. 2)

The impression created while reading this book is that neither the motivations of

the protagonists, nor the violent outcomes generated by the intercommunal conflict,

have changed substantially over the last 200 years.Throughout

a narrative that focus?

es primarily on

Orange and Catholic sectarian interaction during the nineteenth

century, Farrell illustrates that the dynamics of the quarrel revolved around the strug?

gle for identity, power and control within Ulster. At its most basic, Protestants wanted

to maintain their ascendant position while Catholics wanted to overthrow it and

achieve some level of equal citizenship within the region. 'When either group per?

ceived that changes might occur in local, regional,

or national power relations, they

responded by taking to the streets, asserting their strength in ritual-laden public

demonstrations' (p. 7). In addition to an examination of the causes and triggers of

sectarian violence during the period, Farrell looks at the connection between

national political developments and localized sectarian tension, the competing claims

of ethnic and class alliances within the Protestant and Catholic communities and the

effects of urbanization and industrialization on the structure of party violence.

While Rituals and Riots is generally well researched, is written in an accessible

style and contains some interesting vignettes of the period, one is left wondering

just what it tells us that is new? Yes, partisan festivals such as the Twelfth of July and

St Patrick's Day were displays of antagonistic identities and a show of strength. Yes,

such marches 'served to lay ritual claim to contested territory' (p. 105). And yes,

such exhibitions of communal identity were more controversial (and more violent)

during periods of political crisis such as in the 1790s and 1860s. True . . . but these

192 COCHRANE, 'Contested Rights and Relationships', Irish Review 28 (2001)



are hardly new observations. Rituals and Riots is certainly a worthwhile read. How?

ever, the narrative is more likely to put flesh on the bones of what you already

know, rather than tell you something you didn't.

The same could not be said for Graham Ellison and Jim Smyth's The Crowned

Harp: Policing Northern Ireland. As one would expect from a book coming from the

Pluto Press stable, this presents a radical (at times excoriating) critique of policing in

Northern Ireland. Far from pulling its punches, The Crowned Harp lands several hard

blows on the RUC and its predecessors; 'partner' organizations such as the Special

Branch; the UDR/RIR; and British government policies within the wider criminal

justice system. While this makes a refreshing change from some of the rather anaemic

academic and journalistic work on policing in Northern Ireland that have preceded

it, Ellison and Smyth's polemical style and radical thesis will not be to everyone's taste.

At times, the authors' apparent desire to pursue a wider neo-Marxist ideological cri?

tique of policing ? as agents of social control within bourgeois society

? takes away

from their powerful examination of policing within the context of Northern Ireland:

The stability of bourgeois society may rest ultimately on the threat of

repression, but its everyday existence depends upon legitimacy and

complicity. The legitimacy of the modern state rests on a number of pillars

but central is the acceptance of a set of property relations. . . . The police,

during the nineteenth century, became part of an institutional discourse

aimed at the reorganisation of society, (pp. 3-4)

Regardless of the authenticity of the macro-political thesis put forward, it is in the

acute and well-argued analysis of the RUC's role in Northern Ireland that this

book 'hits the spot'. The detailed treatment given to unionist political control of the

RUC during the Stormont period, the politically motivated attempts to achieve

police primacy in the 1970s and scarifying counter-insurgency policies shine a fas?

cinating, ?

though harsh ?

light upon was has passed for 'law and order' in

Northern Ireland for most of the twentieth century.

Those unionists who are currently trying to preserve the RUC in their own

image, and resist the changes heralded by the Patten Report, may find this book a

difficult read. However, they should perhaps reflect on the fact that the power of the

critique presented is a consequence of past and present complacency, incompetence

and simple bigotry on the part of those who were in a position to influence events.

The book takes the reader on a depressing journey, from policing at the begin?

ning of the twentieth century and the creation of the RUC in 1922 to the nature

of policing policy during the Stormont regime and beyond. The main focus of the

book, however, concerns the period of direct rule and the strategic and operational

decisions taken by (and for) the RUC in their 'war against terrorism'. The central

argument put forward by the authors in their biting analysis is that the Ulsterization

policy in the 1970s, counter-insurgency activities, use of'super-grasses' and collu?

sion with loyalist paramilitaries in the 1980s illustrated the primacy of the political role of policing within the state. While the following quote concerns the role of the

RUC during the Stormont period, it reflects the central argument within the book,

namely that 'normal' policing does not take place within an abnormal society but




reflects a wider political agenda. The RUC, the authors suggest, have only ever had

a peripheral interest in 'normal' community policing, their primary goal being the

control of what they regard as anti-unionist political dissent within the 'state':

From its inception, the RUC was a paramilitary force and one that played a

highly political role. From its formation in 1922, the RUC was charged with implementing the Special Powers Act and other legislation (for

example, the Flags and Emblems Act and the Public Order Act) designed to maintain the hegemony of the Unionist regime. While the RUC un?

doubtedly performed 'routine' policing duties, these were ultimately

subjugated to its primary role of the suppression of nationalist dissent, (p. 24)

The narrative is written in an accessible style and is very well researched, with good use made of the available secondary sources and some very revealing (not to men?

tion chilling) interviews with serving and former members of the B Specials and

RUC. The Crowned Harp provides a relentless critique of policing policy in North?

ern Ireland. While some readers may be put off by the harsh assessments made of

the RUC, the book is saved by the fact that the analysis put forward is well argued and based on solid empirical evidence.

If any unionist wishes to understand why the RUC in their current form are

unacceptable to the nationalist community in Northern Ireland, they will find the

answers within the pages of this excellent and powerful book. It deserves to be read

by everyone with an interest in the past, present and future of Northern Ireland.

Fionnuala Ni Aolain's The Politics of Force shares some similarities with the

Ellison and Smyth book, though it is much more of a legal analysis of the use of

lethal force by state agencies, than an overtly political treatise. In the context of

Northern Ireland of course, the two are inseparable. Ni Aolain sets out to examine

the way in which the United Kingdom has used lethal force to control an internal

conflict between 1969 and 1994. The author approaches the material legalistically and dispassionately, yet does so within an analytical framework that is powerful and

penetrating in its conclusions. The book is an empirically based study of the use of

lethal force by state agencies that is carefully argued ?

forensic even ? without

being arid. Ni Aolain provides a detailed examination of the different phases and

patterns of lethal force used by the state, together with the particularities of specific

cases. The author identifies three stages to British policy in this respect, namely a

militarization phase from 1969?74, with the deployment of the army, leading to

imposition of curfews, house searches and internment in the early 1970s. A normal?

ization phase followed from 1975?80, characterized by the concept of police

primacy and the attempt to criminalize 'the terrorists', with the removal of special

category status and abandonment of internment. The final phase discussed in the

pattern of what the author describes as lethal force (what others might refer to as

state violence) is the counter-insurgency period, from the end of the republican

hunger-strikes in 1981 until the paramilitary ceasefires of 1994.

The central thesis of The Politics of Force is contained in the title itself. Within the

context of a divided society such as Northern Ireland, violence, from whatever




source, is political. Just as the violence of paramilitaries on both sides was directed

mostly at achieving political goals or securing political leverage,

so violence (what

the author chooses to call 'lethal force') by agencies of the state has political goals

and political consequences. It is contended that the use of'lethal force' by the state

has not been accidental or haphazard but considered, deliberate, rational and politi?

cal. The law itself has been an agent of the state in 'the fight against terrorism'. As

the author deftly puts it: 'Law defines and takes sides and it has done so in North?

ern Ireland' (p. 14). The book illustrates the central paradox of a state policy that uses lethal force to

manage a low intensity conflict, whilst seeking simultaneously to present itself as a

benign third-party anxious to secure political negotiations and reconciliation

between the parties to that conflict. The evidence presented here of the state's use

of'lethal force' demonstrates that it has very much played the role of protagonist

rather than bystander in the political conflict within Northern Ireland:

The state's first soliloquy should be the acknowledgement that it has not

been a neutral nor passive actor in the experience and management of

societal conflict. As this book will illustrate, states play a decisive and

considered role in the management of low intensity conflicts, and Northern

Ireland is no exception to the rule. In that context, the state must also bear

responsibility for its transgression of generally accepted human rights norms,

(p. 12)

The Politics of Force presents a powerful and convincing case that the use of short

term (and inconsistent) military responses to a political problem, for example

criminalization, internment, counter-insurgency measures and 'shoot-to-kill' poli?

cies, has been counter-productive and has precluded the state from achieving its

ostensible objective, namely the management of low-intensity conflict within

Northern Ireland.

However, this book is much more than an account of state violence within

Northern Ireland. The micro-analysis of the use of'lethal force', and the bending

and moulding of the criminal justice system to facilitate and justify its use, is woven

into a macro-analysis that examines the way in which 'emergency' law is being

used to erode personal legal protection for citizens in non-emergency conditions.

In other words, the entrenchment of emergency legislation has had a corrosive

effect on ordinary criminal law, to the detriment of individual rights. This has

occurred incrementally and stealthily, on the basis of protecting a state (and by

extension its citizens) against a receding threat:

The long term use of emergency powers becomes a convenient basis upon

which to usurp the protections that all citizens are entitled to under the

treaty protections of the European Convention on Human Rights and the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. When a state creates

a permanent piece of anti-terrorist legislation, drawn and modelled on pre?

existing emergency structures, what we are witnessing is a slippage of

emergency laws into ordinary law. This legal act is no less the creation of a




permanent emergency than doing so by passing an act of parliament which

has the word 'emergency' in its official title, (p. 65)

The Politics of Force is an impressively researched, well written and powerfully argued book. It should be read by everyone interested in the nexus of the political and the

legal in Northern Ireland, the subjective nature of concepts such as 'law and order'

within a divided society and the paradox of state usage of 'lethal force' (viz. vio?

lence) as a technique in the management of conflict, when the state itself is one of

the causal factors of, and political actors in, such a conflict.

Another recent addition to the high quality output of Blackstaff Press is Paul

Arthur's Special Relationships: Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland Problem. In com?

mon with the other books discussed above, this is also a high-calibre production.

However, unlike the others, Arthur paints on a broader canvas, focusing not on the

history of sectarian violence, policing or state use of lethal force per se, but on the

track-one political relationships within which that conflict has taken place. Arthur's

writing style is, as one would expect, accessible and assured.

Special Relationships seeks to explore the complex evolution of the set of relations

within and without Northern Ireland, focusing particularly on the history of

Anglo-Irish relations from partition to the immediate aftermath of the Good Fri?

day Agreement in 1998. The book is essentially written thematically rather than

chronologically and is all the more refreshing for that. Arthur's analytical eye is both

judicious and authoritative, providing a balanced treatment of both the internal and

external relationships in the strife-ridden merry-go-round that has accompanied

those relations for most of recent Irish history. The author makes excellent use of

the existing academic literature to substantiate and provide weight to the arguments

put forward, with a particularly informative endnotes section.

This is an accessible and jargon-free account of'the totality of relations' in Ire?

land since 1920, but it is also the product of rigorous academic research. As he takes

the reader through the fractured relations in Northern Ireland that led to the out?

break of political conflict in the late 1960s and Anglo-Irish diplomatic attempts to

put Humpty-Dumpty back together since that point, Arthur casts an astute and

candid eye over events and protagonists. Thus, when discussing the roots of sectari?

an strife in Northern Ireland, Arthur puts the case succinctly, arguing that this has

been an endemic condition rather than a recent aberration, yet still, a learning

process undertaken by a rational, if unfortunate, set of actors:

The union of Protestants and Catholics was never a happy marriage. It was

marred from the outset by violence before it settled into a form of mutual

contempt. But efforts were made to keep up appearances; and for a time it

seemed that a reconciliation had been effected. Civilities were exchanged, local customs respected, the beginnings of mutual respect evident. There

were some who believed that a new era was dawning ?

the loveless

marriage might produce offspring. But it was not to be. Violence reasserted

itself and dialogue barely rose above the level of recrimination. Now they are faced with a stark choice: self-immolation or seeking the advice of a

marriage counsellor. The first would be to follow the habit of a lifetime,

the second to contemplate one's own failings, (p. 31)




The author demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the nature of sectarian?

ism, and politically motivated violence in Northern Ireland, as he accounts for its

'multi-layeredness', its complexity and the ambiguity 'that both communities shared

in relation to their "boys" or "lads'" (p. 60).

On a wider level, the history of Anglo-Irish relations and the sectarian conflict

within Northern Ireland that British, Irish and more recently American administra?

tions have been attempting to deal with is set within the broader context of generic

patterns of ethnic conflict and conflict transformation. Special Relationships is not a

moral or a moralizing tale, nor a history of heroes and villains (though both are pre?

sent), but a particular

case study in the examination of the lifespan of a political

conflict, dispassionately told but sympathetic to the plight of those caught up in it.

Crucially, Arthur depicts the internal and external relationships that have shaped Northern Ireland's political history as fluid and unpredictable. Charting diplomatic initiatives between Britain and the Republic of Ireland such as the Anglo-Irish

Agreement of 1985, the Downing Street Declaration of 1993, the Frameworks

Document of 1995 and Good Friday Agreement of 1998, Arthur is correct to point out that the nature of diplomacy 'is not a precise science, so we have to allow for

the role of unpredictability, of serendipity, of randomness and, above all, of confusion

(p. 239). The book covers events surrounding the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985

particularly well, with the detailed analysis of diplomatic and political relations

between the British and Irish governments being handled deftly. The Good Friday

Agreement of 1998, in contrast, receives much less attention, being covered in a

paltry two pages at the very end of the book. Perhaps a more detailed coverage of

the GFA period is being left for a second edition? In the limited space the author

gives to the events of 1998, the GFA is presented as the product of the years of

serendipitous, random and unpredictable diplomacy that has taken place between

the protagonists for the last quarter of a century in Northern Ireland.

Arthur's conclusion is a mature one. Namely, 'peace processes' in any divided

society are messy affairs, with multiple sticking-points and turning-points, where

political progression and conflict transformation take place (if they do so at all) at an

incremental and at times imperceptible level. Whilst recognizing that many obsta?

cles remain within Northern Ireland's divided society, Arthur's finishing remarks

hold out some hope for the future as a result of the evolution of relationships inside

and outside the region:

On the positive side we can allow for a less fatalistic general public, a more

tolerant civic society, burgeoning economic opportunities, and a sense of

shame at our past. Politics is now more concerned with equity issues. A

sense of civic consciousness is being developed aided by a Civic Forum

created by the government under the terms of the Agreement. North South

co-operation has been improved immensely, (pp. 248?49)

Although written primarily for a non-specialist readership, Special Relationships will

also be of interest to the academic community, putting some flesh on the bones of a

well documented period in Northern Ireland's political history. It deserves to be read.

FEARGAL COCHRANE




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Ireland and Scotland: Colonial Legacies and National Identities || Contested Rights and Relationships