FRANCESCA LACAITA

La questione nordirlandese tra passato e futuro

(a proposito di alcuni libri recenti)

N. 177

Summary - The essay starts from the latest political developments in Northern Ireland and goes on to outline the main stages of the Irish Question in the light of the most recent interpretations. Above all, it considers the relations between the two communities and the role played by the ideology of the "nation-state" in the Northern Irish conflict. In particular, two tendencies are regarded as significant: on the one hand, the weakening of the claims of the nation-states and the beginning of intergovernmental cooperation (as from the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement); on the other hand, the process of European integration, which may foster new modes of nationhood. There follows a review of several books on the subject which have lately been published both in Italy and in Britain. Typically, the books published in Italy are either fictional or autobiographical (like Gerry Conlon’s Il prezzo dell’innocenza, Gerry Adams's Strade di Belfast, Ronan Bennett’s La seconda prigione), with the exception of Silvia Calamatěs Irlanda del Nord. Una colonia in Europa, which denounces the violations of human rights in Northern Ireland and argues for some form of unification of the island. The books here discussed that have been published in Britain range from Tony Parker’s May the Lord in His Mercy Be Kind to Belfast, where a number of people from both communities and all walks of life relate their stories and experiences, to Michael Ignatieff’s Blood and Belonging. Journeys into the New Nationalism, where the Northern Irish conflict is seen in relation to present-day nationalism in Europe and elsewhere; from Kevin Boyle and Tom Hadden’s Northern Ireland: The Choice, which deals with the dilemma of "separation or sharing" and puts particular emphasis on the European context, to the collection of essay edited by Dermot Keogh and Michael Haltzel Northern Ireland and the Politics of Reconciliation, and the study of the Northern Irish state Northern Ireland 1921-1994. Political Forces and Social Classes, by Paul Bew, Peter Gibbon, and Henry Patterson.