Irish History: Republicanism in modern Ireland is a killing concept.
It is no coincidence that the term redefined the Irish Volunteers at the moment when protest became deadly guerrilla offensive in 1919: thus the IRA. Escalation in 1969 from civil rights to armalites was achieved through the nexus of republicanism: Official; Provisional, even Fianna Fáil versions. Reductionist and mesmerising, the aspirational republic is uncompromising. Its utility is military, not political. Volunteers can kill or die for the republic. Lesser visions - home rule, dominion status, partitioned independence, power-sharing - are uninspiring. Soldiers demand absolutes. Though framing nationalist identity, "The Republic" proves inadequate to the complexity of political life on this island.
Fearghal McGarry's edition of 11 essays by leading scholars, originally conference papers, is welcome. Ten years ago, the Provisionals declared their war over. The cessation has modified interpretation of republicanism in the interim , allowing more reflective approaches. The polarised analyses of recent decades defining Irish republicanism as the nemesis of the democratic state has been superseded.
Vincent Comerford's elegant essay on republicanism and democracy since the 19th century is an exemplar of this approach. Republicanism here is an essentially pragmatic, ideological vehicle advancing marginalised nationalists toward democratic politics and power - from Young Irelanders to Provisionals. The state, British or Irish, does not monopolise democratic virtue. It is, in some instances, the progenitor of inequality, exclusivity, and reactionary republican protest. This is a historical argument for the killing concept's compulsion to compromise or "sell out" when confronted with accommodation in power. Comerford identifies the process as ongoing.
Peter Hart's essay, on the similar theme of revolution and paramilitary politics, subverts historical orthodoxy. His assessment of the Irish Volunteers/IRA 1916-22, places them in a European context where veneration of martial culture, killing and sacrifice were normative. Their political solution (violence) to a political problem (British rule) was, he argues, logical - if ultimately a failure: "Patrick Pearse was no Charles Manson and the rebels not members of a mystical republican cult." The anti-treaty IRA in 1922 was protesting in the Four Courts, not staging a second uprising. The interpretation is rational and compelling. To some historians of revolution it may seem radical. Hart's interpretation argues a balanced understanding of revolutionary republicanism: "Paramilitaries [Republican and Loyalist 1912-22] were a symptom of state and democratic failure . . . Full democracy was restored once ethnic sovereignty or security was secured." Northern Ireland?
A general comment on approaches to modern Irish history is that extreme politics detract from the centre. Exotic republicanism can be located in Fianna Fáil cumainn in Westmeath as easily as in west Belfast politics. Much writing assumes republicans are people who wear ski-masks: or the pre-piste equivalent of earlier decades. Anne Dolan's exploration of relationships between republican commemoration and popular ideology addresses identities shared by nationalists; more particularly, citizens of a republican state. The analysis is sophisticated, the style whimsical. The conclusion opens: "At a small cross or an ugly statue in the middle of Limerick or Tipperary - even Kildare - there is a chance . . . to catch a glimpse of what republicanism might mean to the people these honoured martyrs were supposed to have died for." Republicanism in Ireland begins at home.
Other essays include Donal Ó Drisceoil on republicanism and communism; Fearghal McGarry on republicanism and imperialism; Terence Dooley on the IRA and land division; Eunan O'Halpin on British intelligence, the IRA and the Nazis; Eugene O'Brien on constructing republican identity; Brian Hanley on republican legitimacy; and Anthony McIntyre's illuminating essay on the Provisionals and suppression of free speech.
This collection indicates movement - subtle and otherwise - in historical approaches to Irish republicanism. Regrettably, no essay considers adequately historiographical context. Did historians mistake Pearse for a psychopath and the IRA for a cult? If so, who? More importantly, why? Republicanism is a tricky historical subject. To disparage advocates is to align with a crude historical orthodoxy. To question detractors is to don a ski-mask. The history of republicanism is clouded by the recent conflict in the North. McGarry, with UCD Press, has produced a stimulating volume.
John M. Regan lectures in history at the University of Dundee, Scotland. His most recent book, The Irish Counter-Revolution 1921-36, is published by Gill & Macmillan
Republicanism in Modern Ireland Edited by Fearghal McGarry University College Dublin Press, 214pp. €50 hardback, €17.50 paperback