ABSTRACT

This book examines ethnoterritorial conflict and reconciliation in Ireland from the 1916 Rising to Brexit (2021), including the production and consequences of the island’s two distinct political units.

Highlighting key geographic themes of bordering, unity, division, and national narratives, it explores how geopolitical space has been employed over time to (re)define divided national allegiances throughout Ireland and within Irish–British relations. The analysis draws from in-depth interviews and archival research, and spans supranational, state, municipal, neighborhood, and individual scales. The book pays particular attention to uneven power structures, statecraft, perceived truths, lived experiences, reconciliation efforts, and renegotiations of national narratives in the production of symbolic landscapes, divided cities, and "shared" space. An Introduction to the Geopolitics of Conflict, Nationalism, and Reconciliation in Ireland provides readers with an analysis of geopolitical power relations and different spatial productions of conflict and peacebuilding in Ireland.

Offering deeper understanding of these historic and contemporary geopolitical intersections, this book makes a valuable contribution to the fields of Political Geography, Border Studies, Irish Studies, European Studies, International Relations, Cultural Geography, and Regional Studies.

chapter 1|25 pages

Foundations

Nationalist struggles and geopolitical divisions

chapter 2|24 pages

Contested territorialities

The 1916 Rising and the Irish War of Independence

chapter 3|20 pages

Partition and division

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, Civil War, and Ireland divided

chapter 4|27 pages

“The Troubles” across various scales

chapter 5|19 pages

The walls within

Segregation, peacelines, and flags

chapter 6|22 pages

Ethnonational spatial strategies and transgressions

Political parades and murals

chapter 7|18 pages

Hope for the future I

“Shared” space in north Belfast

chapter 8|16 pages

Hope for the future II

Employment of the Garden of Remembrance in the Republic of Ireland

chapter |9 pages

Conclusion

Renegotiating national memory and Brexit: an uncertain future in Ireland