ABSTRACT
A change seems to be occurring in recent times, however, as Irish people, North and South, move gradually beyond the orthodox equations of political and cultural identity. For unionists and nationalists alike, this means rethinking traditional fidelities to unitary ideals of nation-statehood: a United Kingdom for the former, a 32-county Republic for the latter. The 25-year war in Ulster epitomized the clash of irreconcilable territorial claims. Hence the need for a movement beyond sovereignty-at least understood as an absolute principle of ‘one and indivisible’ power. And the attendant need to think further than the conflict between British and Irish nation-states towards a new configuration of identities.2
