ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether the constitutional idea of Irish reunification satisfies republican political principles in the case of Northern Ireland. The first part distinguishes republicanism from nationalism as broader philosophies of freedom and government and applies this to the case of Ireland, where they are ambiguously synonymous. It examines the historical development of Irish republicanism in relation to nationalism and illustrates how the political cause of late eighteenth-century Irish republicanism—an independent Irish state—became decoupled from its broader framing philosophy. It argues that from the early to mid-nineteenth century this allowed Irish nationalism as a distinct philosophical tradition to inherit the name of republicanism through its advocacy of an independent state, and subsequently reunification. The second part applies the philosophy of republicanism—understood as freedom as non-domination—to several constitutional options that could govern Northern Ireland. It finds that a form of Irish reunification can satisfy republican principles, but that a version of the union with Britain can also satisfy the demands of republican freedom as non-domination. In articulating a republicanism that is as potentially genial to Ulster unionism as it is to Irish nationalism, this chapter provides intellectual resources to reconceive the constitutional ideologies which structure Northern Ireland politics.
