Professor Brian Girvin, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow.

I convened a seminar at the National University of Ireland, Merrion Square, on June 18, 2026. The seminar was made possible thanks to generous funding from the PSAI and the provision of facilities by the NUI. My fellow participants and I are grateful for this support, which facilitated catering and travel from France, the UK and Ireland for those attending.

The focus of the seminar was the theme ‘After Independence: Political Culture, Party Competition and Policy Making in a Stable Democratic State’, which reflected an earlier CFP for a special issue of Irish Political Studies. Though the theme was broad, the main focus was to critically engage with and extend the work and insights of the late Tom Garvin (1943–2024).

There were twelve participants on the day and ten presentations. There was considerable focus on Garvin’s work, especially his invocation of a longue durée in Irish political culture, the importance of nationalism in understanding Irish politics, and the impact of independence on policy making, institutional design and political competition. Some papers were historically focussed, while others addressed questions of change in the contemporary world. What was particularly positive was the compatibility of the presentations because of the focus on Tom Garvin’s work.

Presentations included the changing nature of church–state relations after 1945, and the importance of continuity during the modernisation process alongside the secularisation of Irish political culture in the twenty-first century. One presentation focussed on policy making in respect of asylum seekers, while another provided a quantitative analysis of Irish-speaking activists. Another paper made the case that Tom Kettle, a Home Rule politician, has not received the recognition he deserves for the important contribution he made to liberal nationalist thinking. The longue durée was invoked in the application of Stein Rokkan’s conceptual framework to understanding the origins of the Finnish and Irish states. Other contributions included a critical analysis of the centralised nature of the Irish state and the impact of European Economic Community membership on women’s rights and equality.

The seminar generated considerable debate on Garvin’s contribution to Irish political science and the extent to which his work remains relevant. It also provided a critical environment for evaluating the various contributions and their suitability for inclusion in the special issue. As guest editor, I am of the view that the seminar advanced the special issue considerably, allowing participants to reflect on how best to revise their contributions for submission. The expected date for publication is 2027.