By Ken Carty, The University of British Columbia. Well over a decade ago now Theresa Reidy posted a blog comment asking “Referendums in Ireland, how many more can we take?” Rather than addressing the numerical question head on she went on to note how ineffective the process was as a mechanism for democratic policy-making. Few…
Guest post by Dr Anthony Costello, lecturer in EU policy-making, Comparative European Government and Politics, Conflict and Conflict Resolution, and Irish and Northern Irish Politics at the Department of Government, University College Cork. Ireland is well equipped to negotiate Brexit successfully due to its deep-rooted relationship with the United Kingdom. However, this relationship alone will not…
Guest post by Dr Emmanuelle Schon-Quinlivan, Lecturer in European Politics at the Department of Government, University College Cork. As predicted by all the French pollsters, Macron and Le Pen are the final two who will go head to head on 7 May to become President of France. What does this election tell us about France and…
Guest post by Dr Emmanuelle Schon-Quinlivan, Lecturer in Comparative European Government, French Politics, and Policy-making in the European Union at the Department of Government, University College Cork.
Guest post by Dr Anthony Costello, lecturer in EU policy-making, Comparative European Government and Politics, Conflict and Conflict Resolution, and Irish and Northern Irish Politics at the Department of Government, University College Cork.
Guest post from Lisa Keenan and Gail McElroy, Trinity College, Dublin. This blog presents the arguments from a paper published in Irish Political Studies by the authors. Free access to the paper is available for the month of January here. In 2016, the Republic of Ireland joined over 100 countries world-wide that use gender quotas at…
Donal O’Brolchain reviews pre/post- election developments on direct democracy The February 2016 election continues a pattern of nearly 50 years ie. voters have not re-elected an outgoing government. Since 1969, this has happened once in 2002. Despite Ireland’s undoubted successes (eg. joining the EU, a rising population and workforce) over these years, we…
On 16 November 2016, there will be a one-day workshop looking at voting rights reform in Ireland. There will be two areas of focus; voting rights for emigrants and reducing the voting age to 16. The programme includes academics and campaigners. The workshop will take place in the offices of the National University of Ireland…
Guest post from Prof Donncha Kavanagh (UCD) donncha.kavanagh@ucd.ie Much media commentary on the general election has been framed around the notion that the Irish parliamentary system should finally rid itself of its Civil War legacy and embrace the Left-Right system of political discourse that befits a modern democracy. However, there are profound weaknesses in this…
Guest Post from Dr Niall Gilmartin, Department of Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth. The post draws from research published in Irish Political Studies and available free online until the end of April at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2016.1146698 The Sinn Féin Women’s Department emerged at a time of great flux within Provisional republicanism. The kernel of the department resided…
Irish Politics Forum 