By Mary C. Murphy and Jonathan Evershed Having completed its journey through the House of Commons, the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill now proceeds to the House of Lords, where it is liable to be tied up by weeks of debate and attempts at amendment. If and when it receives Royal Assent, the Bill will…

Irish Political Studies is seeking expressions of interest in a co-editor position, tenable for three years from 1 January 2023. A specialist background in the politics of Northern Ireland is required, while editorial experience and a clear vision for the future of the journal are highly desirable. Interested candidates should send their expression of interest,…

The call for papers for the 40th PSAI annual conference are now open. The conference will be held between the 14th and 16th October 2022 in the College Street Campus of Waterford IT.  Panel and paper proposals from all areas of the discipline are welcomed, with particular emphasis on, but not necessarily confined to the politics of…

The PSAI was concerned to hear recent reports that the leadership of University College Dublin (UCD) used a staff-wide email to undermine criticisms of the university’s relationship to the Chinese government. The UCD president encouraged the entire university community, presumably including those who have been targeted for repression by the Chinese state, to be proud…

By Peter Emeson (The de Borda Institute) In 2008, aged 65, I started to learn Chinese.  Five years later, on my first lecture tour in China, I addressed a conference in Xuzhou, and one thing led to another.  I have now conducted four three-month lecture tours in China, the most recent two travelling overland, teaching in…

By David Farrell Richard Sinnott passed away on 3rd January 2022 after a long illness. An emeritus professor at the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin, Richard was a world-leading researcher in the study of elections and electoral behaviour, his research leadership recognised by membership of the Royal Irish Academy (in…

By Peter Emerson (The de Borda Institute) An Irish webinar in Germany: Parliament, not selecting, but electing a coalition Ireland’s contributions to the development of democracy have not always been the best: Bernardo O’Higgins, for example, was the world’s first dictator to get 100% in a referendum, in Chile in 1818. On the more positive…

By Mary P Murphy (Maynooth University) Expectations of paradigmatic change often overestimate the degree to which crises will result in change. The reality seems more consistent with Klein’s Shock Doctrine which associates crisis with a reinforcement of neo liberalism. Our experiences of the 2008 crisis and subsequent austerity means we should not be rose-tinted about the likelihood…

By Mary P Murphy (Maynooth University) and John Hogan (Technological University Dublin) The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic followed a decade after the 2008 financial crisis and the related €85 billion European troika bailout of Ireland in 2010. The fallout led to a period of austerity with a significant range of expenditure cuts. These cuts had direct impacts…

By Pauline Cullen and Mary Murphy, Maynooth University Women’s voices in Ireland have not been heard during the pandemic. Covid Women’s Voices, a diverse range of female workers observe daily the gendered realities of the pandemic and call for publicly funded childcare for frontline workers, in-person schooling for children of essential workers, and special protections for care workers…