Northern Ireland’s elusive peace dividend: Neoliberalism, austerity and the politics of class

Abstract

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement was meant to signal an era of economic prosperity for those working-class communities that suffered most during the Troubles. Two decades on, this much vaunted 'peace dividend' has yet to materialise. A combination of persistent economic stagnation and the onset of austerity has ensured that the poverty and inequality that marked the era of political conflict continue to blight Northern Irish society. The introduction of the 2012 Welfare Reform Act momentarily created the conditions of the possibility of a more progressive politics premised on issues of social class. The decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union would, however, close down this nascent political space and ensure the resurgence in Northern Irish public debate of those ethno-national preoccupations that animate the 'constitutional question'.

All aboard Belfast’s ‘brandwagon’: from ‘pariah city’ to ‘energised city’

“…In another article, he claims the films "encourage[d] local viewers... to see and think about the region as a potentially lucrative commodity in the global marketplace" (Baker, 2020: 17). Central to this was the link between social progress and economic growth, in that a settled society would attract investment, tourists, events, labour, and students (Coulter, 2019;Jewesbury, 2012;Knox, 2016;Murtagh & Shirlow, 2012;Nagle, 2020).…”

Good times for a change? Ireland since the general election

“…Since agreeing to share power with the Democratic Unionist Party in 2007, Sinn Féin have often appeared no less committed than their right-wing coalition partners to an explicitly neoliberal policy agenda; for example, they have embraced the Private Finance Initiative and lobbied for corporation tax to be cut to the lower rate of the Irish Republic. 10 And while they were initially opposed to the extension of the Welfare Reform Act to the six counties, they ultimately agreed to its introduction as the price of remaining in power at Stormont. This assent to a measure that has brought widespread penury to the poorest sections of Northern Irish society has inevitably raised questions about the leftist bona fides of Sinn Féin.…”