Law, the State, and Republicanism in Ireland

The author traces the historic transition of the Irish Republican movement from its violent revolutionary origins, which had sought the creation an all-Ireland republic forceably incorporating the pro-British, Protestant North, into a modern democratic movement which has rejected the violence of the radically Leftist Irish Republican Army (IRA) in favor of capitalist prosperity within the European Union. Key Words: Irish Free State, Irish Nationalism, Irish Republican Movement, IRA, de Valera, Marxism, Capitalism, European Union De Valera ... knew that before the bar of history his name and fame were inextricably linked and threatened by a handful of years' association with a man whose allotted span had been destined to be but a third of his own. He knew that the story of Eamon de Valera could not be told without that of Michael Collins. (Coogan 1992, 432) The story of Michael Collins, made famous most recently in a film starring Liam Neeson based on the recent biography by Tim Pat Coogan, illustrates both the complex history of the Irish struggle for independence and the difficulty of achieving a state based on an accepted constitutional order. Michael Collins paid with his very life as a result of the unresolved tension that existed between historic aspirations for a thirty-two county Republic and the more limited achievement of a twenty-six county Free State. The death of Michael Collins signalled the end of physical force Republicanism as an acceptable political ideology in the mainstream of Irish politics just as the martyrdom of Patrick Pearce and those who helped lead the Rising of 1916 precipitated the end of British control of all of Ireland. This article explores the historical evolution of a state created by terrorism and how this state eventually comes to see terrorism as a threat to its own goals. The evolution of attitudes toward violence and terror as a means of achieving a thirty-two county, island-wide Irish Republic has changed in the southern twenty-six counties since the creation of the Irish Free State. While some may argue that there is something unique to the Irish experience this article argues that the logic of state development compels a state to accept the principles and practices that define the contemporary international system. These principles influence the attitudes and beliefs of states and the elites who lead them. States that emerge as a result of terrorism tend to forego historic aspirations of the ideology that brought the state independence as the citizens of the state increasingly clamor for material prosperity, and elites seek to satisfy these new and differing demands. Thus, one can account for the current reaction of the Irish government against terrorism and the violent tactics of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) by the incorporation of this state into the family of nations and the changing ideology of the masses and elites in the Irish context. The Bifurcation of Irish Nationalism and the Constitutional Challenge Previous studies have offered an explanation for the changing nature of the Irish nationalist movement (Boyce 1982; Cronin 1983; Fennell 1984; Garvin 1981; McCaffrey 1989). The traditional image of an ancient Gaelic nation that spawned the Irish struggle for independence was reflected in the policies of the Irish Free State and the twenty-six county Irish Republic created by the constitution of 1937. Early Irish nationalism sought to restore or recreate an idyllic and mythical Gaelic society (White 1990, 44-66). This Gaelic world was imagined to have predated British rule and could only flourish if Ireland were free of British rule and cultural influence. The Irish language, the free practice of and deference to Roman Catholicism, the playing of Gaelic games, and the fostering of Gaelic culture more generally would allow the Irish to preserve their unique identity. But how did Irish nationalism in the form of the Gaelic myth influence the political institutionalization of the new Irish Free State once independence was achieved? …