British-Irish Relations in the Twenty-First Century The Good Friday Agreement, Brexit, and the Totality of Relations

by Tannam, Etain

• ISBN13: 9780198807988
• ISBN10: 0198807988
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-02-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Brexit referendum and its aftermath placed Northern Ireland and the question of a United Ireland in the public eye. The constitutional question was successfully put on hold when the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was reached in 1998.

British-Irish Relations in the Twenty-First Century examines the impact of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and Brexit on Northern Ireland, and British-Irish relations, from 1998 to 2023, highlighting the Agreement's successes, but also its failures. Tannam explores the challenges posed by a possible referendum on a United Ireland and emphasises the need to implement the Agreement's three strands. In particular, the book argues that the governments' weak guardianship of the Agreement contributed to its limitations. Tannam concludes that a joint intergovernmental strategy will be needed to manage identity politics, especially given the possibility of a future referendum on a United Ireland.

Author Biography

Etain Tannam, Associate Professor International Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin

Etain Tannam received her PhD from the London School of Economics in 1994 and is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. She has been a lecturer in Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin, since 2008 and has published widely on British-Irish relations, the 1998 Agreement, and Brexit. She has also been an expert witness at the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, House of Commons, the House of Lords, as well as to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly.
She was a member of UCL Constitution Unit's 'Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland, led by Alan Renwick, and is also a member of the ARINS steering committee, a Notre-Dame-Royal Irish Academy project, 'Analysing Ireland North and South'.