Richard Bourke

This story is vividly and even-handedly told, based on impressive research... Bourke explores the implications with greater sophistication than almost anyone else

Fluent and vivid... Inside this big, discursive book is an urgent call to look beneath appearances to underlying appearances, and it ought to be heeded

Richard Bourke’s background as a historian of ideas gives him an interesting philosophical perspective on an old problem and he strives nobly and intelligently to lift the debate above the lazy clichés employed by so many peace processors and commentators

The War of Ideas

<i>Peace in Ireland</i> is a classic study of the Northern Ireland Troubles which examines the events of 1968–2003 in broad historical perspective, including an exploration of the ideological roots of the conflict in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It covers the decisive episodes that marked the trajectory of the Troubles, from the Civil Rights Movement, Bloody Sunday and the Sunningdale Agreement, to the hunger strikes, the paramilitary ceasefires and the Good Friday Agreement.<br/>
<br/>
The book exposes the assumption that the conflict was a product of imperialism, and challenges the idea that the descent into violence was brought about by atavistic regression or ethnic solidarity. Its central argument is that the Northern Ireland debacle was a distinctly modern conflict, fought over rival aspirations to popular sovereignty. Accordingly, the book places opposing conceptions of democratic legitimacy at the centre of the dispute. From this angle, it analyses both Nationalism and Republicanism as well as Unionism and Loyalism with the aim of providing a sustained investigation of the impact of political ideas on modern Ireland.

Peace In Ireland

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Richard Bourke

Praise for Peace In Ireland

This story is vividly and even-handedly told, based on impressive research... Bourke explores the implications with greater sophistication than almost anyone else

A thoughtful and scholarly work

Fluent and vivid... Inside this big, discursive book is an urgent call to look beneath appearances to underlying appearances, and it ought to be heeded

This story is vividly and even-handedly told, based on impressive research... Bourke explores the implications with greater sophistication than almost anyone else

A thoughtful and scholarly work

Fluent and vivid... Inside this big, discursive book is an urgent call to look beneath appearances to underlying appearances, and it ought to be heeded

This story is vividly and even-handedly told, based on impressive research... Bourke explores the implications with greater sophistication than almost anyone else

A thoughtful and scholarly work

Fluent and vivid... Inside this big, discursive book is an urgent call to look beneath appearances to underlying appearances, and it ought to be heeded

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