Brendan O'Leary Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume III: Consociation and

The Good Friday Agreement deserved the attention the world gave it, even if it was not always accurately understood. After its ratification in two referendums, for the first time in history political institutions throughout the island of Ireland rested upon the freely given assent of majorities of all the peoples on the island. It marked, it was hoped, the full political decolonization of Ireland. Whether Ireland would reunify, or whether Northern Ireland remain in union with Great Britain now rested on the will of the people of Ireland, North and South respectively a complex mode of powersharing addressed the selfdetermination dispute. The concluding volume of Brendan OLearys A Treatise on Northern Ireland explains the making of this settlement, and the many failed initiatives that preceded it under British direct rule. Longterm structural and institutional changes and shortterm political maneuvers are given their due in this lively but comprehensive assessment. The AngloIrish Agreement is identified as the political tipping point, itself partially the outcome of the hunger strikes of 198081 that had prevented the criminalization of republicanism. Until 2016 the prudent judgment seemed to be that the Good Friday Agreement had broadly worked, eventually enabling Sinn Fein and the DUP to share power, with intermittent attention from the sovereign governments. Cultural Catholics appeared content if not in love with the Union with Great Britain. But the decision to hold a... | Brendan O'Leary Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume III: Consociation and