I am delighted that a special issue of Irish Political Studies celebrating the work of Professor Jennifer Todd has been published.
Along with David Mitchell, I co-edited the special issue, which is titled ‘The Politics of Conflict and Transformation: The Island of Ireland in Comparative Perspective’. The special issue arose out of a conference marking Todd’s enormous contributions.
Here is a brief excerpt from the Introduction:
This volume arises out of a conference celebrating the work of Jennifer Todd, Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin. Todd has been one of the leading scholars of her generation, producing ground-breaking theoretical, empirical, and comparative work on conflict, identity, ethnicity, borders, and conflict transformation.
This volume is timely not only because it provides a focal point to mark the ongoing contributions of one of the island’s pioneering scholars, but also because it provides critical analysis at a key juncture in the history of conflict and transformation on the island. The 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in 2018 has prompted a period of reflection on the achievements and the shortcomings of the peace process. This issue provides new insights on how the politics of the peace process have unfolded over time. At the same time, the June 2016 referendum in the UK, which resulted in a decision to leave the EU, comes to fruition when the UK leaves in January 2021, a process dubbed as ‘Brexit’. Brexit threatens to destabilise the peace process, raising new questions about the Irish border, and challenging relationships within Northern Ireland, between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and between the Republic and the UK.
The diverse disciplinary backgrounds and research topics of the contributors to this volume testify to the continuing relevance of Todd’s scholarship across the broad sweep of the social sciences, including history, politics and political theory, social psychology, social anthropology, and sociology. One of the hallmarks of Todd’s work has been a refusal to accept narrow understandings of politics: she conceives of the discipline broadly, and in the process has enriched our knowledge of how politics is conducted at the highest levels of the state, as well as our understanding of how political, ethnic, social and religious identities are constructed at the grassroots. Todd also has resisted an exclusive focus on the island of Ireland, consistently using international comparisons in her work and, over the years, editing numerous publications in which comparative analysis has been to the fore. The quality and quantity of studies within her body of work has been exceptional, with well over 200 publications to her name, most in leading international journals.
The Introduction also reflects on the importance of four of Todd’s most significant contributions: her 1987 Irish Political Studies article ‘Two traditions in unionist political culture’; her 1996 Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland: Power, Conflict and Emancipation, co-authored with Joseph Ruane; her 2018 book, Identity Change after Conflict: Ethnicity, Boundaries and Belonging in the Two Irelands; and her 2020 publication, Negotiating a Settlement in Northern Ireland, 1969–2019, co-authored with John Coakley.
Here is a list of articles in the special issue:
Beyond the Dominant Party System: The Transformation of Party Politics in Northern Ireland, Niall Ó Dochartaigh
Is a Middle Force Emerging in Northern Ireland? John Coakley
Bridge-Builder Feminism: The Feminist Movement and Conflict in Northern Ireland, Theresa O’Keefe
Praying for Paisley: Fr Gerry Reynolds and the Role of Prayer in Faith-Based Peacebuilding: A Preliminary Theoretical Framework, Gladys Ganiel
From I to We: Participants’ Accounts of the Development and Impact of Shared Identity at Large-scale Displays of Irish National Identity, Danielle L. Blaylock, Clifford Steveson, Aisling T. O’Donnell, Stephen D. Reicher, Dominic Bryan, Fergus G. Neville and Orla T. Muldoon
Europe’s Long Religious Conflict and its Relevance to Understanding the Role of Religion in the Northern Ireland Conflict, Joseph Ruane
‘Small’ and ‘Greater’ Nations: Empires and Nationalist Movements in Ireland and the Balkans, Siniša Malešević
The Demands of Substantive Decolonisation: Brexit and Ireland as a Matter of Justice, Shane O’Neill
Acknowledgements
The conference celebrating the work of Jennifer Todd was held November 2018 in the Royal Irish Academy. It was organised by Gladys Ganiel, Melanie Hoewer, and Iseult Honohan, with the assistance of Dara Gannon, School Manager in the School of Politics and International Relations at UCD. All papers in this volume benefited from the feedback provided by participants at the conference. In addition to those who contributed to this volume, other paper presenters were: Roland Gjoni, Adrian Guelke, Melanie Hoewer, Iseult Honohan, Cathal McCall, Peter McLoughlin, and Bahar Rumelili. Session chairs were John Baker, Stephanie Dornschneider, Yvonne Galligan, and Karen Trew. A discussion panel featured John Doyle, Paul Gillespie, Bronagh Hinds, and Duncan Morrow. We wish to thank Peter McLoughlin for guiding the production of this volume.