The Politics of Northern Ireland

The nature of the rights of majorities and minorities is one of the most intractable of the issues raised by the Northern Ireland question, especially since much depends on definitions. Ulster Protestants are a majority in that province but a minority in both Ireland and the United Kingdom, while Catholics, a minority in Northern Ireland, form part of a large majority in Ireland as a whole. Equally intractable has been the violence or threat of violence which has characterised politics in the north from time to time. These are not merely nice moral dilemmas but pressing matters of practical politics. How legitimate is resistance to constituted authority? Can communities successfully be coerced into submission? If minority safeguards or inducements could be devised, how could they be enforced? Are security policies counter productive, polarising opinion still further, instead of easing the political process?