tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4363109320046011063.post4896379104639432195..comments2012-12-06T03:33:35.566-08:00Comments on Morrell Centre for Toleration - University of York: Adam Fusco on Toleration and the flag over Belfast City HallUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4363109320046011063.post-70285782502325753522012-12-06T03:33:35.566-08:002012-12-06T03:33:35.566-08:00I think the answer to this Scott is ultimately one...I think the answer to this Scott is ultimately one that needs to be seen in context. The thought that I was trying to capture in the article is that flags have a symbolic potentcy in Northern Ireland that can only ever be seen in terms of a dichotomy. By virtue of flying the union flag, there is an abscence of the tricolour and vice versa. By removing the flag from Northern politics and society the dichotomy is broken, as the abscence is no longer specific to a certain tradition. <br /><br />With regards to Irish republicanism, there certainly is a tradition from Tone and the United Irishmen in which its ideals are non-secterian. My contention however, which admittedly was not made explicit in the piece, is that this is a mere artifact of the history of political thought. Modern Irish republicanism has been filtered through 200 years of 'nationalism', and in a sense its name as 'republican' is an historical accident - it really could be described better, in conetmporary terms, as a left-wing Irish nationalism. Republicanism, as a political/philsophical theory places little, if no priority on culture as of in itself. In this sense there is nothing specific to 'irishness' that equates within republicanism.<br /><br />And with the civil rights movement in the 1960s the normative impluse behind its ideal, was peversely something tbe that could called 'U.K republicanism'. The argument was for equal rights for U.K. citizens - it was an argument for civic equality within the United Kingdom. <br /><br />I did however conclude that unionism and nationalism do have the potential to be purged of their dichotomous bias, as it seems to me ultimately implausable that Northern Ireland can exist without a constitutional relationship to either the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. We shouldn't be seeking to politicise the culture attached to these positions, but rather de-politicise it, to make Northern politics genuinely non-secterian. Historicising political conduct in post-conflict societies is much different to this process in what are otherwise stable mature liberal democraciesAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16697357448752886148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4363109320046011063.post-63954172545384784462012-12-06T02:48:16.660-08:002012-12-06T02:48:16.660-08:00Great article there, Adam. Its really good to see ...Great article there, Adam. Its really good to see this new philosophical blog engaging with current issues, and your treatment of the Irish question is very interesting. Do you think though that explicit political reference to either political tradition - for e.g. open display of the tricolour on a public building - is necessarily sectarian/exclusive of other groups and therefore intolerant? It seems to me that the history of Irish republicanism is rooted in a far less 'sectarian' or exclusive ideology than its loyalist counterpart. For example, the founding fathers of the modern republican movement - the United Irishmen - contained many protestants. Their goal was political and rooted in the right of Ireland to self-determination as oppossed to some sectarian blood claim rooted in religious difference. Similarly, the civil rights marches in the late 60s demanded equal citizenship rights for catholics as well as protestants. It seems to me that there is a false comfort in rendering each tradition equally 'sectarian' when one branch has historically been rooted in opposition to the British state on republican, and dare I say it, anti-imperialist grounds Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12014242258315665554noreply@blogger.com