The politics of neoliberalisation and resistance in post-crash Northern Ireland : A reply to Byers

Johnson, Matthew (2019) The politics of neoliberalisation and resistance in post-crash Northern Ireland : A reply to Byers. Global Discourse, 9 (3). pp. 503-505. ISSN 2326-9995

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Abstract

Seán Byers presents a comprehensive overview of the post-crash political landscape in Northern Ireland. His most significant contribution is, perhaps, the most understated: that the Blairite settlement is incapable of resolving the social cleavages that threaten any possibility of harmony. He highlights, again and again, the ways in which apparently divergent actors, such as Sinn Féin and the DUP are brought together through the demands of neoliberal governance and, in so doing, deprive their working class electorates of real change. In this reply, I argue that the current situation highlights the need for genuine transformative politics and that this is most likely to come from Britain, not the Republic.