Irish Republicanism and the Potential Pitfalls of Pluralism

This article examines the relationship between the discursive character of Irish republican ideology, the ‘pluralist’ and ‘two tradition’ perspective that underpins the latter. It suggests that mainstream contemporary Republican thought is the product of changing material conditions, externally generated ideological forces and an inherited spectrum of political ideas. These ideas range from the radical and universalist to the ethnically centred and particularist. The paper further argues that it is a communalist rather than a class-based and universalist agenda within republicanism that tends to be promoted by the institutions established under the Belfast Agreement. It is in the contestation of this trend that the future potential of a positive, dynamic and radical republican politics will