Comments on The Pensive Quill: Republicanism ... Alive or Dying?

Interesting stuff, but do you see no hope for SF a...

2009-04-05T15:59:00.000+01:00

Interesting stuff, but do you see no hope for SF at all? Is it not possible for people within the party to change it? What is your opinion of people such as O'Broin?

Democratic-centre, the issue is to what degree rel...

2008-01-19T18:04:00.000Z

Democratic-centre, the issue is to what degree relations of domination and dependence are inscribed into economic relations. Where they are, how then shall republicanism incorporate the interests of the dominated and dependent into its project? I think the notion that the economy places people in work is much too benign. It positions people and consequently often disadvantages them. It even excludes them from work in many cases.
As for Brown, this is typical but essentially disguises the fact that Britain now has a number of strategic reasons for remaining in the North which did not exist a number of years ago - the need to prevent any territorial fragmentation of the UK as a means to preventing Scotland going; and the strategic value of the place as a site for MI5.
Anthony

Fionnchu, I suppose I would have to reread both th...

2008-01-19T17:41:00.000Z

Fionnchu, I suppose I would have to reread both the Proclamation and the 1919 Democratic Programme to give you a thoughtful response. My problem with revisiting any of those documents, the Proclamation in particular, is that the one flame they always keep alight is that of the militarist. I doubt very much if the documents in what they say should be used as a blueprint for today. The shadow and penumbra, as they sometimes say about past documents, can add weight to this or that but the more shadowy the more open to any interpretation. I think republicanism has to write new ones. Just as a medical doctor of today can hardy rely on knowledge from a century ago. And the Proclamation is hardly penicillin.

Anthony

Very interesting, but how do you square-off republ...

2008-01-14T19:53:00.000Z

Very interesting, but how do you square-off republican ideals with the economy, as per the other comment, a globalised one. Such economic activities place people in work and the economy is itself a form of superior control and indeed also a form of 'civilisation'.

"doing little to demonstrate that their republic is in any real sense all that different from the current British monarchy. It is easier to feel that the Republic is a monarchy without a king than to think England is a Republic with one."

Good take, sometimes it is like splitting hairs between the two in many ways, not getting down to the finer constitutional aspects however, but in the news etc you do tend to get that feel of new British-Irish similarities.

In relation to this right-wing British policy, I think everything is all to play for, but democratically. Britain views Northern Ireland as a divided society re national identity. It would seem its current actionable policy is one of a conscious national detachment.

Example - Gordon Brown's speech:

"And in 2008, with firm conviction and resolve, we will make the case for the United Kingdom - standing up for the cause of the Union and against secession, showing people in all parts of the country that for so many of the challenges our country faces - from climate change to terrorism - there are no Wales-only, Scotland-only or England-only solutions."

Your distinction between commonality and interdepe...

2008-01-14T18:49:00.000Z

Your distinction between commonality and interdependence opens up the telling-- but often ignored-- gap between nationalism and republicanism well. This essay clearly presents the distinction in the ideal of a Republic.

One question that I would have for a future consideration: what aspects of republicanism as you view it today can be traced back to having been incorporated, however clumsily or fragmentarily, into such documents as the Proclamation and the 1919 Democratic Programme?

Can these statements still be regarded as at all feasible as blueprints for a far different Irish polity today? Or, are they better left to the museum rather than as viable alternatives for the globalized capitalism that has triumphed? Do republicans need to rewrite new ones? Do such manifestoes still play a role now, or does the Net somehow turn the dissemination of a strategy and a platform into a whole new "agora"?