Five fallacies: Northern Ireland and the liabilities of liberalism

Abstract

Five fallacies in the misinterpretation of conflict in Northern Ireland, which are characteristic of liberal readings of ethno‐national conflicts, are identified and criticized in this article: (i) blaming the conflict on extremist political and religious élites; (ii) assuming that the conflict has fundamental economic and material foundations; (iii) assuming that the conflict flows from archaic religious or non‐religious political cultures; (iv) assuming that segregation is the key social and structural cause of conflict; and (v) assuming that individual discrimination is the primary motor of antagonisms. The authors insist on the ethno‐national nature of the conflict and the need for appropriate political means to address it.

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