IRELAND, BRITAIN AND EUROPE: CONSTITUTIONAL FUTURES AFTER BREXIT
- (opens in a new window)Booking Link for the Constitutional Futures After Brexit Conference (6th & 7th April)
- (opens in a new window)Booking Link for the Political Change Across Britain & Ireland: Book Launch & Wine Reception (6th April, 7pm)
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Conference and book launch: Monday and Tuesday, April 7 and 8, 2025
Centre for Peace and Conflict Research,
School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin
Venue: Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI), 86 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2
Programme
This is the concluding conference of the Constitutional Futures after Brexit (CFaB) project, designed to showcase the project’s achievements and to point towards new research. The CFaB project has been directed since 2019 by Dr Paul Gillespie in the Institute for British-Irish Studies (now the Centre for Peace and Conflict Research) in UCD’s School of Politics and International Relations. Designed to promote analysis of the fundamental shift in the dynamics of the Irish-UK relationship after Brexit, it is predicated on three working principles: deliberation; public policy analysis; and appropriate publication of research results. The conference is open to academics, policy-makers and the general public. Attendees will have an opportunity to see the museum’s Irish literary exhibition rooms during the conference. As it is the original location of Cardinal Newman’s university, the predecessor of UCD, and because this project has had three Newman Fellows these buildings are an especially appropriate venue.
The day-to-day work of the CFaB project was spearheaded by three postdoctoral UCD Newman Fellows in Constitutional Futures who analysed different aspects of the Irish-British relationship. They were funded by a strategic partnership with the Reconciliation Fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Extra funding came from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust for a deliberative mini-public on attitudes to Irish unity in the Republic in April 2021, matching one organised in Northern Ireland in 2019. Additional support was received from the Irish Research Council’s New Foundations/Reconciliation Fund programme.
Those most centrally involved in the project have been:
- Dr Paul Gillespie (2019-), an adjunct senior research fellow in SPIRe and a specialist in European integration, Irish-British relations and comparative world regionalism; he is a former foreign policy editor and currently columnist and editorial writer for The Irish Times.
- Dr Roland Gjoni (2020-21), a constitutional law scholar of comparative peace processes in Northern Ireland and Kosovo and a legal reform expert who has worked for the United Nations, the World Bank, US AID and currently the Council of Europe, focused on public attitudes towards different models of Irish unification, based on conclusions drawn from the deliberative mini-public.
- Dr Jonathan Evershed (2021-22), a conflict studies specialist with expertise in the politics of commemoration and in the constitutional implications of Brexit, who is now working on policy, research and strategy for the Plaid Cymru party in Wales, addressed Britishness, Irishness and institutional links.
- Dr Sarah Wallace (2023-24), a specialist on younger people and power-sharing, examined the nature of unionism in Northern Ireland, based substantially on interviews with young unionists; her research complements continuing work by Paul Gillespie on plans and prospects for UK-wide unionism and the nature of the union itself.
An important output of the project is the publication of a book, incorporating the work of 21 Irish and British authors, edited by Paul Gillespie, Michael Keating and Nicola McEwen, entitled Political Change Across Britain and Ireland, Identities, Institutions and Futures (Edinburgh University Press, 2025), which will be launched at the conference.
The Conference Schedule is as follows:
Monday 7 April 2025 – Old Physics Theatre, Museum of Literature Ireland
1.30-2.00 pm: Registration
2.00-2.05 pm: Welcome remarks by Dr Paul Gillespie, director CFaB
2.05-3.30 pm: RSE/RIA/ARINS academic/practitioner workshop: Scotland and Ireland: Links and Opportunities after Brexit
The workshop draws on the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s (RSE) Scotland and Europe project and the Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South (ARINS) project in the Royal Irish Academy. It focuses on the implications of Brexit for relations between Scotland and both parts of Ireland. Specifically it examines issues of regulatory divergence and convergence. They pose a set of challenges to all the jurisdictions concerned. The workshop will examine these challenges with introductory remarks looking at what has already been happening, leading into a general discussion of solutions to the problems identified.
Chair: Prof Michael Keating (RSE, Aberdeen)
Speakers:
Prof Brigid Laffan (RIA, EUI, UL)
Prof Katy Hayward (RIA, QUB)
Dr Lisa Claire Whitten (QUB)
3.30-4.00 pm: Tea/coffee break
4.00-5.30 pm: Panel and discussion on Political Change Across Britain and Ireland, Identities, Institutions and Futures (Edinburgh University Press)
Chair: Mark Hennessy (Ireland and Britain Editor, The Irish Times)
Panellists:
Dr Paul Gillespie (UCD)
Prof Michael Keating (RSE, Aberdeen)
Prof Nicola McEwen (Glasgow)
Prof John Coakley (UCD)
6.00-7.45 pm: Book launch and wine reception: Mezzanine, Museum of Literature Ireland
Political Change Across Britain and Ireland, Identities, Institutions and Futures, Edinburgh University Press 2025
Speakers to be confirmed
Tuesday 8 April, 2025 – Old Physics Theatre, Museum of Literature Ireland
9.15-9.45 am: Registration and tea/coffee
9.45-9.50 am: Welcome remarks: by Dr Paul Gillespie, Director CFaB (UCD)
9.50-11.15 am: Paper on Northern Ireland Unionisms: Prospects, Plans and Partnerships
Chair: Prof Jim McAuley (Huddersfield, UCD)
Speaker: Dr Sarah Wallace (Newman Fellow 2023-2024) presents her research project, followed by discussants and Q&A.
Discussants:
Susan McKay (Press Ombudsman; Author of Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground 2021)
Andy Pollak Centre for Cross Border Studies – founding director
A N Other(s)
11.15-11.45 am: coffee break
11.45-1.15 pm: Debate on Unity or Union – Prepare Now for Referendums or Reconcile First? - Perspectives and Priorities
Chair: Prof Colin Graham (Maynooth)
Debaters:
Prof John Doyle (DCU) and David McCann (Slugger O’Toole) – Prepare Now
Prof Duncan Morrow (UU) and Sarah Carey (Irish Independent) – Reconcile First
1.15-2.00 pm: lunch break
2.00-3.15 pm: Panel: Researching constitutional futures: deliberative, comparative, qualitative/quantitative and futures approaches
Chair: Prof Jane Suiter (DCU)
Panellists:
Prof John Garry (QUB)
Dr Roland Gjoni (Newman Fellow 2020-21)
Dr Jonathan Evershed (Newman Fellow 2022-23)
Dr Paul Gillespie (UCD)
3.15-3.45 pm: Tea/coffee break
3.45-5.15 pm: Panel: Constitutional Futures in Ireland and Britain after Brexit: emerging research themes
Chair: Dr Paul Gillespie (UCD)
Panellists:
Prof Nicola McEwen (Glasgow)
Dr Giada Lagana (Cardiff)
Assoc Prof Etain Tannam (TCD)
Dr Barry Colfer (Cambridge, IIEA)
5.15 pm: Wine reception