The exploration of contemporary Irish politics is an exercise to be undertaken as gingerly as an afternoon stroll in the neighbourhood of Port Stanley, which is perhaps why relatively few political scientists have attempted it with any degree of confidence. Many of the things that happen, and many of the attitudes expressed, simply do not fit comfortably - or in some cases at all - into traditional categories of political analysis: no wonder the authors of one 1976 study quoted by Michael Gallagher in this valuable book described Ireland as a 'persistent deviant case': i.e. they could not understand it. A few concrete examples from recent events may help to confuse the issue even further.

LRB 21 April 1983 | PDF Download