Beyond Good Friday: Governance Possibilities in Post-Brexit Northern Ireland

The impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland’s governing institutions has pushed consideration of the constitutional future and status of the region to a level of salience unthinkable just a decade ago. While Brexit has fundamentally changed the trajectory of Northern Irish politics, an understanding of what the future of governance might look like is no longer theoretical. Beyond Good Friday: Governance Possibilities in Post-Brexit Northern Ireland investigates and analyzes not only the challenges of the existing political institutions for the region but considers and explores dimensions of the numerous options that could fundamentally change Northern Ireland’s constitutional status and governance model. While unification with the Republic of Ireland or maintaining the status quo as part of the United Kingdom are the conventional choices, Paul S. Adams explores and assesses other options, including co-sovereignty, which while previously rejected, may, along with other alternatives, need to be reconsidered considering changing social, economic, and political conditions in post-Brexit Northern Ireland.

Paul S. Adams is associate professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, USA. He specializes in comparative politics and international relations, specifically the politics of Europe, Northern Ireland, the European Union, and of non-majoritarian forms of democracy including neo-corporatism and consociationalism.