PSCI 18
Brexit: The Irish Factor Winter 2020

This is not the current course catalog

Ireland and the United Kingdom advanced their century old process of reconciliation when they joined the European Community in 1972. For a millennium Celtic Ireland had tried to sustain a separate political, cultural, and religious identity from England. Recent BREXIT negotiations designed to facilitate UK’s exit from the EU focused uncomfortable attention on the evolving but still painful reconciliation process begun in the early nineteenth century. Ireland is adamant about maintaining the European connection; Northern Ireland, still part of the United Kingdom, cherishes the British connection but seeks to maintain economic and cultural ties to the Republic of Ireland. The course will feature six two hour lectures on the contours of Catholic and Celtic Ireland’s relationship to the United Kingdom since 1801. Northern Ireland is central to this difficult but of late constructive dialogue. Students will be asked to identify a chapter in this difficult relationship as the focus for research supporting a ten page paper and a brief class presentation. All students will meet one on one with the instructor for at least one hour each week to define a topic, assess research materials, draft a paper, share impressions on their academic experience, and prepare a fifteen minute class presentation. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Mr. Brynn holds MA and Ph.D degrees in British History (Stanford) and M.Litt and Ph.D degrees in Irish Politics (Trinity College Dublin). During thirty years in the Foreign Service he was Ambassador/Chief of Mission in five African countries and Principal Deputy Secretary for African Affairs.