Martin Mansergh: identity and borders #JHISS

If history is the beginning of the understanding of complexity, then Dr Martin Mansergh’s address which opened the 2018 John Hewitt International Summer School unearthed more than a hundred years of nuance and detail around the place of the border in north-south relations.

Mansergh was an Irish Senator from 2002 to 2007, and once elected as TD for Tipperary South he served as Fianna Fáil Ministers of State in the Finance and Arts departments between 2008 and 2011.

YouTube video

His talk, titled Transcending Boundaries of the Past and the Future, touched on pluralities of identity across the island as well as the patchwork of political and legal agreements that shaped the porous border, including in 1945 in the aftermath of the Second World War. He began:

“Especially in the month of July, but also through the whole decade of centenaries, it is easy to imagine that lines of division in this country were immutably drawn a century or more, or even several centuries ago.”

Mansergh continued:

“One of the charges that can be laid against a lot of politics of all stripes is the preference for the simplified narrative and resistance to significant amendments to it. Identifying and reducing exaggerated differences and oppositions has an important part to play in creating a more harmonious future here.”

You can watch his half hour talk in which touched on Trump, Churchill, Carney, Peel, Haughey, the Brexit backtop and seamless borders.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.