Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution

A groundbreaking examination of the colonial legacy and future of Ireland, showing how Ireland's story is linked to and informs anti-imperialism around the world.
Colonialism is at the heart of making sense of Irish history and contemporary politics across the island of Ireland. And as Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston argue, Ireland's experience is central to understanding the history of colonization and anti-colonial politics throughout the world. Part history, part analysis, Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution charts the centuries of Irish colonial history, from England's proto-imperial engagement with Ireland in 1155 to the Union in 1801, and the subsequent struggles for Irish independence and the legacies of partition from 1921.
A century later, the plate tectonics of Irishness are shifting once again. The Union is in crisis and alternatives to partition are being seriously considered outside the Republican tradition for the first time in generations. These significant structural changes suggest that the coming times might finally see the completion of the decolonization project - the finishing of the revolution. In the words of the revolutionary Pádraig Pearse: Anois ar theacht an tSamhraidh - now the summer is coming.

Bill Rolston is an emeritus professor at Ulster University and former director of the Transitional Justice Institute. He has researched and written on a wide range of topics over the years, from media reporting of conflict to political wall murals, from reproductive rights to political imprisonment, and from unemployment to justice for victims in the North of Ireland. He has also been active on connected extracurricular issues including organizing, with others, debates and discussions at the annual Feile an Phobail/West Belfast Festival and acting as chair of the victims' group Relatives for Justice.
Robbie McVeigh is an Irish researcher and writer based in Edinburgh. He has published extensively, with a particular focus on race and equality. He has worked with statutory and community organizations across Ireland on issues of education, human rights and racism and sectarianism. He has also worked internationally on issues of race, equality, peace and independence including research on Roma Rights across the EU and self-determination in Papua New Guinea. His most recent research publication is Irish Medium Education and the 'Statutory Duty' in NI: A rights perspective (CAJ and Conradh na Gaeilge 2022).