The UK and Northern Ireland: sectarianism and Brexit

This chapter discusses the cycle of crises of governance in Northern Ireland. The British enclave in the north-eastern corner of Ireland is entering its third decade of official peace. However, in the past two decades, devolved institutions have worked intermittently, the level of sectarian violence has increased and there is anxiety over the effects of post-Brexit negotiations. There are multiple factors that maintain Northern Ireland on the brink of ungovernability, but in this section of the book, I focus on the institutional setting, the dynamics of sectarianism, which is coupled with political apathy, and the effects of Brexit.