Thomas More Institute

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement in tandem with the devolution programme in Great Britian were major steps toward normalising relations among the countries and regions of the British Isles. This was possible for a number of reasons but not least because both the UK and Ireland are members of the European Union. But one of the unexpected results of devolution has been the growth of support for Scottish independence with a referendum looming in September 2014. This talk will examine what will happen to Anglo-Irish relations if the Scots vote to become independent or even if they vote to remain the United Kingdom. Either result will impact on the 1998 settlement.

The speaker has been Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, since 2010 and Director of the Von Hügel Institute there where he is also Senior Fellow of the Department of Politics and International Studies. He holds the Chaire Ganshof van der Meersch, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, for 2013-14. Previously he was Professor of European Politics in Cardiff University, and he has held Visiting Professorships and Fellowships in Oxford, Paris, Florence and Princeton. His current Visiting Professorships are at the Université Libre de Bruxelles; the University of Umeå, Sweden; and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Aix-en-Provence, France. In 2010, the French Government appointed him Officier dans L’Ordre des Palmes Académiques for his contribution to spread of French language and culture and research on European politics. In 2009, Umeå awarded him an honorary doctorate. He is an Academician of the UK’s Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS), a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHistS) and of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). He has recently been elected Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

If you are interested in attending please contact Piers Tattersall (piers.tattersall@ThomasMoreInstitute.org.uk) to receive an invitation.