Between Political Folklore and National Populism: Poles Apart?

This chapter offers a wry look at the changing position of Northern Ireland in Europe. From the anomaly of ���joining Europe��� as part of the UK in 1973 just as ���The Troubles��� confirmed Northern Ireland as ���a place apart���, to the twenty first century experience of peace process and the large scale influx of migrant workers from Poland and elsewhere.

Social Inclusion or Market Competitiveness? A Comparison of Rural Development Policies in the European Union and the United States

The language of EU rural development policy appears more interested in social inclusion and that of US policy more interested in market competitiveness. We seek to determine why policies directed at rural development in the EU and the USA differ. In both contexts new rural development policies emphasize partnership and participation but we find local participation is used to promote social inclusion in the EU and market competitiveness in the USA. An examination of these dimensions illustrates important transcontinental differences and similarities in rural development policies. We explore the socio-historical reasons for differences in the commitment to social inclusion, while also noting similarities in the priority of market competitiveness.

(Un)settlement: Political Parody and the Northern Irish Peace Process

This essay examines Tim Loane���s political comedies, Caught Red-Handed and To Be Sure, and their critique of the Northern Irish peace process. As ���parodies of esteem���, both plays challenge the ultimate electoral victors of the peace process (the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn F��in) as well as critiquing the cant, chicanery and cynicism that have characterised their political rhetoric and the peace process as a whole. This essay argues that Loane���s transformation of these comedic pantomime horses into Trojan ones loaded with a ruthless polemical critique of our ruling political elites is all the more important in the context of a self-censoring media that has stifled dissent and debate by protecting the peace process from inconvenient truths. From these close and contextual readings of Loane���s plays, wider issues relating to the political efficacy of comedy and its canonical relegation below ���higher forms��� in Irish theatre historiography will also be considered.