S01E23 Colm O’Comartun, Politics of Ireland
Clawing at the Celtic Tiger
Bloody Conflict has Ended in Northern Ireland, Now the Economic War Begins
March 13, 2021 – Twenty years after a Northern Ireland peace agreement ended a three-decade civil war between Catholics wanting to join the southern Republic and Protest unionists with loyalty to Great Britain, a new battle has emerged on the economic front.
Great Britain has severed ties with the Economic Union in Europe – known as Brexit – whose impact is washing ashore on the island of Ireland and Northern Ireland, threatening to undermine economic gains that blossomed from the peace, said Colm O’Comartun, former director of the Irish Institute at Boston College.
“It exposed in many ways... how little the British government thinks about Northern Ireland,” O’Comartun told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields. “They entered into the Brexit process without acknowledging or understanding constitutional and international agreements.”
O’Comartun, who attained an undergraduate and graduate degree in political science from University College Dublin, also reflects on Irish history and the best movies to watch for St. Patrick’s Day.
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Listen to the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields can be heard at retailpoliticspodcast.com and on Apple and Spotify.