Democracy and Dissent in the Irish Free State

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Democracy and dissent analyses the difficulties surrounding the establishment of a democracy in postrevolutionary and postcolonial Ireland. It focuses particularly on the problems in normalising opposition as something other than divisive, dangerous and helpful to the colonial power. It illustrates the collision between nineteenth-century monolithic nationalist movements with the norms and expectations of multiparty parliamentary democracy. The heirs of Sinn Féin repeatedly attempted to build or rebuild national movements and delegitimise opposition as anti-national or non-Irish. The smaller parties - the Farmers' and Labour parties, as well as the National League - sought to break the unnatural dominance of nationalist issues and to create a politics that reflected left-right splits that were perceived as normal in other European countries. The initial attempt to decolonise the state and break with British traditions was crucial in fomenting the tensions between multiparty democracy and nationalist solidarity, and this volume argues that anticolonialism was a key factor in Irish nationalism generally and in the Irish revolution more specifically. Democracy and dissent vividly interrogates the difficulties in creating a Gaelic state that would be democratic, pluralistic, and nationalist, and will appeal to anyone working in modern Irish history.