“The balance of cruelty”: Ireland, Britain and the logic of genocide1

McVeigh, Robbie

doi:10.1080/14623520802447792

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…It involved real suffering of real people in actual historical time. Colonialism involved land expropriation, settlement, ongoing violence, the use of law as a weapon of submission, skewed wealth distribution, sexual violence, policies of cultural marginalization or annihilation and ultimately genocide (McVeigh 2008). Extermination was frequently the inevitable acolyte of colonialism.…”

Section: Postcolonial Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonialism, Redress and Transitional Justice: Ireland and Beyond

Rolston

Aoláin

2018

State Crime Journal

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The article begins by addressing the contribution and limits of postcolonial studies to the understanding of colonialism; in particular, it critiques the field's fixation on the discursive to the detriment of the material reality of colonialism. We then examine the intellectual history of transitional justice (TJ) as a field and a practice and itemize some of the criticisms made of its shortcomings, not least in relation to colonial harms. These harms are considered in detail through the specific example of colonialism in Ireland. We focus on the noticeable absence of the concept of colonialism from contemporary deliberations and practices of transition in relation to the Northern Ireland conflict. Finally, we interrogate the ability of TJ in the postcolonial period to adequately make amends for colonialism, again focusing on the Irish case, concluding that while there are major obstacles in such a task, especially in relation to “hard” measures, there are also some promising possibilities, particularly as regards “soft” measures. The lessons learnt are applicable to a range of other transitional sites grappling with postcolonial legacies.

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Section: Postcolonial Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonialism, Redress and Transitional Justice: Ireland and Beyond

Rolston

Aoláin

2018

State Crime Journal

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Britain and genocide: historical and contemporary parameters of national responsibility

Shaw¹

2011

Rev. Int. Stud.

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This article (originally given as the Annual War Studies Lecture at King's College, London, on 25 January 2010) challenges the assumption that Britain's relationship to genocide is constituted by its ‘vigilance’ towards the genocide of others. Through a critical overview of the question of genocide in the historical and contemporary politics of the British state and society, the article suggests their wide-ranging, complex relationships to genocide. Utilising a conception of genocide as multi-method social destruction and applying the interpretative frames of the genocide literature, it argues that the British state and elements of identifiably British populations have been involved directly and indirectly in genocide in a number of different international contexts. These are addressed through five themes: the role of genocide in the origins of the British state; the problem of genocide in the Empire and British settler colonialism; Britain's relationships to twentieth-century European genocide; its role in the genocidal violence of decolonisation; and finally, Britain's role in the genocidal crises of the post-Cold War world. The article examines the questions of national responsibility that this survey raises: while rejecting simple ideas of national responsibility as collective guilt, it nevertheless argues that varying kinds of responsibility for genocide attach to British institutions, leaders and population groups at different points in the history surveyed.

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Hate and the State: Northern Ireland, Sectarian Violence and ‘Perpetrator-less Crime’

McVeigh

2017

Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime

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“The balance of cruelty”: Ireland, Britain and the logic of genocide1

Cited by 8 publications

References 2 publications

Colonialism, Redress and Transitional Justice: Ireland and Beyond

Colonialism, Redress and Transitional Justice: Ireland and Beyond

Britain and genocide: historical and contemporary parameters of national responsibility

Hate and the State: Northern Ireland, Sectarian Violence and ‘Perpetrator-less Crime’

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