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AbstractThe experience of the 2019 general election in Northern Ireland took a very different course to that of the rest of the UK and, indeed, to the pattern of electoral politics typical of the region. Coming after almost three years with no functioning devolved government, combined with intense disagreement and uncertainty about Brexit, voters were ready to give a message to the two largest parties. Both Sinn Féin and the DUP suffered losses in the election, with the headline outcome being that unionism no longer holds the majority of seats for Northern Ireland in Westminster. More generally, there was a swing from both sides towards centre ground voting, which brought significant gains for the Alliance Party and the SDLP. This article summarises the reasons for this broad trend, focussing on the conditions and electoral pacts which brought it about. It also considers what it might mean for the prospects for Irish unification, noting that a referendum on unification will only be passed by attracting votes from those who tend to see themselves as neither unionist or nationalist.

The United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union centred on a campaign to 'take back control' of its borders. So how will this work on the island of Ireland?

This paper shows why the Northern Ireland/Ireland border moved from a marginal to a core concern in the UK's withdrawal from the EU ('Brexit'). Drawing on longitudinal research on the impact of the EU on the Irish border, and contemporaneous research on the Phase 1 of negotiations of the UK's withdrawal from the EU, it explains this case study through three broad themes. First, the impact of EU membership on the transformation of the border and, secondly, the challenges posed by Brexit to the border in practical and symbolic terms. Finally, it analyses how these have been addressed in the call for 'specific solutions' to meet the UK's ambition of 'avoiding a hard border' after withdrawal. In so doing, it explores the ways in which the multi-layered complexities of a small, peripheral geographical region came to influence the course of the UK's most important set of international negotiations for half a century.

Book Review: Emerson, Peter, Defining Democracy: Voting Procedures in Decision-making, Elections and Governance (2nd edn), Springer, London, 2012

The premise for finding common ground between unionism and nationalism in Northern Ireland in the 1998 Agreement centred on an accepted compromise regarding what the future of the province might be: continued union within the UK was assured but could be changed if unity with the Republic of Ireland was the will of the majority. In this way, Northern Ireland was suspended as if on a see-saw between the 'two traditions'. As a consequence, the very success of power-sharing has made it difficult for parties to articulate a shared vision of Northern Ireland's future. This paper identifies a 'negative silence' regarding the outlook for Northern Ireland and seeks to uncover some of its implications by analysing three of its constitutive elements. First, how the aspirational discourse of the four largest political parties has remained largely entrenched in oppositional gullies. Second, how the debate around the Shared Future framework and Cohesion, Sharing and Integration programme ironically embodies deep differences in political visions of a 'shared' future for Northern Ireland. Finally, interview-based reflections on how an inability to articulate a future for Northern Ireland affects the young 'Agreement generation' and their (dis)empowerment as citizens. The paper concludes that the thicker the fog of silence grows over the subject of Northern Ireland's future, the bleaker this future is likely to be