Whither the ‘Hand of History’?: Northern Ireland Newspaper Coverage of the 2016 EU Referendum Campaign

Abstract

The visit of high-profile British politicians to Northern Ireland during the 2016 EU referendum campaign might have, if only briefly, moved the region to the centre of the debate about the UK and EU, the two larger unions of which it is a peripheral member. As it happened, coverage of these events in the indigenous press was muted, largely confined to the inside pages and eliciting little editorial comment or political response. This chapter argues that this low-key coverage was symptomatic of a feeling that Northern Ireland was marginal to the outcome of the EU referendum, despite the potential consequences of Brexit for the region and its border with the Republic of Ireland. Accentuating that sense of marginality was the 2016 EU referendum appearing as a peculiarly English dispute: the driving force behind the Brexit campaign an emergent English nationalism. Given the bitterness and divisiveness of the debate, the dispute in Northern Ireland over constitutional issues and identity no longer looks so alien and parochial. Indeed, the region may have something to teach England about sovereignty and national allegiance.