19th February 1999

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The recent history of the survival of democracy in Ireland was one of the themes reflected in an inaugural lecture given to launch a new Centre for Research on Contemporary Irish Politics at the University of Ulster,

The University's Professor of Politics, Henry Patterson, says the new Centre aims to promote research on Irish politics since the Partition:

"While recognising the depth of the division which gave rise to the Irish states and which Partition and thirty years of Troubles deepened, the Centre would wish to encourage perspectives which transcend the tendency of political science on the island to operate in a partitionist way."

The Centre's inaugural lecture, entitled "The Consolidation of Irish Democracy" was given by Peter Mair, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Leiden, the Netherlands. The Professor's recent book, 'The Changing Irish Party System', is recognised as a major contribution to Irish political science.

"The lecture drew attention to the process of democratic consolidation in Ireland since the Thirties, highlighting what in retrospect, and from a comparative prospective, was quite a remarkable achievement. Political commentators who have surveyed the development of the Irish state in the twentieth century have tended to take democracy for granted.

"In fact, the chances were probably against its survival - particularly in the 1930s. That democracy could survive and become consolidated in Ireland at that time was largely due to the path chosen by Eamon de Valera and his Finna Fail party, who, when push came to shove, proved to be democratic against the odds. The maintenance of democracy in Ireland in this sense constitutes a major success story, and it should be recognised as such," explained Professor Patterson.

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