class

class. The class structure of modern Ireland has been moulded by a number of factors, both external and internal. The colonial and imperial relationship with Britain led to a situation where the various collectivities within the island tended not to relate to each other directly, but mediated their relationships through the British link. The internal dynamic of conflict in the 19th century came to focus on the question of nationalism versus unionism rather than on the ownership and control of the means of production. In objective terms, 19th‐century Ireland had a clear class structure where various groups (tenants, labourers, landlords, industrial workers, bourgeoisie) often came into conflict over the allocation, control, and ownership of resources. Agrarian agitation and the Land War provide one example of this.

What was absent from the Irish situation, in contrast to other European countries, was the emergence of a class for itself, the construction of a distinct class‐consciousness which welded people together around common concerns and actions. The formation of the European socialist parties were an index of this process in Europe. In Ireland, questions of religion, nation, and ethnicity caused cleavages which continually disrupted any movement towards class politics.

Attempts were made to raise the class question, or to merge it with the national cause. James Connolly championed a socialist republic, and James Larkin's trade union agitation had a distinct class flavour. However, class politics was subordinated to the national question and de Valera's comment that ‘labour must wait’ aptly encapsulated the situation. Partition reinforced the subordination of class to nation as well as ensuring that the southern economy would be dominated by the agricultural sectors until the 1960s.

Significant changes to the class structure did not begin to occur until the 1960s. In the Republic, the ending of economic protectionism in 1958 and entry into the European Union in 1972 led to a decline in small‐scale local industry and agriculture and a shift towards more service‐based occupations. More jobs became knowledge based, leading to an expansion in higher education, and the traditional classes of agricultural labourers and industrial workers (both skilled and unskilled) entered a period of rapid contraction. Women began to enter the workforce in greater numbers. In Northern Ireland, the collapse of traditional male‐dominated heavy industry and the rapid decline of the textile industry—mainly staffed by low‐paid female labour—brought about a broadly similar pattern of change, which was reinforced by the rapid expansion of the state sector in the 1970s. In both parts of Ireland the most significant changes to the class structure were the increased involvement of women in the workforce, the expansion of the state and service sector, and the spread of knowledge‐based occupations.

The last two decades in the Republic have seen a change in this pattern where politics were dominated by the divisions of the Civil War. Politics have assumed a new volatility as the class basis of traditional politics changed and the class structure assumed a form similar to other western European countries. Loyalty to a particular party has declined and significant sectors of the new class and occupational structure have no political allegiances or display a shifting and opportunist attitude. The political effects of changes in the class structure are less visible in Northern Ireland. Although the changes have, if anything, been more far reaching, effects on traditional political allegiances have been slight. There is little evidence that the pattern of ethnic allegiances in politics and voting preferences has undergone any significant change.

Bibliography

Hutton, S., and and Stewart, P. , Ireland's Histories: Aspects of State, Society and Ideology (1991)

J. P. Smyth