Ever-evolving nation-state now propelled by EU integration

YOU might think the decision by Sinn Féin to allow Martin McGuinness to shake the Queen’s hand is a historic moment or a political stunt, but either way it’s another sign the Shinners accept the new political reality: one where the definition of ‘Ireland’ is rather nebulous.

Since the nineteenth century, the nation-state — where political and ethnic entities coincide — has been regarded as the ‘natural’ and preferable form of geo-political organisation. Given our history of struggle to get to where we are, we tend to cling to nation-statehood; and given their histories, many of our European neighbours are a bit more lukewarm on the idea.

What changed for them was the Second World War: when nationalism — the emotional wing of nation-statehood — spurred people to barbarous cruelty. The establishment of what became the European Union was a response to this barbarity: the idea being that shared economic interests would blunt the edges off nationalism. Then, and now, there was a clear implication that the nation- state might not be the best way to organise the peoples of Europe.