Northern Ireland is suddenly relevant for Westminster elections and Westminster is relevant for Northern Ireland

What happens in the 18 constituencies of Northern Ireland next May could well be of profound importance both for the outcome at Westminster and for the stability of Northern Ireland. In past elections, MPs from Northern Ireland have been largely irrelevant to the legislative arithmetic of government formation in Westminster. However, in 2015, as Matthew Whiting shows in this post, the fragmentation of the Conservative and Labour vote means that Northern Irish MPs may play a crucial role in deciding which parties govern

New routes to old goals: the strategic transformation of Sinn Féin and the IRA

What does it mean for a radical or separatist group to moderate – does it change its values and goals in the process or only the ways it communicates them? Looking at the case of Irish republicans, Matthew Whiting explains how Sinn Féin and the IRA came to change their behaviour but not necessarily their goals, while also emphasising the importance of tolerance on the part of the states involved

One step closer to a united Ireland? Explaining Sinn Féin’s electoral success

For the first time, unionist parties do not hold an overall majority in Northern Ireland following the recent election. But although the result confirms that Sinn Féin has transformed into an electoral force, is advancing a united Ireland still central to its agenda? Matthew Whiting writes that the promise of a united Ireland looks more like a victim of Sinn Féin’s success than the next step in their ever conquering rise

The Scottish referendum is still a victory for Scotland

The Scottish referendum result strengthened Scottish nationalism and weakened Scotland’s position within the Union. That feels more like a victory than a defeat for Scottish independence

Multi-object spectroscopy of the field surrounding PKS 2126-158: Discovery of a z=0.66 galaxy group

The high-redshift radio-loud quasar PKS 2126-158 is found to have a large number of red galaxies in close apparent proximity. We use the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South to obtain optical spectra for a large fraction of these sources. We show that there is a group of galaxies at $z\sim0.66$, coincident with a metal-line absorption system seen in the quasar's optical spectrum. The multiplexing capabilities of GMOS also allow us to measure redshifts of many foreground galaxies in the field surrounding the quasar. The galaxy group has five confirmed members, and a further four fainter galaxies are possibly associated. All confirmed members exhibit early-type galaxy spectra, a rare situation for a Mg II absorbing system. We discuss the relationship of this group to the absorbing gas, and the possibility of gravitational lensing of the quasar due to the intervening galaxies.Comment: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in press. 10 pages, 8 figure

Turkey’s protests have stirred debate about democracy and the unchecked power of governments that have an electoral mandate.

What do the protests of the past two weeks mean for democracy in Turkey? Zeynep N. Kaya and Matthew Whiting argue that they represent the clash between the desire of the Prime Minister, Recep Tayip Erdoğan, for a majoritarian politics with few checks on power, and those who wish for government to consult widely in its decision-making. While the current protests are damaging for Turkish politics in the short-term, in the long-term, they may be beneficial if they cause a shift towards greater engagement with opposition concerns

Can Turkey learn anything from Northern Ireland?

Recently a group of politicians and commentators from Turkey visited Northern Ireland to learn about its peace process and explore any lessons this might hold for the ongoing fragile negotiations between the Turkish government and the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan. The visitors met with former rebels-turned-politicians from Sinn Féin as well as senior British and Irish political figures, in a trip that was endorsed by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayip Erdogan. But not all politicians in Turkey were happy with the direction of the peace negotiations – the leader of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kermal Kılıçdaroğlu, has claimed in the past that Britain’s actions in Northern Ireland were of a fundamentally different nature and cannot serve as a model for Turkey. Today, he is more supportive of entering negotiations with Öcalan, but he is critical of the government for entering negotiations without working through cross-party parliamentary structures. Therefore, it is prescient to ask if the Northern Irish model has any lessons for Turkish officials to achieve peace

The myth of polarisation in Northern Ireland: rethinking claims that instability is due to increased polarisation caused by power-sharing

Matthew Whiting and Stefan Bauchowitz argue that the assumption that power-sharing entrenches polarisation is not the reality that many think it is. By examining legislator voting records, speeches by party leaders, manifestos and public opinion data, they find that overall polarisation declined. They suggest that instability is instead caused by parties in Northern Ireland being encouraged by Westminster to adopt positions of brinksmanship as electoral strategies