Nineteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

With the recent emergence of centrist politics in Northern Ireland, this paper offers a conceptual analysis of Northern Ireland’s political ‘centre-ground’. It contributes to growing debates on Irish unity and the increase in individuals identifying as ‘neither unionist nor nationalist’. Relying on 40+ interviews with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and the Green Party Northern Ireland, this paper recognises that ‘remaining neutral’ is a constitutional position in its own right, but adds conceptual meaning to this position by demonstrating the identity dynamics and non-binary thinking of those within this ‘centre-ground’. It reviews how the ‘centre-ground’ makes sense of its hesitant feelings towards their parties picking a side. It profiles the malleability of identity in the group, which is disconnected from symbolic elements. The paper argues that identity plays into the deliberations of this traditionally ‘practical’ grouping on a referendum for a united Ireland (‘border poll’). It challenges claims that Brexit significantly changed the centre-grounds’ unification preferences. It draws how the ‘centre-ground’ imagines a ‘united Ireland’ and its micro-awareness of the sensitivities around certain constiutional language. The paper illustrates the group’s preferences around pre-border poll planning and the barrier for this group in expressing suggestions for accommodating different identities. Importantly, it defines their views on what would make Northern Ireland ‘ready’ for a vote. Placing the ‘centre-ground’ within the Irish unity debate is important because neither nationalists nor unionists hold a clear majority in Northern Ireland and public opinion on constitutional change is the legal trigger for a border poll.