Join us on Wednesday 5 April for an event to celebrate the launch of Ties That Bind? by Graham Walker and James Greer in association with Irish Academic Press. Featuring guest speaker Dr Richard English.

***Book your space via the Eventbrite link at the bottom of this page.***

Ties That Bind? is an engrossing and timely study of the historical, cultural and political relationship between Scotland and Northern Ireland at a seminal moment in the constitutional history of both places. It has seldom been acknowledged, and rarely explored in any real depth, but this important book conclusively demonstrates just how deeply entwined the two countries are.

The book explores how Scottish-Ulster ties historically acted as a bridge between Britain and Ireland and should be central to contemporary debates regarding Britishness, sectarianism and devolution. It reveals the connections and tensions between ascendent Scottish nationalism, Brexit, and deadlock in Northern Ireland, and argues that, rather than the inevitable collapse of the UK, these challenges show that the constitutional futures of Scotland and Northern Ireland are both still very much up for grabs.

Graham Walker is Emeritus Professor of Political History at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published widely in the subject areas of Irish and Scottish history and politics, and the politics of sport.

Dr James Greer’s publications have focused on the political history of Ulster unionism, the modern Troubles, British and Irish labour, and Irish Presbyterianism. His research has also explored the politics of European integration in Northern Ireland, and literature and popular culture in twentieth-century Northern Ireland.

Guest speaker Richard English is Professor of Politics at Queen’s University Belfast, where he is also Director of  the  Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice.