Following from certain recent
discussions in history I’ve also thinking again about Irish history, exceptionality and comparative frameworks. (1)

Not being a historian of Ireland (nor of colonialism) I’m also very much on the margins of all of this, of course. I’m also coming from a social, cultural and gender history perspective.

One thing I’m always thinking about the mid 20th c is that is we could get away from thinking in terms of a democracy/dictatorship binary, there might be comparisons to made between Ireland and eg Franco’s Spain in terms of religion, gender, family

Another potential way of looking at Ireland is to see it together with other marginal, historically rural regions at margins of Europe esp in south ie Sicily and south of Italy.

This allows us to see Ireland in terms of discourses about modernity/modernisation as well as colonialism/coloniality (although could perhaps speak to internal colonialism within Europe depending on how defined).

Finally I’d agree with @keosulli that we need to pay much closer attention to the later twentieth century and perhaps rethink/decentre the traditional (political) periodisations

This has been my first thread - not sure twitter is the best place for exchanges of this kind - I look forward to seeing these discussions develop in other ways whether in print or in person. Challenging notions of Ireland's exceptionality always interesting and important!