New Issue Irish Studies in International Affairs

The latest issue of the journal Irish Studies in International Affairs features two articles by colleagues:

Subjugated Knowledges and the Politics of Irish Unification: Is There a Space for Women’s Voices? by Fidelma Ashe

Drawing on a case study of constitutional debates on the island of Ireland, this article examines how a feminist approach reveals the displacement of marginalised identities in terms of authorised and disqualified knowledges. It explores how constitutional transitions can be reimagined to foster participa-tory, equitable and gender-responsive frameworks that disrupt entrenched power dynamics and promote transformative inclusion.

Through the lens of the Critical Epistemologies Across Borders project, this article illustrates how feminist principles were operationalised in the Irish context to reconfigure privileged and marginalised constitutional knowledges. By fostering inclusive, participatory spaces that centred women’s voices and diverse standpoints across geographic, social and identity boundaries, the project disrupted entrenched epistemic inequalities.

The article concludes that without robust, sustained interventions by stakeholders to prioritise feminist constitutionalism, marginalised groups— particularly women and sexual and gender minorities—risk remaining sidelined in constitutional debates, perpetuating inequitable gender power dynamics.

A Review of Employment Law in Ireland, North and South by Esther McGuinness, Desmond Ryan (Trinity) and Rory O'Connell

This article explores the evolution and current state of employment law across the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland, a century after the 1920 Government of Ireland Act. Labour law, long debated for its legitimacy as a legal discipline, sits at the intersection of legal doctrine, political theory and social justice.

The collapse of classical labour law models and the pressures of globalisation have further politicised the field. This study examines how partition and constitutional changes have affected shared legal origins, with a focus on statutory, constitutional and common law developments.

It analyses collective and individual labour law, including health and safety, through the lens of historical and contemporary influences, such as Brexit and the Windsor Framework, highlighting how labour law continues to be shaped by broader social and political dynamics, creating both divergence and convergence across Northern Ireland and Ireland in response to changing domestic and international conditions.