The Celtic fringe and European integration: Sovereignty, nationalism, and the European Communities debate in Scotland and Ireland, 1961--1975

This dissertation is an examination of political elite attitudes toward European integration in Scotland and Ireland from 1961 to 1975, focusing on the primacy of political or nationalist perspectives over traditional economic issues within these debates. Using the archival records of political parties, trade union organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups, as well as personal interviews, newspaper resources, and parliamentary papers, it evaluates the importance of identity, sovereignty, and nationalism to debate in both countries. Along with this, it explores two related phenomena: first, how the issues of devolution in Scotland and partition in Ireland intersected with the integration debates; and second, how the organizational roles of the Scottish National Party in Scotland and the Common Market Defense Campaign in Ireland contributed to the growth of Euroscepticism during this period. For Ireland, the path towards Europe made a fundamental contribution to the modernization and transformation of its state and society in the late 20 th century, which altered the construction and conceptualization of Irish national identity in ways that de-intensified nationalist sentiment. For Scotland, this was true as well, but in reverse, as European integration debate in Britain contributed to the growth of political Scottish nationalism, itself in part a response to the transformation of Scottish society in the late 20th century. Finally, it examines the European Community referendum campaigns in both Ireland and Scotland, exploring the importance of political questions to these events.