Delmarva Today: 3-19-21
Harold Wilson's guest is Professor Margo Shea. Dr. Shea is a professor of history at Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts. Last year Wilson interviewed Margo on her new book Derry City: Memory and Political Struggle in Northern Ireland. Margo agreed to come back to Delmarva Today and talk about the work she is doing on the parallels she finds between the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1960’s and the cultural and political unrest we are experiencing here in the US today.
On January six we witnessed an unprecedented seditious siege of our nation’s capital resulting in the placement of a wire mesh fence and National Guard troops around the capital. The insurrection has also prompted an increasing recognition of right-wing paramilitary groups. And a number of states are initiating voter suppression laws including the redrawing of congressional maps. How do we make sense of the growing cultural conflict we witnessed on the sixth and still see playing out across the country? One way, historian Margo Shea argues is to look at the conflict in Northern Ireland and see if there are parallels that can be drawn. Shea argues, “[T]he things that spell trouble for the United States in light of Northern Ireland’s Troubles are historically rooted: 1. The Republican party’s increased reliance on political redistricting – gerrymandering – to insure electoral advantages; 2. The emergence of young educated, articulate and passionate political and civic leaders prepared to take a stand in order to demand that the US acknowledge and redress unfulfilled promises of equality and liberty, and finally'; 3. The rise of a paramilitarization among civilians.”