Na granicy. O irlandzkich podziałach społeczno-kulturowych i geopolitycznych

This article looks back at the origins of Ireland’s geopolitical division into southern and northern parts, focusing first on key events of the second decade and early third decade of the 20th century in the British Isles. The border established by the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 began to define the geopolitical reality of the entire island in 1922, although its recognition by the Irish side came only as a result of the Good Friday Agreements in 1998. The main object of reflection is not so much the geopolitical fait accompli in the form of the borderline that now separates the European Union from the United Kingdom, but the Irish border as a socio-cultural phenomenon. This border is defined both through attitudes and reactions to the division on the part of borderlanders (border communities) and by tourists and researchers interested in its modus vivendi/operandi, such as Colm Tóibín, Garrett Carr, and Darach MacDonald. Keywords: border, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland conflict, borderland, geopolitics, border narratives