- Episode 1 - Home Rule and the Ulster Crisis
- Episode 2 - Partition and the Two Irelands
- Episode 3 - The Partitionist Mentality
- Episode 4 -'Gender and partition: ‘it’s a queer sort of existence this’'
- Episode 5 - Partition and the Southern Irish Protestant experience.
- Episode 6 -‘Northern Ireland: the UK’s first example of devolution’
- Episode 7 - Our church will never perish out of this land: the southern Irish Protestant experience of partition
- Episode 8 - Class in Northern Ireland, a family history
- Episode 9 -The IRA and the Partition of Ireland
- Episode 10 - Partition: Imperial Contexts Professor Jane Ohlmeyer
- Episode 11 - Rethinking unionism and partition, 1900-1921 Alvin Jackson
- Episode 12 -'Community, church and culture in boundary-making' J.Todd
- Episode 13 Ernest Clark - Cormac Moore
- Episode 14 - Life on the line: partition and the border P.Leary
- Episode 15 - Acts of partition: from the Government of Ireland act 1920 to the Boundary Commission1925. M O'Callaghan
- Episode 16 - Writing the Border G.Patterson
- Episode 17 - Partition's Casualties: religious minorities in the new states M.Elliott
- Episode 18 - Violence: The human cost of Partition Dr Tim Wilson
- Episode 19 - The Killing of Sir Henry Wilson: An Irish Tragedy F.McGarry
- Episode 20 - Comparative Reflections Professor Brendan O’Leary
- Episode 21 -Richard Bourke Unionisims and Partition
- Episode 22 - The Partition of Ireland in a Global ContextB.Kissane
- Episode 23 - Broadcasting and the Border: How partition influenced broadcasting R Savage
- Episode 24 - Partition and the Anglo-Irish Treaty Robert Lynch
The Partition of Ireland talks programme in partnership with 
Talk 20
Partition in Comparative Perspective
Professor O’Leary, a former Senior Advisor on Power-sharing to the United Nations, examines the partition of Ireland in comparative perspective, noting that partition by decolonizing powers has since been outlawed in international law, a norm that came too late for Ireland.
Ultimately partition was a decision made by British Liberal Imperialists and Conservatives, without appropriate consent. O’Leary shows that most justifications of partitions do not withstand historical or comparative scrutiny. The comparative evidence suggests that when partition is suggested the policy response should neither be “Give war a chance” (Edward Luttwak) nor “Give peace a chance” (John Lennon), but rather “Give power-sharing a chance.”
The talk will be released here to view on Monday 6 September at 12pm.
About Professor Brendan O’Leary
Brendan O'Leary is the current Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an extensive author with his most recent publication, A Treatise on Northern Ireland, awarded the 2020 James S. Donnelly Sr. best book prize in History and Social Science of the American Conference on Irish Studies. Along with Professor John Garry from Queen’s University Belfast, he is currently researching the UK's secession from the EU, and possible models of Irish re-unification.
Professor O’Leary is the inaugural winner of the Juan Linz prize of the International Political Science Association and in 2016 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy. In addition to his scholarly work, O’Leary has been a political and constitutional advisor to the United Nations, the European Union, the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, the Governments of the UK and Ireland, and to the British Labour Party (before and during the Irish peace process).
Further Reading
- Brendan O’Leary, A Treatise on Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2020), Vol 1, Chapter 7, and Vol 2, Chapters 1 and 2.
- Michael Laffan, The Partition of Ireland, 1911-1925 (Dundalgan Press, 1983)
- Denis Gwynn, The History of Partition, 1912-1925 (Browne and Nolan, 1950)