"It just so happens that the events and constitutional arrangements encountered in the NI story disorder most consistently and most significantly from norms or conventions found within and between the stories of the UK’s other constituent parts. For this reason, NI and its divergences have tended to be overlooked or underanalysed in wider discussions about the UK and its constitution. The aim of this book is to do the opposite. To redress the NI blind spot that has all too frequently been evident in UK-wide analyses, this short volume considers the exceptional case of NI against the backdrop of, and in dialogue with, the state-wide evolution of the UK constitution as well as relevant constitutional developments beyond its borders.

To this end the book has a tripartite structure: the first section provides a high-level account of NI history with a focus on constitutional events and arrangements contained therein; the second considers the constitutional history of NI in the UK-wide context and also in the even broader, often omitted, setting of the constitutional variation evident in international UK history (i.e. the British Empire historically and British overseas territories and Crown dependencies contemporaneously); bringing the discussion up to the present day, the third and final section begins by providing a ‘health check’ on the current constitutional arrangements in NI and the political landscape in which they operate, before going on to consider the possible future constitutional scenarios in/for NI and their potential constitutional repercussions elsewhere in the UK, in Ireland, and internationally.

As poetically implied by a local artist Ferna in a song to mark a century of the complex, contested yet compelling place that is NI, to tell its story is to engage with a history and a present in which fear and courage intertwine. There is no way of articulating what follows without at least touching upon (if not actively aggravating) personal and collective grievance. From the outset it is therefore appropriate to offer a blanket disclaimer: the purpose here is to describe the history of NI and its place in national and international narratives in as objective a manner as possible. Inevitably, some will conclude that the attempt has been in vain; nonetheless, an aspiration for narrative neutrality underlies the unavoidably partial story (and stories) contained herein."
 

from the Introduction