Civil Society, Post-Colonialism and Transnational Solidarity originates from Louvet¿s observation of the strong commitment of a layer of Irish civil society- from the man on the street to political parties, associations and trade unions- to the defence of one antagonist or the other in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, beginning with the Six Day War in 1967 and increasingly so after the Lebanon Wars at the start of the 1980s and the Second Intifada (2000-2005). This book observes how this phenomenon is particularly striking in Northern Ireland, where Israeli and Palestinian flags have been flown by Unionists and Nationalists as signs of solidarity and identification. Louvet sheds light on the dynamics and strategies at play in the Middle East conflict in Northern Ireland but also in the Republic of Ireland, a country considered to be widely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. With an overarching perspective highlighting the influence of Irish colonial history over the motives and discourse of the different levels of mobilization in civil society, this book shows the global movement towards the fragmentation and specialization of transnational solidarity actions in Ireland.

Introduction.- Theoretical Introduction.- Part I. Irish Civil Society and transnational solidarity with Palestine.- 1. Origins and evolutions of pro-Palestine associations in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.- 2. Trade Unions in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the question of boycott.- 3. A politicisation of Irish NGOs ?.- Part II. Republicanism and the colonial reading of the Middle East.- 4. Socialist republicanism, Marxism and the issue of Palestine.- 5. Republicanism and the Israel-Palestine conflict.- Part III. Pro-Israel Ireland.- 6. Voicing support for Israel: civil associations in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.- 7. Unionism, Loyalism and pro-Israel support.- Conclusion

Marie-Violaine Louvet is a Lecturer at Toulouse 1-Capitole University, France. She graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan and is a holder of the Agrégation d'anglais. She completed her PhD in 2013 at Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle University. Her research focuses on Ireland and transnational solidarity movements with the Middle East in the twentieth and twenty-first century.