Writer and academic, Fintan O’Toole had planned to speak at ‘The Breakup of Britain?’ but unfortunately had to withdraw due to other commitments. He wanted to share, with our attendees the importance of Tom Nairn’s work

“For many decades, it was simply impossible to think about the future of the archipelago of which I inhabit, the Irish part, or indeed to think about the future of the European Union without taking into account Tom Nairn’s work.”

In this video Fintan O’Toole explains the importance of the conference and why he’s sad he can’t make it:

Anthony Barnett, Co-founder of openDemocracy and author of ‘The Lure of Greatness’ chaired the conference steering group that has helped to develop The Breakup of Britain?

“The conference is a salute to the late Tom Nairn, who, writing in the 1970s, predicted that this (the English revolution) would be the most important element in the general upheaval of British affairs, the hardest to foresee and take the longest to achieve. But on it, our future will depend. Well, now we know: its character is reactionary. But it was called Brexit.”