Abstract
Momentous anniversaries in the life of a nation offer an opportunity for reflection. 2022 will mark one hundred years since the foundation of the Irish Free State. Also in 1922, Dr Ernest Jones (1923/1951a) delivered his lecture ‘The island of Ireland, A Psycho-Analytical Contribution to Political Psychology’ before the British Psycho-Analytical Society. A relic of colonial writing of the period, it has trickled down, with comparatively little challenge, through the psychoanalytic literature. A century later, this paper re-examines Jones’s psychoanalytic interpretation of politics and its deployment in support of a political hegemony. It further explores his interpretation of relationships around the British Isles in the context of Island Studies and considers what aspects might apply to both islands during a period of political instability surrounding Brexit in the United Kingdom.