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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 (Essays in applied psycho-analysis, volume 1, miscellaneous essays. Hogarth Press, London, pp 95–112, 1923/1951a) delivered his lecture ‘The Island of Ireland, A Psycho-Analytical Contribution to Political Psychology’ before the British Psycho-Analytical Association. 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.