History Commons^™

Referendum Metrics: The Numbers Game, Chapter Five From Perils And Prospects Of A United Ireland, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is an extract from Perils and Prospects of a United Ireland, published by Lilliput Press, Dublin, Ireland in March 2023. The book draws on extensive interviews with ninety-seven senior politicians across the ethno-national divide, a range of academics and political commentators, and religious leaders.

The context for the chapter is the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (B/GFA), which ended thirty years of violent conflict between Irish republicans, mostly Catholic, who wanted Northern Ireland to become reunified with the rest of Ireland, and unionists, mostly Protestants supported by British security forces, who wanted to maintain the union of Northern Ireland …

Cardinal Cahal Daly: A Vatican Ii Bishop Seeking The Kingdom Of God, Maria Power

The Journal of Social Encounters

Cardinal Cahal Daly (1917-2009) was the only member of the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland to hold office from the beginning of the conflict there in 1969 to the paramilitary ceasefires in 1996. He was well known for his pronouncements on the causes of the conflict and his use of Catholic social teaching to offer solutions. Political structures have played a key role in stabilising Northern Ireland since 1998 and Daly used Catholic concepts of democracy and statecraft to explore alternative possible futures for Northern Ireland in the years prior to their implementation. This article will show how much of his …

Cultural Work In Peacebuilding Among Traumatized Communities Of Northern Ireland 1: Background And General Considerations, Eugen Koh

New England Journal of Public Policy

Peace in Northern Ireland today remains fragile despite the exhaustive peacebuilding efforts that have taken place since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Many aspects of the sectarian conflict have been embedded in cultural substrata of the respective communities, and cultural transformation is necessary to achieve comprehensive and sustained peace. The basic assumptions about the Other in this sectarian conflict have their origin in traumatic events that occurred more than three hundred years ago and have been reinforced by the more recent three decades of conflict known as the Troubles. These traumatic individual and collective experiences across the generations have …

Cultural Work In Peacebuilding Among Traumatized Communities Of Northern Ireland 2: Talking About Culture, Eugen Koh

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is the second of two that describe a psychodynamically informed understanding of the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland and an approach to cultural transformation called “cultural work” aimed at building peace among the state’s traumatized communities. The conflict between Protestant and Catholic communities has extended well into the cultural domain and is often weaponized to attack the Other. Conversations about culture quickly become stuck in a quagmire of identity politics. This article describes a psychodynamic trauma–informed approach to cultural conversations involving an in-depth analysis of culture that avoids becoming stuck. It outlines a framework and set of preconditions …

Religion And Conflict: The Case Of Northern Ireland, Padraig O'Malley

Padraig O'Malley

Now that the peace process, however fragile and tenuous, has stayed the course, despite some serious obstacles and setbacks, and talks between the British government and Sinn Fein are taking place, it is a time to reflect on the nature of the divisions that have scarred our lives and psyches. One of the most under-researched and least understood aspects of the conflict is the role religious differences play - or do not play. 1 While it is a common practice to label the two communities as "Catholics" and "Protestants," and to keep the tally-roll of the dead according to religious …

A Pre-Negotiation Guide To The Conflict In Northern Ireland, Padraig O'Malley

Padraig O'Malley

On September 1, 1994, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) declared a ceasefire. The declaration was potentially one of the most significant developments in Irish history since Ireland was partitioned in 1920. It represented, or at the time it seemed to represent, an acknowledgement by the IRA and its political wing, Sinn Fein, that Ireland cannot be united by physical force, that the armed struggle of the last twenty five years to drive the British out of Northern Ireland has not worked, that the strategy of "the Long War," based on the premise that if the IRA persisted in its campaign …

Northern Ireland Peace Talks: Endgames, Padraig O'Malley

Padraig O'Malley

With days to go before the Northern Ireland peace talks come to a formal close, things are, to use the immortal words ofFluther in Sean O'Casey's play, The Plough and Stars, "in a state of chasis." Months of interminable bickering, the unwillingness of some parties to directly talk with others, a process in which it often appears that the key players spend more time trying to get one another thrown out of the process than with trying to bring those who are outside in, the insidious slide to more volatile sectarianism as armed extremists on both sides take random but …

Role Theory As An Informative Lens For Understanding The Familial And Political Power Struggles Of Henry Viii And Mary I Of England, Niki Incorvia

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to analyze the application of twentieth century sociologist George Mead's role theory to Henry VIII and Mary I, of Britain's Tudor Dynasty, regarding their treatment of their families during the early to mid-sixteenth century. Contemporary role theory can offer a useful lens to study sixteenth century royal family functionality through an analysis of Henry VIII and Mary I's lives as monarchs of England. Role theory can illuminate the role conflict that led to a separation between Henry and Mary as people and as sovereigns. Their roles, derived from traditional authority, set them apart as people and led …

Context And Demonizing The I.R.A., Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article questions a consensus that the I.R.A. is largely responsible for the recent suspension of Northern Ireland’s home-rule government by the United Kingdom.

Troubled Images: Posters And Images Of The Northern Ireland Conflict From The Linen Hall Library, Belfast, Allan Leonard

Allan Leonard

Troubled Images is the first major publication of the posters of the Northern Ireland conflict. The 124-page book contains 140 illustrations (115 in full colour) and detailed accounts of 70 posters of a travelling international exhibition.

The book includes an overview essay, ‘Visualising the Troubles’, written by Belinda Loftus, an expert on graphic imagery and author of Mirror: Orange and Green.

Informative commentaries to the featured exhibition posters are written by John Gray, Librarian of the Linen Hall Library, Belfast.

Edited by a diverse team of four, and scrutinised by a large project team, the entire spectrum of the Northern …

The Alliance Party Of Northern Ireland And Power Sharing In A Divided Society, Allan Leonard

Allan Leonard

The government of Northern Ireland from 1920 to 1972 represented a one-party government, or more appropriately, a segmental majority of unionism; Nationalist parties were perpetually unable to, as well as restricted from, achieving control of government. Political processes since then have been to compel Unionists to share power with others. There is more than one way to apply power sharing, with consociational (Lijphart 1977) or integrative (Horowitz 1985; 1991) elements. The result can be a more or less integrated society (Sisk 1996).

My thesis is that with the achievement of the 1998 Agreement, Alliance’s pursuit of a Northern Ireland-integrative power …

Northern Ireland Peace Talks: Endgames, Padraig O'Malley

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

With days to go before the Northern Ireland peace talks come to a formal close, things are, to use the immortal words ofFluther in Sean O'Casey's play, The Plough and Stars, "in a state of chasis."

Months of interminable bickering, the unwillingness of some parties to directly talk with others, a process in which it often appears that the key players spend more time trying to get one another thrown out of the process than with trying to bring those who are outside in, the insidious slide to more volatile sectarianism as armed extremists on both sides take random …

A Pre-Negotiation Guide To The Conflict In Northern Ireland, Padraig O'Malley

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

On September 1, 1994, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) declared a ceasefire.

The declaration was potentially one of the most significant developments in Irish history since Ireland was partitioned in 1920. It represented, or at the time it seemed to represent, an acknowledgement by the IRA and its political wing, Sinn Fein, that Ireland cannot be united by physical force, that the armed struggle of the last twenty five years to drive the British out of Northern Ireland has not worked, that the strategy of "the Long War," based on the premise that if the IRA persisted in its campaign …

Religion And Conflict: The Case Of Northern Ireland, Padraig O'Malley

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

Now that the peace process, however fragile and tenuous, has stayed the course, despite some serious obstacles and setbacks, and talks between the British government and Sinn Fein are taking place, it is a time to reflect on the nature of the divisions that have scarred our lives and psyches.

One of the most under-researched and least understood aspects of the conflict is the role religious differences play - or do not play. 1 While it is a common practice to label the two communities as "Catholics" and "Protestants," and to keep the tally-roll of the dead according to religious …

Unionism And The Political Party Structure Of Northern Ireland, Allan Leonard

Allan Leonard

This undergraduate independent study examined Unionist political reaction to developments of British Government policy towards Northern Ireland. Namely, Nationalist representatives achieved redress with the British Government, both directly and vis-a-vis the Irish Government, which should have compelled Unionists to pursue a more accommodationalist policy. Regardless, there was a paradoxical drive by integrationists in Northern Ireland for direct electoral candidacy by the Conservative Party in the regional constituency. This paper makes a defence in favour of this campaign, as a means of improving the accountability of British Government policy affecting those in its jurisdiction.