scholarly journals THE MEDIA AND MEMORIES OF CONFLICT IN NORTHERN IRELAND

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Trew ◽  
Orla Muldoon ◽  
Gary McKeown ◽  
Katrina McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
The Media

Sinn Féin and the life and death of the republican newspaper

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paddy Hoey
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
Tectonic Plates ◽  
Sinn Fein ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
Authentic Voice

Sinn Féin’s far reaching commitment to activist materials since the late 1960s included a devotion to the newspapers An Phoblacht/ Republican News. It was almost quixotically committed to producing AP/ RN and the paper became a far-reaching organ of political identity. During the Hunger Strikes of 1980/ 81 it was the authentic voice of those on the protests. Later, during the reforms of Peace Process era it articulated the changes in policy. However, Sinn Féin activists were keen to develop a mainstream vehicle for the newly dominant and optimistic strand of republicanism, one that might compete against the media outlets that had been overtly critical and hostile towards the party dating back to the beginning of the Troubles. The Belfast Media Group whose primary paper, the Andersonstown News, became associated with articulating Sinn Féin’s position throughout the 1990s and 2000s launched the republican daily newspaper Daily Ireland in 2005 in competition with the Irish News, the paper that has traditionally captured sales among the nationalist population of Northern Ireland. It was an experiment in assessing how far the shifts in the cultural and political tectonic plates of nationalism played into the media consumption habits of the people.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 199-208
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Scull
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Gay Marriage ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Social Standing ◽  
Irish Society ◽  
The Past ◽  
Reality Check ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Church

The conclusion focuses on the Church’s position in mediating the conflict and ‘dealing with the past’. It examines the Church’s much altered position in Irish society after the revelations of clerical child abuse, and scandals of the Mother and Baby Homes, and the Magdalene Laundries. The conclusion interrogates the Church’s social standing today and questions its longevity as a moral arbiter in Ireland following the successful referenda on gay marriage in 2015 and repealing the eight amendment in 2018. As the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, observed: ‘The Church needs to do a reality check’. In response to some in the media who claimed the marriage equality and eight amendment votes symbolised a revolution rather than a referendum, Martin remarked: ‘It’s a social revolution that didn’t begin today, it’s a social revolution that’s been going on’. For Northern Ireland, the legacy of the conflict includes few solutions for ‘dealing with the past’.

Political Contest and Oppositional Voices in Postconflict Democracy

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charis Rice ◽  
Ian Somerville
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Irish Context ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Politics

This article investigates how political institutions affect government–media relationships. Most studies of media-politics focus on majoritarian parliamentary or presidential systems and on how party systems affect journalism. This tends to neglect important issues that pertain in more constitutionally complex democracies, such as the consociational institutions in postconflict societies. Taking the Northern Irish context as a strategic case study, we analyze data from thirty-three semistructured interviews with the actors responsible for communicating political issues in Northern Ireland: political journalists and the two groups of government communicators, civil service Government Information Officers (GIOs) and Ministerial Special Advisers (SpAds). By examining their roles and relationships in this context, we demonstrate the importance of considering the institutional design of the democratic system itself when attempting to develop a more comprehensive and nuanced theory of media-politics. In Northern Ireland, the absence of an official political opposition in the legislature, together with the mandatory nature of the multiparty coalition, means that the media have come to be perceived by many political and media actors as the opposition. This in turn influences the interpersonal interactions between government and media, the way political actors try to “manage” the media, and the media’s approach to reporting government.

scholarly journals ‘What they say peters down’: How non-profit leaders assess the trustworthiness of government – Elite discourse and distrust in post-conflict Northern Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-256
Author(s):  
Charis Rice ◽  
Maureen Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Community Stakeholders ◽  
Political Public Relations ◽  
The Media

This article uses Northern Ireland as a research context to explore how elite discourse (from political and media actors/institutions) influences how Non-Profit Leaders (NPLs) assess the trustworthiness of government. We provide emergent themes which should aid theory development and practice in the area of political public relations by showing: (1) the value NPLs place on ‘soft’ trust qualities in trust assessments of government, namely benevolence; (2) the importance NPLs place on communicative acts which model trust (e.g. dialogue, compromise, mediation); and (3) the destructive role of divisive political elite discourse within a defective political system, amplified via the media, in NPLs’ distrust of government. The study thereby emphasises the crucial and constitutive role trust perceptions play in (in)effective political public relations, arguing that ‘trust’ must be defined by the perceiver and critically unpacked if public relations research is to fully appreciate its function. We propose that the nature of Northern Ireland’s post-conflict divided society, and political discourse in specific, makes certain trust antecedents most desirable to cross-community stakeholders. The findings contribute to further refining the concept of trust in public relations and they may also be instructive for other contexts.

scholarly journals Making Progress in Northern Ireland? Evidence from Recent Elections

1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Knox ◽  
Paul Carmichael
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
General Election ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Refuse Collection ◽  
Limited Role ◽  
The Media

THE ELECTION OF 582 COUNCILLORS TO NORTHERN IRELAND'S 26 local authorities on 21 May 1997 was eclipsed, to a large extent, by the media focus on the General Election earlier that month (1 May). That little attention is paid to the only elected forum with executive powers in Northern Ireland is neither new nor surprising. Councils in the province have relatively few functional responsibilities, confined principally to the delivery of regulatory services (street cleaning, refuse collection, leisure and tourism and a limited role in economic development); representation on area boards which deliver major services such as education; and a consultative role in relation to planning, roads, water and housing which are delivered through ‘Next Steps’ agencies or similar arm's-length organizations. This minor role is reflected in the level of council budgets. In 1997/98, the estimated net expenditure for local government in Northern Ireland amounts to £230 million, approximately three per cent of identifiable public expenditure.

scholarly journals Tackling Racism in Northern Ireland: ‘The Race Hate Capital of Europe’

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
COLIN KNOX
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
Performance Criteria ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

AbstractNorthern Ireland has been dubbed by the media as the ‘race hate capital of Europe’ and attracted recent international criticism after one hundred Roma families were forced to flee their homes following racist attacks. This paper examines the problem of racism in Northern Ireland from a number of perspectives. First, it considers the effectiveness of the Government's response to racism against its Racial Equality Strategy 2005–10 using performance criteria designed to track the implementation of the strategy. Second, it considers and empirically tests the assertion in the literature that sectarianism shapes the way in which racism is reproduced and experienced. Third, it explores racism at the level of the individual – which factors influence people in Northern Ireland to exhibit racist behaviour. Finally, the paper considers the likely policy implications of the research findings in the context of devolved government where addressing racism is part of a wider political imbroglio which has gridlocked decision-making within the power-sharing Executive of Northern Ireland.

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