scholarly journals Gendering the ‘post-conflict’ narrative in Northern Ireland’s peace process

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Gilmartin
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Gender Relations ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Formal Representation ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
New Era ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Male Power ◽  
Good Friday Agreement

The Good Friday Agreement negotiations gave a unique opportunity for the insertion of women’s rights and equal formal representation in the new post-conflict Northern Ireland. Notwithstanding the robust and unambiguous commitments in the text of the agreement, the primary architects of the peace process, however, situated gender and women’s position as peripheral to the main priorities of ‘guns and government’. While conventional forms of peacebuilding claim to be beneficial for all, evidence from the so-called ‘post-conflict’ period around the world demonstrates a continuity of violence for many women, as well as new forms of violence. This article explores the position of women in Northern Ireland today across a number of issues, including formal politics, community activism, domestic violence and reproductive rights. By doing so, it continues feminist endeavours seeking to problematise the ‘post-conflict’ narrative by gendering peace and security. While the Good Friday Agreement did undoubtedly provide the potential for a new era of gender relations, 20 years on Northern Irish society exhibits all the trademarks and insidious characteristics of a patriarchal society that has yet to undergo a genuine transformation in gender relations. The article argues that the consistent privileging of masculinity and the dominance of male power is a commonality that remains uninterrupted by the peace process.

Building bridges? Remembering the 1641 rebellion in Northern Ireland

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi McAreavey
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Before And After

This essay explores the changing place of the 1641 rebellion in the memory cultures of Ulster loyalist communities before and after the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Focusing on the loyalist centres of Portadown and West Belfast, I show that commemorative activities particularly flourished during periods of crisis in these communities as they moved (or were moved) towards compromise. The 1641 Depositions Project has argued that the ‘memory’ of 1641 must be replaced by ‘history’. The potential for the transformation or dissolution of loyalist memories depends on the willingness of these communities to forget a long-established element of the expression of a ‘besieged’ Ulster Protestant identity, which in turn depends on their investment in the peace process. Nascent attempts to accommodate the history and memory of 1641 in post-conflict Northern Ireland suggest that perhaps the fledgling peace is not yet secure enough for such divisive memories to disappear.

scholarly journals Richard Bean’s The Big Fellah (2010) and Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman (2017): two plays about the Northern Troubles from outside of Northern Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroko Mikami
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Good Friday Agreement

During the three decades of the Troubles of Northern Ireland (1969-1998), a remarkable amount of plays about the Troubles was written and almost of them, it seems, had been ‘monopolised’ by (Northern) Irish playwrights. Recently, however, certain changes about this monopoly have been witnessed and those who do not claim themselves as Irish descendants have begun to choose the Northern Troubles as their themes. Also, there have been growing concerns about violence worldwide since 9.11. This article deals with two plays, Richard Bean’s The Big Fellah and Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, neither of which was written by an Irish playwright and examines whether and to what extent it is possible to say that they can transcend regional boundaries and become part of global memories in the context of the post-Good Friday Agreement and the post 9.11.

The Future of British–Irish Relations after Brexit

2020 ◽  
pp. 254-273
Author(s):  
Etain Tannam
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Sectarian Violence ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Potential Methods ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

This chapter assesses the impact of UK withdrawal from the EU on British–Irish relations. It examines yet another possible disintegrative effect of Brexit on the UK system, namely the re-unification of Ireland. The 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, bringing to a close decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, had created an excellent working relations between Dublin and London. However, Brexit has threated this equilibrium, and has unexpectedly brought back on the agenda a possible border poll. The chapter then looks at the unfolding of the Brexit negotiations from June of 2016 to March of 2020 from the perspectives of British–Irish relations. It also studies the importance of the British–Irish relationship and the EU in the peace process in Northern Ireland, and considers potential methods of managing the relationship after Brexit.

Liberty, Equality and the Rights of Cultures: The Marching Controversy at Drumcree

2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane O'Neills
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
Cultural Conflict ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Rational Acceptability ◽  
Normative Basis ◽  
Theoretical Assessment

This article offers a normative-theoretical assessment of a key aspect of the continuing cultural conflict in Northern Ireland. The marching controversy at Drumcree has had a destabilising effect on the peace process and it represents a serious threat to the achievement of the kind of political accommodation outlined in the Good Friday Agreement. The aim is to apply Jürgen Habermas's discourse theory of rights to this dispute so as to assess which, if any, of the conflicting claims should take priority. By seeking to assess the rational acceptability of the better arguments on either side, I reject the view that these claims are irreconcilable. In the concluding section I outline four principles that provide a normative basis for just resolutions to conflicts over contentious marches in Northern Ireland.

scholarly journals From Troubles to Post-Conflict Theatre in Northern Ireland

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Phelan
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Irish Theatre ◽  
Irish History ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was a watershed moment in Irish culture, as much as in the political sphere. Up until that moment, late twentieth-century Irish history had been dominated by the conflict that erupted in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, and Northern Irish theatre was dominated by the ‘Troubles play’—initially in the 1960s in the work of Sam Thompson, and later in plays by writers such as John Boyd, Graham Reid, and, in more complex ways, behind the formally adventurous work of Stewart Parker and Anne Devlin. However, since 1998, writers such as Owen McCafferty have inaugurated the search for a theatrical form appropriate to a post-conflict culture in which scars and divisions still remained. This chapter covers the arc of development of Northern drama over the period, leading up to some of the innovative performances of companies such as Theatre of Witness.

Brexit and the Northern Ireland Question

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Doyle ◽  
Eileen Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
The Common ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Policy Solutions ◽  
The Eu

This chapter analyses the potential impact of Brexit on the Northern Ireland ‘peace process’, through a discussion of four interrelated issues—political divisions in Northern Ireland; the single market; the common travel area; and the Good Friday Agreement, all of which reflect the fundamental political divisions between Irish nationalists and those who believe that Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK. The chapter highlights two main threats to peace – the undermining of the Good Friday Agreement which is premised on membership of the EU and its institutional framework, and the crucial issue of where the inevitable hard border between the EU and the UK will be located. It argues that Brexit has the potential to destroy the peace process and suggests possible policy solutions to mitigate the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland, while also assessing the political obstacles to the adoption of such flexible policy solutions.

Reporting Inclusivity: The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, the News Media and the North Ireland Peace Process

2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
News Media ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
General Lack ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
The North ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Male Dominated

This article is an investigation into how the news media dealt with the politics and ideas of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition in the build-up to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Drawing on interview material carried out with representatives of the NIWC who were actively involved within the peace process at that time, it assesses the responsiveness of news towards positions taken by the NIWC and considers the implications of reporting in relation to NIWC discourse about inclusiveness and equality. This article brings to light a general lack of interest in party ideas by the news media, which is symptomatic of journalism obsessed with the competitiveness and negativity of male dominated politics.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Thomas Hennessey ◽  
Máire Braniff ◽  
James W. McAuley ◽  
Jonathan Tonge ◽  
Sophie A. Whiting
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Dominant Party ◽  
Good Friday Agreement ◽  
Twenty First Century

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) was the dominant party in Northern Ireland from the 1920s until the end of the twentieth century. The twenty-first century has been much more of a struggle. The UUP was punished, not rewarded, by many in the Protestant Unionist British community for conceding too much to Irish nationalists in the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Those concerned about the deal defected to the more militant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The story of the UUP during the peace process and in the decades since the 1998 Agreement is examined in subsequent chapters. The volume draws upon the first-ever dataset on UUP members constructed by the authors to examine who belongs to the UUP, explore what they think of their party and others, and assess their views on the political changes which have seen their party come under pressure.

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