Beyond Reassurance: The Reputational Effect of Cultural Reforms in Peace Agreements

We explore whether including cultural reforms in an intra-state peace accord facilitates its success. We distinguish between accommodationist and integrationist cultural provisions and employ a mixed research method combining negative binomial regression on a data set of all intra-state political agreements concluded between 1989 and 2017, and an in-depth analysis of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement for Northern Ireland. We recognize the important reassuring effect of accommodationist cultural reforms in separatist conflicts. However, we also find that they have an important and hitherto overlooked reputational effect across all conflict types. By enhancing the reputation of negotiating leaders, accommodationist cultural provisions contribute to ending violence by preventing leadership challenges, rebel fragmentation and remobilization across all civil conflicts. By the same logic, and despite the overwhelming emphasis of peace agreements on integrationist cultural initiatives, integrationist cultural reforms problematize leaders' ability to commit to pacts and to ensure compliance among their rank and file.

The Good Friday oration ad intra ecclesiam in the context of the post-conciliar liturgical reforms

This paper aims to juxtapose the differences between the versions of the Good Friday oration ad intra ecclesiam and unveil the theological character behind these modifications by analysing the prayers. The source materials were Benedict XV’s Roman Missal, Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae Instauratus, Variationes in ordinem Hebdomadae Sanctae inducendae, and two typical editions of the reformed Roman Missals from 1970 and 2002. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first, the orations from the ad intra ecclesiam collection are explained. In the second, the changes to the orations are analysed. Finally, the influence on the theological character of the orations is presented. The analyses lead to the conclusion that it is difficult to specify a single criterion for the modifications in the ad intra ecclesiam collection. Sometimes, the changes resulted in a new organisation of the Church (e.g., oration for the Clergy and Laity of the Church), a shift in a person’s present state (oration for Those Preparing for Baptism), or a new understanding of the role of the Church in the world (oration for the Church). Some modifications are difficult to explain (oration for the Pope, for Those in Special Need).

The Good Friday Oration for Non-Christians in the Background of the 20th Century Liturgical Reforms

The paper is an attempt to compare the three versions of the Good Friday Solemn Intercessions for non-Christians. It was made possible by juxtaposing and analysing the prayers in the light of their particular phrases. The paper was divided into two parts. The first one shows the three prayers and their historical contexts, while the other analyses their contexts. As a result, the process of decreasing the pejorative way of presenting non-Christians could clearly be seen. There is also a tendency for emphasizing elements shared by Christians and non-Christians. Finally, the comparison of the versions emphasises the transition from the salvific dimension to temporality.

‘… for peace comes dropping slow’

This article considers Northern Ireland’s history of conflict through a lens that emphasizes conciliation over conflict. It demonstrates how numerous state, social and economic groups actively attempted to avoid, rectify or oppose Northern Ireland’s conflict. In doing so, the article argues that long before (and after) the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 was reached subtle changes at the societal level helped both restrain and later ameliorate the conflict there. This emphasis questions the utility of more (para)militarized histories of Northern Ireland’s Troubles by seeing the peace process as the growth of conciliation rather than the attenuation of violence. Applying this to what is widely regarded as the polarization of politics in the contemporary United States, the article highlights how the emphasis on violent events in the public mind can actively obscure a more consistent, if gradual, current flowing in a different direction.

Planning a Dublin–Belfast Economic Corridor: Networks, engagement and creating opportunities

Cross-border cooperation on the island of Ireland has a long history, if often a limited scope. The emergence of statutory North/South bodies after the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement of 1998 added a new dynamic. This paper argues that the further development of the Dublin–Belfast Economic Corridor will require key stakeholders to engage widely, not only with a private sector whose rationale will be greater levels of commercial activity along the Corridor but also with others who will bring additional agendas into discussion, including sustainability and quality of life. Political engagement will also be critical to ensure that the top-down support, in terms of investment and alignment with other policy priorities, is present. The framework for this collaboration is already in place, something that was absent in the 1990s. Actors and policy entrepreneurs who can bring together the different types of engagement on a cross-border basis are required.

Suffering

This chapter analyzes the Scriptures in several hymns prescribed for Good Friday, whose central theme is Jesus’s suffering as prophesied by Isaiah in the Servant of the Lord songs, where the Messiah is portrayed as a “lamb led to the slaughter” (Isa 53:7; cf. Jer 11:19). Mary, depicted as a “distraught ewe,” participates in her son’s suffering. In the hymnographers’ view, “circling dogs” borrowed from Ps 22:16 (21:17) might be read as a hint at Jesus nailed on a wooden pole with his enemies circling the cross like roaming dogs. The central hymn, “The one who hanged the earth in the waters is today hanged on a tree,” likens the earth hanging within the primordial waters (Gen 1:2) to the one hanging on the cross and wrestling with the evil powers lurking in those waters.

The Irish Border

The emergence, development, and transformation of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland reveals much about the changing nature of nation-statehood over the century that followed its creation. In its own way, it is also a subject of innovation. The three interrelated strands of relationships safeguarded by the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement of 1998 in many ways define the border. These relationships run within and between the two islands of Ireland and Britain, and also between the two political traditions in Northern Ireland. Nationalists and Unionists have come to define much of their ethos in relation to the symbolic meaning of the Irish border: The former want the border removed and the latter see the border as necessary to keep Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. This helps to understand the prominence given to the Irish border in the context of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU), as well as the controversy around the terms of the U.K.–EU Withdrawal Agreement, which changed the nature of the relationship between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom as well as between Northern Ireland and Ireland. As a consequence of Brexit, the future of borders in and around Ireland—their openness and their governance—will be inevitably shaped by the vicissitudes of the EU–U.K. relationship.

Brexit and the Crisis of the Transatlantic Relationship

This chapter maps the changing transatlantic relations and underlines how this impacts Brexit and EU-UK relations. It points out that the view of the US government remains influential in European affairs, despite claims about transatlantic divergence. It also mentions the endorsement and encouragement of the Trump Administration of the Brexit project, while the new Biden Administration remain unwavering in its commitment in favour of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. The chapter suggests that Brexit should not just be regarded as a UK-European affair but one of the biggest geopolitical shifts since the Second World War. It discusses the Trump phenomenon and why it represented a threat to both the transatlantic relationship and the European project.

Brexit and the Northern Ireland Peace Process

This chapter focuses on the political situation in Northern Ireland, outlining the impact of the Northern Ireland Protocol on cross-community relations. It reflects on the consequences that social change will have on the option for Irish unification. It also provides a background of the Northern Ireland Protocol, analysing why the protection of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement became a core issue for the EU and why a sea border emerged as the agreed solution. The chapter examines the political cleavages in Northern Ireland that underpin the deep conflict over the location of the post-Brexit border. It also elaborates why the location of the border will remain a focus for political conflict, although the Northern Ireland Protocol allowed the EU and the UK to reach agreement.