Community, conflict and rural planning in Northern Ireland

Abstract

The geography of urban ethnic conflict has been extensively researched and described in Northern Ireland. By comparison the literature on rural areas is weak and confined mainly to ethnographic accounts of life in farming communities. This paper offers some limited redress by focusing on a spatial analysis of two villages in mid-County Armagh, an area that has experienced some of the worst internecine conflict over the last 27 years. The paper begins by exploring key concepts in urban segregation including ‘critical mass’, ‘tipping point’ and ‘institutional completeness’ and argues their relevance to understanding divided rural communities. This is followed by a review of the literature on rural conflict in Northern Ireland which debates the relative importance of kinship, locality, social class and religious cleavages. The importance of demographic shifts are highlighted leading to a case study describing the experiences of a marginalized and polarized enclave Protestant village. The implications for policy makers are set out focusing on the need to build these issues into a more inclusive definition of rural planning and sustainable regeneration.