Conclusion: Towards a New Understanding of Political Leadership

Abstract

One of the more memorable images from the day that the Good Friday Agreement was signed was when the leadership of the Women’s Coalition, on the steps of Castle Buildings, threw their negotiating papers high into the air to the delight of the international media assembled there, in a scene similar to students throwing their mortar boards into the air for graduation photographs. The symbolism suggested that the political leaders finally graduated from war to peace. Such symbolism was easy for us to understand. Indeed, much of our understandings about political leadership during the peace process in Northern Ireland have been symbolic rather than substantive, where progress in the process was illustrated by handshakes and meetings with Prime Ministers, Presidents and Taoiseachs. This book has sought to move away from the symbolism of political leadership towards an understanding grounded in knowledge of their role, capacity and effect. The results presented here have attempted to move the narrative of political leadership during the peace process in Northern Ireland beyond the personalized accounts offered in the various biographies and autobiographies produced, and also beyond the analysis which focused on who shook hands with whom, and where, and the significance of this for the broader peace process.