Parades, flags, carnivals, and riots: Public space, contestation, and transformation in Northern Ireland.

Abstract

Parades, Flags, Carnivals and Riots: Public Space, Contestation and Transformation in Northern Ireland Dominic Bryan Director, Institute of Irish Studies Queen’s University Belfast d.bryan@qub.ac.uk This paper explores one of the defining aspects of politics and identity in Northern Ireland: the control and utilisation of public space, particularly urban public space. I will review how public space has been a part of an analysis of the conflict by anthropologists and then look at the role anthropologists have played in policy development. The second part of the paper will examine evidence of some changes in the way public space is being used in central Belfast that potentially reflects changing identities in the city. The paper concludes by speculating on whether a new civic identity that spans the political and ethnic divisions has started to develop in Belfast and that this might evolve even with increased residential division throughout the Belfast urban area.