Reimagining Troubled Pasts and Sustainable Futures: Religion and Post-Brexit Northern Ireland

Abstract

ABSTRACT: International, national and local peacebuilding documents suggest that islanders confront the legacy of the past as they articulate a vision of the future, and this article assesses the most useful frames, metaphors and terms for thinking about the troubled past and shared future of post-Brexit Ireland, North and South. It suggests that comparative history might help. Considering the history of religion and sustainability in the United States might allow participants to reframe the island's troubled past as a series of shared sustainability crises and to reimagine future-focused deliberations as collective efforts to repair socially and ecologically stressed niches. This approach addresses widespread concerns about the well-being of the next generation and uses terms that already have informed thinking about possible futures. It will not heal old wounds or end sectarian disputes, but, with new language to express shared hopes, this approach might make the post-Brexit transition a little less fraught.