Transition to Peace: Young People and Their Attitudes Towards Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland

Faith-inspired civil organizations (FICOs) are growing in recognition for their relational and sustainable approaches and contributions to peacebuilding, especially in areas where religious or cultural identities have complicated contexts of violent conflict. The capacity of FICOs to penetrate the deeper and long-term obstacles to peacebuilding is largely a consequence of their underlying faith-based motivations and methods for intervention. This article explores one particular FICO: the Corrymeela Community, which has played a notable public role in the work of peacebuilding and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. In examing the theological roots and operational character of Corrymeela, this article explores possible answers to three important questions. First, as a Christian-inspired organization emphasizing an ecumenical, interfaith approach to sustainable peace, where does Corrymeela locate its theological understanding of violent conflict and purposeful intervention? Second, how does this theological understanding inform and shape its operational strategies for strategic peacebuilding in Northern Ireland? Finally, in a “post-Troubles” Northern Ireland, what is the way forward for such an organization? How might its work and lessons-learned as a FICO continue to impact Northern Ireland, while at the same time contribute to the convoluted work of reconciliation in other regions confronting religiously-fueled violence?

A number of consociational power-sharing initiatives are compared to explore some of the reasons why the elite conflict regulation model has not settled the Northern Ireland conflict. In the period 1972-85, four attempts by the British government to formulate and implement a power-sharing government within Northern Ireland failed as a result of the recalcitrance of one or other of the mainstream political parties. The 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) ended the Unionist veto and included the Irish government in the political process to find a solution. Since 1985, four efforts by both governments to establish a devolved power-sharing government have included previously marginalized political groups in the political process. In this article, I argue that since the 1985 AIA the bilateral external ethnoguarantors - the British and Irish governments - have contained the conflict by using a coercive consociational approach to elite conflict management. Since 1985, four efforts to promote contact between Unionists and Nationalists at all levels and all points show promise in reframing the conflict from resources and interests to identity needs. Such a transformational approach is necessary to open up thinking about conflict and in constructing a multimodal, multilevel contingency approach to peace-building and conflict settlement in Northern Ireland.

This research sits at the nexus of women, peace-building and the news media in order to decipher how the representations of women and peace-building in post-conflict Northern Ireland affect women’s social situation in divided societies recovering from violent ethnonational conflict. Women are habitually associated with non-political community-level reconciliation through an assumed innate and feminine propensity to peace. This is amplified through gendered news media portrayals which serve to reinforce patriarchal social knowledge, and in turn, this disenfranchises women by foregrounding their femaleness rather than political expertise; and damages peace by marginalizing a significant demographic of the population and intensifying social inequality, which is the foundation for conflict.

This paper focuses on how peacebuilding in Northern Ireland is a slow process based primarily on generational replacement. Because Northern Ireland did not experience a Truth and Reconciliation Commission or a formal process of reconciling those who experienced “The Troubles,” older cohorts have not redefined their identities or are as likely to change their identities as younger cohorts. However, especially among Protestants, there is evidence of significant generational differences in identity emerging in Northern Ireland. This paper will highlight how the peace process itself counted on this process of intergenerational change in Northern Ireland and how it offers the best hope for transforming historically sectarian conceptions of identity into less reactionary or hostile identities that open up aspirations for new relations across the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland. Thus, the slow process of reconciliation may accelerate in future decades and residual support that continues to exist for republican dissidents and loyalist paramilitaries slowly dissipate over time. Of course, many potential intervening events (i.e. period effects) could overwhelm this slow process of social and identity change in Northern Ireland.

When conflict, competing identities, and segregation collide; Identity, Segregation and Peace-building in Northern Ireland explores the implications for peace-building in Northern Ireland, and across

This essay will explore the contribution of integrated (mixed Catholic and Protestant) schools to peacebuilding in Northern Ireland and it will highlight some of the challenges ahead in an increasingly diverse society with a legacy of conflict. It draws on and is illustrated by exemplars from the extensive data that I have gathered over more than ten years. The essay will focus on three particular areas – the long-term impact of attending an integrated school, variation in leadership approaches to integration within the schools and emergent models of good practice in response to the cultural diversity of students. A number of theoretical perspectives will be brought to bear upon the data, including social identity theory and political science perspectives on multiculturalism. I will argue that integrated education provides a unique opportunity, in a still segregated society, for children and young people to learn from each other, enjoy sustained engagement and interaction with other perspectives, develop empathy and build long-term friendships across the divide. At the same time, I will question whether the current approaches to integrated education hold equal possibilities for peacebuilding. The context for peacebuilding through education In divided societies like Northern Ireland, emerging from a period of intense community violence, the role of education in peacebuilding is complex and needs to be carefully contextualised not least historically, politically and socially. Looking first at history we see that prior to partition in 1922, the six counties of Northern Ireland shared a general Irish education system based on the National School system.

This article analyses a programme in which an alliance of ex-combatants from the British Army, and loyalist and republican ex-prisoner backgrounds, engaged with young people about cultures of militarism in Northern Ireland. It argues that the alliance’s focus on cultures of militarism sets it apart from other ex-combatant groups; in particular its critique of state militarism alongside paramilitarism makes it a rare example of Richard Jackson’s ‘post liberal peace plus.’ It finds that the alliance could enhance its engagement with young people by developing a more comprehensive programme that expands on the gender dynamics of militarism and on non-violent alternatives to military and paramilitary action. Noting that most peacebuilding funding depends on state-based sources, it concludes that the very critique of state militarism that makes the alliance such a compelling example of ‘post-liberal peace plus’ limits its ability to secure resources, highlighting a key obstacle to building a radical post-liberal peace.

Peacebuilding in contested societies is a cross-sectoral enterprise in which young people are primary stakeholders. Multilateral state-sponsored programmes and philanthropic agencies have resourced a vibrant youth sector delivering peacebuilding initiatives in Northern Ireland and the border counties. Despite billions in investment and a rich tapestry of transformative practice, a visionary peacebuilding strategy co-created with young people has remained elusive. As a result, youth sector peacebuilding in Northern Ireland is inhibited by an obstacle facing civil society peacebuilding across the globe – an ill-articulated vision resulting in pockets of disparate practice. Based on empirical research involving 43 youth work practitioners, this article offers a novel and rigorous methodological framework and sociological analysis to support researchers, policymakers and practitioners in contested societies to advance conceptualisations of peacebuilding. Freeden's framework of morphological analysis is operationalised through Q methodology leading to the identification of four distinctive orientations to peacebuilding. Bourdieu's concepts of capital and field are drawn upon to analyse the four perspectives, framed within a new sociopolitical model of youth sector peacebuilding. Tensions between harmonising versus politicising propensities are discussed as a substantial divergence variously incentivised or neglected by powerful actors within the field with significant implications for the trajectory of practice.

When the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement was signed in 1998, those involved believed that they ‘were finally able to bring about peace in Northern Ireland’. The process of implementing the accord and resolving tensions between the various political parties began and on 7 May 2007, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein entered government together. Nine years after the Agreement was signed, this ‘historic’ day was heralded by the British and Irish political classes and the media as the end of the conflict in Northern Ireland. As noted by Blair in his description of that day, this achievement signalled the ‘normalisation’ of the region's politics to the British and Irish governments through a movement away from division: Every time we set foot in Northern Ireland there were protests … always showing how divided the politics of Northern Ireland was from that anywhere else. That day for the first time there was a protest not about Northern Ireland, but about Iraq. When I saw it, I felt that Northern Ireland had just rejoined the rest of the world. The British and Irish governments believed that the Peace Process, with its focus on elite political settlement, was complete and it was expected that the rest of society would follow the example set by their leaders and overcome divisions to work together. However, the resolution of conflict is not simple and, as will be demonstrated later in this introduction, Northern Ireland is not peaceful.

This article examines Northern Ireland's peacebuilding process by analysing perspectives about economic assistance to determine if the peacebuilding process contributed to the reification of structure or the promotion of human agency. Economic assistance, a key pillar of liberal democratic peacebuilding, has been credited with creating a political economy of civil society peacebuilding in Northern Ireland by either incentivising or coercing community groups to participate in the peace process. Interviews with 120 community group leaders who received International Fund for Ireland (IFI) and/or EU Peace III funding are analysed to see how the respondents' perspectives reflect aspects of the structure–agency debate. Rules, resources, mental schemas and knowledge are used as criteria for evaluating statements from respondents to determine if community groups feel empowered, invested and capable of sustaining peace in post-peace accord Northern Ireland. The study concludes by discussing the implications for sustaining peace in Northern Ireland and other post-peace accord environments where liberal democratic peacebuilding methods are used.

Pushing the boundaries in Northern Ireland: young people, violence and sectarianism

Northern Ireland has witnessed significant political progress with devolution and a power sharing Executive in place since May 2007. These political achievements, however, conceal a highly polarised society characterised by sectarianism and community divisions, the legacy of a protracted conflict. This paper is located in the theoretical discourse between consociationalists who argue that antithetical identities cannot be integrated and advocates of social transformation who support greater cross-community peace-building initiatives through the involvement of civil society. This theoretical debate is taking place in a policy vacuum. The Northern Ireland Executive has abandoned its commitment to the previous (direct rule) administration's A Shared Future policy and is now considering alternatives broadly described as community cohesion, sharing and integration. Using a case study of a Protestant/Catholic interface community, this paper offers empirical evidence of the effectiveness of one social transformation initiative involving community groups in a highly segregated area of West Belfast.

This paper examines the role of community interventions in post-conflict settings. The focus is on peacebuilding through the shaping of collective memories, achieved through the transformation of social ties. By addressing community interventions, this paper opens the black box between interventions by formal institutions (such as peace treaties, trials, or truth commissions) and outcomes. It is based on a study of one specific cross-community initiative in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which – in 2012 – employed a Transitional Justice Grassroots Toolkit. Document analysis is complemented by interviews with participants and organizers to reveal the role of pedagogical practices, mediated by cohort effects, in facilitating cultural transformation through group interactions. This paper suggests how community interventions can change collective memories, cultural trauma, and related identities of the conflict, away from their polarized and polarizing forms, and it explores implications for future peace and social justice.

Acknowledgements Foreword The Comparative Context for Peace Building Northern Ireland: Macro Political Development Northern Ireland: Micro Grassroots Activity Israel/Palestine: Macro Political Development Israel/Palestine: Micro Grassroots Activity South Africa: Macro Political Development South Africa: Micro Grassroots Activity Conclusion: Towards Peace Building List of Interviewees References Index

This chapter addresses the link between religion, violence and peace in Northern Ireland. It argues that religion is particularly suitable as a process to initiate the process of “othering” in which differences are drawn with out-groups that can foster intolerance and become violent. The chapter reviews the emergence of a largely U.S.-based literature on religious peace building. Most of the concerns of this literature, take their shape from the U.S. as a cultural, political and religious space. This chapter applies them in a European setting where there is a history of religious conflict and holy wars and in which religion has greater difficulty in establishing itself as neutral and above the fray. Our study relates to “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland. Religious peace building is described and analyzed together with its potential strengths and weaknesses. An analytical framework is developed to help understand how religion can be a site of reconciliation and peace in settings where, unlike in the U.S., religion is wrapped up in the conflict and has become part of the solution. The key to this analytical framework is the church-civil society-state relationship.