Unionism and the Peace Process

Abstract

So far we have seen how the parameters of the relationship between Unionism and the peace process were established and developed. New ideas provided an impetus for political change and the AIA was important in framing strategic objectives for Unionists, while simultaneously creating a disjuncture between British Government policy and Unionist interests. At the same time, relationships between Unionists and Nationalists at a local level were changing and becoming less conflictual. Thus, the backdrop to what is commonly understood as the ‘peace process’ (paramilitary ceasefires and all party talks) is an alternative process which conditions reactions to these ‘peace process’ events. These reactions are the subject of this chapter but before we analyse these it is important to recognise that there are several dominating intellectual orthodoxies about the peace process.KeywordsBritish GovernmentPeace ProcessPower SharingIrish GovernmentIrish UnityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.