Northern Ireland Flashcards
Explain the context of the creation of Northern Ireland.
- Government of Ireland Act 1920
- Described as a country (colloquially “our wee country”), region, province, state – the most accurate is region, specifically, devolved region of the United Kingdom
- Six counties: Fermanagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Down, Armagh and Derry
- Based on 1911 census producing majority unionist and Protestant (61.4%)
- “A Protestant parliament for a Protestant people” Sir James Craig, 1934
- A large Catholic minority (34.4%)
Describe the Troubles.
- The Northern Ireland conflict is one of the most researched conflicts in the world relative to its regional size and population (Whyte, 1990:vii)
- A contested border, questions of identity, discrimination and sectarianism
- A ‘tangle of interrelated questions’ (Darby 1995: 12)
- Social and political violence between competing national identities
Irish-nationalists and British-unionists: differ in terms of religious, historical, economic and political affiliations all of which are equally complex and sensitive - Catholics (and some Protestants) were discriminated against
- Civil rights movement in the 1960s campaigned for equal access to political power, social provision and cultural recognition
What was the catalyst event of the trouble ?
- NICRA protest in Derry on October 5th 1968
- Met with inter-communal rioting and resistance
- Deployment of the British Army on the streets in summer 1969
- Emergence of the IRA in the late 1970s
- Prompted emergence of loyalist paramilitaries, the UVF
- 3,500 deaths, over 35,000 injuries, 16,000 terrorism charges, 34,000 shootings, 14,000 bombings
- Given Northern Ireland’s small population, there a few families that have not been affected by the conflict
In what context did negotiations and the Good Friday Agreement signing take place ?
- Realisation by the IRA and the British Army that violence would not deliver a victory
- The signing of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement established institutionalised cooperation between the Irish and British governments
- Hume/Adams Talks April 1993
Paramilitary ceasefires in 1994 and 1997
All-party talks, chaired by Senator George Mitchell, began in 1996 and collapsed a year later
Established the six Mitchell principles that eventually brought Sinn Féin to the table
- All-party talks resumed in January 1997
- Agreement reached 10 April 1998
- Two simultaneous referendums North (71% in favour) and South (94% in favour) on 22 May 1998
What are the contents of the peace agreement ?
- Consociational in nature – a heavily top-down settlement with a central focus on political entities and institutional issues
- Includes Lijphart’s four consociational principles (1997):
- Cross community executive powersharing
- Proportionality rules in government, elections and policymaking
- Autonomy and equality in cultural life
- Veto rights for minorities - Addresses binational and bigovernmental elements of the conflict (cross-border relations and
British-Irish intergovernmental relations) - An association of communities – British unionists, Irish nationalists and others
- Rights, safeguards and equality of opportunity
- Security (decommissioning and demilitarization)
- Typifies ‘politics of accommodation’
How would you describe the performance of power sharing 1998-present day ?
Consociational powersharing performance in Northern Ireland is mixed.
- 2007 before governance was consolidated and the Assembly sat for the first time
- Consociational instability defined the years between 1998-2007: the Agreement was the beginning of a process rather than the end; constructive ambiguity; attempts to tie up the loose ends relating to decommissioning, reform of policing, human rights, equality, and issues relating to legacy of the past
- Suspended five times, including four times between 2000 and 2002, with the last of these extending from 2002-2007.
- 2007-2017 consociational performance was broadly a success: turbulent but stable
- January 2017 brought down by Sinn Féin over legacy issues, the Irish language, RHI scandal
- January 2020 restoration deal brokered called New Decade, New Approach
- February 2022 brought down by the DUP over the Northern Ireland protocol and issues pertaining to the Irish sea border
- February 2024 ‘back up and running’
What is the “Good Friday Agreement generation” ?
First generation to have been born during peacetime in Northern Ireland have come of age (born just before or just after 1998)
- Tendency to make generalized assumptions about this demographic and often portrayed as a homogenous group with collective political and ideological ambitions
- Research shows this generation is more nuanced than surface level characterisations would allow
- Inaccurate, if not impossible, to conclude one singular narrative of the GFA generation – their lived experiences and attitudes reveal the complicated, complex and often contradictory realities of living in a society that continues to bear the scars of its recent violent history
- Cross community relations, economic opportunities, security and powersharing
How are the cross community relations of Northern Ireland today ?
- Endorsement and rejection of binary identities in Northern Ireland
- Experience of being ‘othered’
- Low number of participants with friends ‘across the divide’
- Lack of emotional connection to the past
- Reconciliation is important but not their responsibility
How are the economic opportunities in Northern Ireland today ?
Northern Ireland cannot cater for career ambitions both in terms of field and progression.
- Legacy of the Troubles impacted the attractiveness of certain career paths
- Affiliation with home vs. the need to ‘get out’
- Brain drain
How is the security in Northern Ireland today ?
- Skeptical and distrusting of the PSNI across both communities
- Majority expressed explicit disapproval of paramilitaries
- Minority implied paramilitaries were misunderstood
- Personal safety dependent on location and gender
How is the power sharing in Northern Ireland today ?
- Support for powersharing but not in its current form
- Issues with designation, mandatory coalition and petition of concern
- Ambivalence towards the Good Friday Agreement
- Mixed views on the constitutional future of the island of Ireland and Stormont’s role in a united Ireland
What are the possibilities for Northern Ireland in the future ?
- United Ireland
- Reformed and renegotiated UK
- Reformed Stormont
- Muddle along as we are defined by long periods of political paralysis and instability
What are consociational governance and institutions ?
Consociational states are often contrasted with states with majoritarian electoral systems. The goals of consociationalism are governmental stability, the survival of the power-sharing arrangements, the survival of democracy, and the avoidance of violence.
In Northern Ireland - Multiple attempts to introduce consociational governance and institutions to contexts of ethno-cultural divide that lead to political violence - such as the Good Friday Agreement. (Coulter and Shirlow, 2019)
How was the GFA perceived at first ?
Crafted with sufficient skill that it would withstand politician human error - incidents of politically motivated violence are becoming more and more rare (2400 would have died otherwise)
Loads of praise of the process, tinted by the distortion from distance and media - actually not so seamless as a transition to peace.
Especially for people living abroad, sight of Paisley and McGuinness at ease together created the impression of stable government - honey moon period lasted barely a year. (Coulter and Shirlow, 2019)
What is the greatest achievement of the GFA ?
The removal of the gun from Irish politics. (Coulter and Shirlow, 2019)
What was the goal of GFA and what was the result of it ?
- GFA wanted to deal with the totality of relationships between the peoples of Ireland - did that through mending troubled relations between the coexisting traditions in NI.
- U and N - share power with one another, took almost a decade for that to happen in institutions in a way that appeared sustainable. (Coulter and Shirlow, 2019)
What was the main obstacle to the peace deal ?
Main obstacle: peace deal meant many different things to different people - solution = engaging in constructive ambiguity (particularly apparent in provisions regarding decommissioning) (Coulter and Shirlow, 2019)
How are the provisions regarding decommissioning a good example of this obstacle ?
Failures unfold in the same way every time - the UUP would agree to enter government on the proviso that republicans would in the near future decommission weapons.
SF would agree to gov. if IRA did not need to decommission.
The government would therefore collapse when UUP would say it has been too long and still no decommission.
This happened 4 times. (Coulter and Shirlow, 2019)
What was the consequence of this repeated collapse of government and failure to find peace ?
Increased polarization - ironically facilitated the cause for political progress in the region - both communities became more attached to their respective party (SF and DUP - previously dismissed as extremists) (Coulter and Shirlow, 2019)
Why was this radicalization beneficial to the peace process ?
Generally, peace processes are threatened by radical voices and lead by moderate voiced (like what happened to UUP and the Social Democratic and Labour Party) - immunity of both parties to ethnic outbidding would ensure that they would strike a deal and bring stable power sharing in NI. (Coulter and Shirlow, 2019)
