This collection adds to the extensive literature on Northern Ireland and Ireland by bringing together the leading academic and political figures working in the field and offering a comprehensive, multidisciplinary overview of the historical process. The topics discussed include the remote and proximate causes of the conflict, fresh developments within the two states on the island, the role of the Roman Catholic Church, the rise of the ecumenical movement and the impact of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement on the triangular relationship between Dublin, Belfast and London. The volume concludes with an evaluation of likely impact of membership of the European Community on the conflict in Northern Ireland. The contributors to this book do not offer any easy solutions but provide a context in which the problem may be better understood by the international scholarly community and by the interested general reader.

Political accommodation in Northern Ireland, Israel and South Africa at the macro level may not, by itself, be sufficient to achieve the long-term goals of building peace and reconciliation. This book uses Lederach's peace-building model to explore issues which may provide a basis for transformation and a lasting peace in the three countries.

Following extended periods of conflict or repression, political reconciliation is indispensable to the establishment or restoration of democratic relationships and critical to the pursuit of peacemaking globally. In this book, Colleen Murphy offers an innovative analysis of the moral problems plaguing political relationships under the strain of civil conflict and repression. Focusing on the unique moral damage that attends the deterioration of political relationships, Murphy identifies the precise kinds of repair and transformation that processes of political reconciliation ought to promote. Building on this analysis, she proposes a normative model of political relationships. A Moral Theory of Political Reconciliation delivers an original account of the failure and restoration of political relationships, which will be of interest to philosophers, social scientists, legal scholars, policy analysts, and all those who are interested in transitional justice, global politics, and democracy.

Hume recounts the struggle for the nationalist community's rights and presents a blueprint for peace.

Scripture Politics examines the central role played by Ulster Presbyterians in the birth of Irish republicanism. Drawing on recent trends in British and American historiography, as well as a wide range of Irish primary sources, Ian McBride charts the development of Presbyterian politicsbetween the War of American Independence and the rebellion of 1798.McBride begins by tracing the emergence of a radical sub-culture in the north of Ireland, showing how traditions of religious dissent underpinned oppositional politics. He goes on to explore the impact of American independence in Ulster, and shows how the mobilization of the Volunteers and thereform agitation of the 1780s anticipated the ideology and organization of the United Irish movement. He describes how, in the wake of the French Revolution, Ulster Presbyterians sought to create a new Irish nation in their own image, and reveals the confessional allegiances which shaped the 1798rebellion. Above all, this innovative and original book uncovers the close relationship between theological disputes and political theory, recreating a distinctive intellectual tradition whose contribution to republican thought has often been misunderstood. _

Drawing on over 150 interviews with former IRA, INLA, UVF and UFF prisoners, this is a major analysis of why Northern Ireland has seen a transition from war to peace. Most accounts of the peace process are "top-down," relying upon the views of political elites. This book is "bottom-up," analyzing the voices of those who actually "fought the war." What made them fight, why did they stop and what are the lessons for other conflict zones? Using unrivalled access to members of the armed groups, the book offering a critical appraisal of one-dimensional accounts of the onset of peace, grounded in "mutually hurting stalemate" and "ripeness," which downgrade the political and economic aspects of conflict. Military stalemate had been evident since the early 1970s and offers little in explaining the timing of the peace process. Moreover, republicans and loyalists based their ceasefires upon very different perceptions of transformation or victory. Based on a Leverhulme Trust project and written by an expert team, Abandoning Histroical Conflict? offers a new analysis, based on subtle interplays of military, political, economic and personal changes and experiences. Combined, these allowed combatants to move from violence to peace whilst retaining core ideological beliefs and maintaining long-term constitutional visions. Former prisoners now act as ambassadors for peace in Northern Ireland. Knowledge of why and how combatants switched to peaceful methodologies amid widespread skepticism over prospects for peace is essential to our understanding of the management of global peace processes. Abandoning Histroical Conflict? is essential reading for policy-makers, academics, students and anyone with an interest in how war can become peace.

Examines the Agreement and its implementation through the eyes of the four major parties - The Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the DUP - and considers the role of smaller parties in the region. Each interpreted the Agreement in different ways and continued to use the situation to pursue their own distinctive goals and aims.