The ratification of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was the culmination of a lengthy and contentious peace process that involved the efforts of a committed team of political actors. In 2001, Marianne Elliott brought together a collection of essays by many of these pivotal figures in The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland, an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and politicians. Now Elliott, one of the most prominent chroniclers of Irish history, presents a fully updated edition with new essays commissioned to explore the events of the past five years. A period that saw successes such as the decommissioning of the Provisional IRA but also a rise in drug trafficking and organized crime, as a generation of men who have done nothing other than serve as paramilitaries are now finding their skills most valued as criminals. With contributions from U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell, Sir David Goodall, Jan Egeland, Lord Owen, and Peter Mandelsohn, the second edition of The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland is an illuminating record of the ongoing peace process—and its consequences—told by the people directly involved in its evolution.

Is the unique inside story, revealing the truth behind the headlines of how the peace process was begun, and brought to fruition. Adams conveys the tensions, the sense of teetering on the brink, and he has a sharp eye and acute ear for the more humorous foibles of political allies and enemies alike.

Fifteen minutes before five o'clock on Good Friday, 1998, Senator George Mitchell was informed that his long and difficult quest for an Irish peace accord had succeeded--the Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland, and the governments of the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, would sign the agreement. Now Mitchell, who served as independent chairman of the peace talks for the length of the process, tells us the inside story of the grueling road to this momentous accord. For more than two years, Mitchell, who was Senate majority leader under Presidents Bush and Clinton, labored to bring together parties whose mutual hostility--after decades of violence and mistrust--seemed insurmountable: Sinn Fein, represented by Gerry Adams; the Catholic moderates, led by John Hume; the majority Protestant party, headed by David Trimble; Ian Paisley's hard-line unionists; and, not least, the governments of the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, headed by Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair. The world watched as the tense and dramatic process unfolded, sometimes teetering on the brink of failure. Here, for the first time, we are given a behind-the-scenes view of the principal players--the personalities who shaped the process--and of the contentious, at times vitriolic, proceedings. We learn how, as the deadline approached, extremist violence and factional intransigence almost drove the talks to collapse. And we witness the intensity of the final negotiating session, the interventions of Ahern and Blair, the late-night phone calls from President Clinton, a last-ditch attempt at disruption by Paisley, and ultimately an agreement that, despite subsequent inflammatory acts aimed at destroying it, has set Northern Ireland's future on track toward a more lasting peace.

Since the plantation of Ulster in the 17th century, Northern Irish people have been engaged in conflict - Catholic against Protestant, Republican against Unionist. This text explores the pivotal moments in this history.

From the acclaimed author of the “wonderfully funny and openhearted” (NPR) Drinking with Men comes a poignant, wrenching, and ultimately hopeful book—equal parts memoir and social history—that follows the author, after a series of tragic losses, to Northern Ireland, where she finds a path toward healing. Rosie Schaap had a solid career as a journalist and a life that looked to others like nonstop fun: all drinking and dining and traveling to beautiful places—and getting paid to write about it. But under the surface she was reeling from the loss of her husband and her mother—who died just one year apart. Caring for them had claimed much of her daily life in her late thirties. Mourning them would take longer. It wasn’t until a reporting trip took her to the Northern Irish countryside that Rosie found a partner to heal with: Glenarm, a quiet, seaside village in County Antrim. That first visit made such an impression she returned to make a life. This unlikely place—in a small, tough country mainly associated with sectarian strife—gave her a measure of peace that had seemed impossible elsewhere. Weaving personal narrative and social history, The Slow Road North is a moving and wise look at how a community can offer the key to healing. It’s a portrait of a complicated place at a pivotal time—through Brexit, a historic school integration, and a pandemic—and a love letter to a village and a culture.

Making peace in Northern Ireland was the greatest success of the Blair government, and one of the greatest achievements in British politics since the Second World War. In Jonathan Powell's masterly account we learn just how close the talks leading to the Good Friday agreement came to collapse and how the parties finally reached a deal. Pithy, outspoken and precise, Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff and chief negotiator, gives us that rarest of things, a true insider's account of politics at the highest level. He demonstrates how the events in Northern Ireland have valuable lessons for those seeking to end conflict in other parts of the world and shows us how the process of making peace is sometimes messy and often blackly comic.

Essential text for a 1 term/semester undergraduate course on Northern Ireland (usually a 2nd year option). Combines coverage of the historical context of the situation in Northern Ireland with a thorough examination of the contemporary political situation and the peace process. The book explores the issues behind the longevity of the conflict and provides a detailed analysis of the attempts to create a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.