From shared schools to shared space: integrated education initiatives in Northern Ireland in comparative perspective

Political parties and the general public in Northern Ireland usually agree that community relations could be improved by more widespread provision of ‘integrated education’ in the region (Lucid Talk, 2014). Integrated schools in Northern Ireland involve children from both the Catholic/nationalist and Protestant/unionist communities being educated together in the same classroom. Currently, most children from a Catholic/nationalist background attend Catholic schools, whilst the majority of their Protestant/unionist counterparts attend state schools. This article compares the policy on integrated education pursued by the first power-sharing executive (1973–74) with those of the current executive. The evidence suggests that there has been a drift away from integrated to shared education models, where the only true sharing taking place is of the facilities and infrastructure (DOE, 2013). The latter kind of school is much less likely to lead to the promotion, at an early age, of tolerance and mutual understanding between the region’s two main communities. The evidence therefore suggests that the first power-sharing executive, during a more difficult security climate, had a considerably more ambitious integrated education policy than its contemporary counterpart, ostensibly operating in a post-conflict context

Book Review: J. McEvoy and B. O'Leary (eds). Power Sharing in Deeply Divided Places (U. Penn. Press, 2013)

Power-sharing is a key component of many peace settlements in divided societies. Scholarship on power-sharing is heavily influenced by Arend Lijphart’s pioneering work on consociational theory. Advocates of consociational power-sharing argue that it is a pragmatic means of dealing with competing ethnic identities which are durable, (as opposed to primordial), rather than malleable – a proposition not without its critic

Book Review: Modern Dublin: Urban Change and the Irish Past, 1957–1973. By Erika Hanna. Oxford University Press. 2013.

Urban change in Ireland is likely to attract considerable attention in forthcoming years. The post-Celtic Tiger era has left a legacy of poorly-constructed apartment buildings in towns and cities, as well as a plethora of ‘ghost estates’, the by-product of an unsustainable property construction boom, which blight urban and rural landscapes alike. The Celtic Tiger, however, was not the first construction boom in modern Irish history. During the 1960s, a shortage of housing, particularly in Dublin, led to considerable re-zoning of land for residential development. Much of this activity was subsequently scrutinised in Tribunals of Inquiry concerning planning corruption. During that time, some of Dublin city’s distinctive Georgian architecture was replaced by modern structures, and satellite towns were constructed on the city’s outskirts, the legacy of which are still visible today

Bosnia on the border? Republican Violence in Northern Ireland during the 1920s and 1970s

Unionist politicians have argued that republican political violence on the Irish border, during both the partition of Ireland and more recent Northern Ireland conflict, constituted ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Protestant/unionist community in those areas. These views have been bolstered by an increasingly ambivalent scholarly literature that has failed to adequately question the accuracy of these claims. This article interrogates the ethnic cleansing/genocide narrative by analysing republican violence during the 1920s and the 1970s. Drawing a wide-range of theoretical literature and archival sources, it demonstrates that republican violence fell far short of either ethnic cleansing or genocide, (in part) as a result of the perpetrators’ self-imposed ideological constraints. It also defines a new interpretive concept for the study of violence: functional sectarianism. This concept is designed to move scholarly discussion of political and sectarian violence beyond the highly politicised and moral cul-de-sacs that have heretofore characterised the debate, and has implications for our understanding of political violence beyond Ireland

Social movements, structural violence and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland: The role of Loyalist paramilitaries

This article analyses how social movements and collective actors can affect political and social transformation in a structurally violent society using the case study of Northern Ireland. We focus, in particular, on the crucial role played by collective actors within the loyalist community (those who wish to maintain Northern Ireland’s place in the UK), in bringing about social and political transformation in a society blighted by direct, cultural, and structural violence both during the conflict and subsequent peace process. Drawing on data obtained through in-depth interviews with loyalist activists (including former paramilitaries), the article demonstrates the role and impact of loyalists and loyalism in Northern Ireland’s transition. We identify five conflict transformation challenges addressed by loyalist actors in a structurally violent society: de-mythologizing the conflict; stopping direct violence; resisting pressure to maintain the use of violence; development of robust activist identity; and the measurement of progress through reference to the parallel conflict transformation journey of their former republican enemies. The Northern Ireland case demonstrates the necessity for holistic conflict transformation strategies which attempt not only to stop direct attacks, but also the cultural and structural violence which underpin and legitimize them. In so doing, the article contributes to a broader understanding of how and why paramilitary campaigns are brought to an end

Cultural Identity and Social and Emotional Wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children

Connection with Country, community, and culture lies at the heart of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health and wellbeing. Although there is some evidence on the role of cultural identity on the mental health of Indigenous adults, this relationship is relatively unexplored in the context of Indigenous Australian children. Robust empirical evidence on the role of cultural identity for social and emotional wellbeing is necessary to design and develop effective interventions and approaches for improving the mental health outcomes for Indigenous Australian children. Drawing on data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC), we explore social and emotional wellbeing in Indigenous Australian children and assesses whether cultural identity protects against social-emotional problems in Indigenous children. The results show that Indigenous children with strong cultural identity and knowledge are less likely to experience social and emotional problems than their counterparts. Our work provides further evidence to support the change from a deficit narrative to a strengths-based discourse for improved health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australian children

Truth Commissions after Economic Crises: Political Learning or Blame Game?

This article addresses an important but understudied aspect of the recent Great Recession in Europe: the institutional strategies political elites deployed to learn from past policy failures and address accountability, more specifically, truth commissions. We raise two overlapping puzzles. The first concerns the timing of the decision to adopt an economic truth commission: while Iceland established a truth commission at an early stage of the crisis, Greece and Ireland did so much later. What accounts for ‘early’ versus ‘delayed’ truth seekers? The second concerns variations in learning outcomes. Iceland’s commission paved the way for learning institutional lessons, but truth commissions in Greece and Ireland became overtly politicised. What accounts for these divergences? This article compares truth commissions in Iceland, Greece and Ireland and identifies two types of political learning – institutional and instrumental – related to the establishment of a truth commission. It argues that political elites in countries with higher pre-crisis levels of trust in institutions and public transparency are more likely to establish economic truth commissions quickly; this is the ‘institutional logic’ of learning. The ‘instrumental logic’ of learning, in contrast, leads governments interested in apportioning blame to their predecessors to establish commissions at a later date, usually proximal to critical elections