Extending Peace to the Grassroots

From the early 1970’s to the mid 1990’s Northern Ireland was the site of bitter conflict between those struggling for reunification with the rest of Ireland and those wanting the region to remain a part of the United Kingdom. The Irish-British international border could not be agreed upon. To overcome this tension the Belfast Agreement was signed in 1998, between the British and Irish governments to determine how Northern Ireland should be governed. However, the Agreement failed to include two major opposing ethnic communities within the Northern Ireland region in the conversation. The Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland had a long, deeply rooted history of conflict. By not engaging them in the conversation, the Agreement had left the groups believing that the state did not effectively represent their interests, arbitrate intergroup disputes, or protect them and prepare to defend them against the violence that pursued in retaliation. Not only did ethnic conflict persist in the wake of the Agreement but it also became institutionalized. Those elected were compelled to identify with one of the sectarian groups, thus ensuring that differing identities persisted. This left leaders at a standstill in successful implementation of the Agreement.

Ethnic identities and beliefs are social constructions; as such, they are likely to change. The Agreement had devised a governing system based on sectarian self-identification of political elites, reinforcing historic ethnic differences as opposed to providing incentive to transcend communal boundaries. As a result, difficulty arose in establishing trust across the communities. People remained divided and categorized. The lack of trust between the groups created immediate challenges to institutionalize the governing arrangements of the Agreement fully. Building trust between the groups would be the first building block. This would best be accomplished by strengthening civil society and working towards reconciliation. By strengthening civil society and achieving reconciliation, identities could then slowly evolve over time. This means that the people of Northern Ireland would need to redefine their identity and ultimately the two ethnic groups must come to their own internal settlement. A just and lasting peace requires not just pacts or secret agreements by political elites, but rather a true reconciliation between the former adversarial communities. The Agreement had not provided such reconciliation, leaving social and political tension between the communities.

The Agreement made an attempt to break the historical divide by re-envisioning a Northern Ireland that belonged to both groups through the context of a developed local government. Encouraging the groups to participate jointly in governance would ensure that each group assumes its beliefs, values and security are protected by the state. The effective implementation of such a complex, multilevel agreement could not be achieved by the political elites without mass-based support. Decisions cannot be made by political leaders alone, but require active involvement within and between communities. However, in such a divided society, trust means not only that individuals are willing to interact with members of the other community, but also that they are willing to share in governance and societal institutions without fear of being harmed. The legacy of sectarianism in Northern Ireland makes such trust very difficult. There are historic expectations of fear, suspicion, revenge and recrimination that are not easily forgotten. Leaders however, hoped the Agreement may “unfreeze” long-held beliefs and attitudes and that emerging cooperation might create the expectation of future, reciprocal, cooperative interactions.

To overcome Northern Ireland’s ethnic conflict focus would need to be shifted from institutions to civil society, from elites to the grassroots level. Although the Agreement creatively provided political institutions that allowed elites to share power, these institutions cannot promote peace at the grassroots level or the level of a fully functional democracy while societal trust remains low. To repair this trust, Northern Ireland would have to look outside of formal institutions. This peace agreement would require the mass public’s endorsement, if for no other reason than to give the new government, institutions and arrangements legitimacy in the eyes of the communities. Local populations must be involved in the peace process and subsequent new political institutions to make the process self-sustaining.

Maintaining a lack of reconciliation threatened the Agreement. The people of Northern Ireland failed to confront the fullness of their history- the good and the bad. It is therefore crucial for all citizens of Northern Ireland to reconcile and define a shared vision for the future. By constructing a shared history the communities can delink identity from the events of the past, and by changing these identities, they set the foundation for healing the deep rifts that reinforce sectarianism, undermine civil society and fuel the ethnic security dilemma.

Sustainable peace in Northern Ireland cannot rely solely upon elite politicians and power sharing, but needs to be built from the ground up. Such an approach stresses building better relationships between the communities at the grassroots level. The betterment of these relationships requires that identities change to resolve the remaining ethnic security dilemma. This can best be accomplished through reconciliation and strengthening of civil society, each of which reduces fear and mistrust and raises expectation of future cooperation. The Agreement  works best when constituents expect cooperation from their representatives, permitting the type of negotiations and compromise commonly found in successful democracies. In this way, societal trust can generate trust in the political process. These institutions in return can then reinforce social trust. Conflict resolution will not be fully realized until there is improved integration of Catholics and Protestants in social networks that create the interpersonal trust, social capital, and civil society necessary for a fully functioning democracy. This will require groups to address their past and construct a shared vision of the future, thereby reducing sectarian identities and providing room for other identities to develop and assert themselves. Such actions will require a long-term perspective, but over time changes can be made and Northern Ireland can be unified.