Northern Ireland

 [A section of the Peace Wall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.]

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Readings: 
  • Northern Ireland - An Overview

    The Troubles in Northern Ireland is much more complex a history than simply a conflict between Catholics and Protestants, and whether Northern Ireland should be under the rule of the United Kingdom. The conflict and tensions in Northern Ireland go back literally for centuries, and is anything but simple.

  • Trapped by the Pain of Memory

    Tony Gallagher, Professor of Education at Queen's University in Belfast, is a member of the Institute for Conflict Research. Here Gallagher discusses living through a quarter century of political violence, why it is difficult for Northern Ireland to come to terms with loss, and how this reluctance to face history impedes forgiveness and reconciliation.

  • Bloody Sunday

    What exactly happened on January 30, 1972? Citizens of Derry (or "Londonderry" according to the Unionists) remember it as Bloody Sunday, when 14 men participating in a civil protest were shot and killed by British paratroopers. The Widgery Tribunal exonerated the paratroopers, but Nationalists declared the gunshots "unprovoked." In 1998 British Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered the case reinvestigated to put to rest the question of who was to blame for the bloodshed.

  • Who Are You?
    A conversation in Northern Ireland can be like a dance: Issues of identity are often avoided as an act of prevention and keeping one’s self safe. A culture of silence emerges, captured in an excerpt from Seamus Heaney’s poem, “Whatever You Say Say Nothing.”
  • Challenging a Culture of Hate

    In 1993, Alan McBride's wife, Sharon, was killed by an IRA bomber in Belfast, leaving McBride to raise the couple's young daughter alone. A Unionist all his life, McBride's hatred of the Nationalists and the IRA only intensified. But years later, McBride is challenging the culture that forced him to pick sides and is now acting as an advocate for a workable peace.

  • Poetry and History

    Many people in Northern Ireland look to poetry to express the history of the conflict and the tensions of being Northern Irish. Seamus Heaney's poem, The Cure at Troy, translates part of Sophocles's Philoctetes, but the connections to Northern Ireland are there for the reader and listener to find.

  • How Important is an Apology?

    In 1974, the Irish Republican Army bombed pubs in London. Eleven people were wrongly accused of the bombings, found guilty, and then spent many years in jail before being released in the late 1980s. They became known as the Guilford Four and the Maguire Seven. In 2005, thirty-one years after the bombings, Prime Minister Tony Blair finally apologized to those people who were wrongly accused and imprisoned.

  • Connecting through the Music of Van Morrison

    In Northern Ireland, finding common ground between Catholics and Protestants can be a difficult task. But singer/songwriter Van Morrison's music is a rare exception, claimed by both groups, giving each the opportunity to imagine peace.

  • “Words Matter in Northern Ireland”

    In October 2005, the Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in South Belfast held a meeting to discuss decommissioning by the Irish Republican Army (decommissioning means the process a group takes to give up all of its weapons). The way the evening unfolded illustrates some of the challenges for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

  • Institutional Reform in Northern Ireland: Ending the Diplock Courts

    In 1973, Lord Diplock introduced the idea of trials without juries for those accused of terrorism in Northern Ireland. These so-called "Diplock Courts" remained in existence until the Summer of 2007. This reading explores the history of the Diplock Courts and the challenges involved in reforming the judiciary system in Northern Ireland.

  • Power Sharing, Peace and Indifference in Northern Ireland

    In May 2007, after decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, former enemies began the ambitious task of running the government together. This reading looks at the broad range of reactions of Northern Irish citizens--including indifference--to this new power sharing arrangement.

  • Remembering the Past, Together

    Why is it important to remember the past? And is it important for societies that have experienced genocide or mass violence to create days specifically devoted to remembering? This reading talks about a newly created Day of Private Reflection in Northern Ireland.