Paths to a Settlement in Northern Ireland

By Sean Farren and Robert F. Mulvihill

For generations in Northern Ireland, unionist and nationalist communities have been frozen in isolation from one another, preferring demonstrations of communal solidarity to negotiation and cooperation. This absorbing book examines the many attempts to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland, beginning with the civil rights movement and Prime Minister Terence O'Neill's reform efforts in the mid-1960's, continuing up to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. It finds that early attempts at peacemaking suggested only mechanical political solutions, which only deepened the antagonistic pattern of relationships. It was not until these existing relationships were challenged, most crucially through the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985 and subsequent initiatives jointly determined by the British and Irish governments, that the main parties began to participate in efforts to create a democratic peace. The authors contend that a political and cultural process is now in motion that gives peace its first real chance in Northern Ireland's history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0861404130
• ISBN13: 9780861404131
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A unique understanding of peacemaking

Many books have been written on the conflict and peace process in Northern Ireland. What makes Farren and Mulvihill's book unique is their analysis of the conflict in terms of the emotional system and the interlocking triangles between Britain, the Irish Republic, and the two sides in Northern Ireland: Unionist/Protestant and Nationalist/Catholic. Efforts to resolve civil rights issues and efforts to form power-sharing governance failed to bring peace until, in the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, Britain moved to a neutral position, ending the protective, covenant relationship between Britain and the Unionists. Britain's shift to neutrality opened the door to direct negotiation between Unionists and Nationalists in Northern Ireland, resulting in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and now the new power-sharing government of 2007. Farren and Mulvihill's analysis is based on the systems theory of Murray Bowen, a theory that they see as "a highly innovative and comprehensive approach to the study of conflict...with clear implications for peacemaking."