A dearth of evidence: tackling division and building relationships in Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

Addressing the estrangement of distinct identity groups as a result of violent conflict is a challenging and persistent socio-psychological peacebuilding imperative. In the immediacy of a peace agreement, priority is given to pressing security and institutional arrangements, particularly within the context of substantial external intervention. Northern Ireland represents an interesting case study, as early and targeted attention was paid to the divisions between the two main communities in the region. And yet, despite substantial economic investment, the detail of how interventions aimed at addressing poor relations have been informed, designed and achieved has not been readily accessible. Focusing on grassroots-based relational and reconciliation processes, this article contends that the failure to document, analyse and adequately disseminate these approaches has resulted in community-level peacebuilding which is unnecessarily extemporary, and the focus on delivery has militated against cultures of learning, reflexivity and generosity in the sharing of good practice.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Equality Directorate Research Branch of the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, Northern Ireland Assembly, as part of the Delivering Social Change Research Programme. The authors are grateful the anonymous reviewers of the article for their constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

About the authors

Gráinne Kelly is a Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), Ulster University, Northern Ireland.

Máire Braniff is a Lecturer in Sociology and member of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRISS), Ulster University, Northern Ireland.

ORCID

Grainne Kelly http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5889-8189

Máire Braniff http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2016-9877

Notes

1 Mac Ginty, ‘Liberal Peace at Home’, 690.

2 Blum, Improving Peacebuilding Evaluation, 1.

3 Reimann and Ropers, ‘Discourses on Peace Practices’, 35.

4 Church and Rogers, Designing for Results; Kennedy-Chouane, ‘Improving Conflict Prevention’; OECD and CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, Encouraging Effective Evaluation; Paffenholz and Reychler, Aid for Peace; Smith, Towards a Strategic Framework; United Nations, Monitoring Peace Consolidation.

5 Knox and Quirk, Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland; Hughes, ‘Is Northern Ireland a “Model”’.

6 Richmond, Transformation of Peace; Pugh, ‘Local Agency’; Chandler, ‘Peacebuilding and the Politics’.

7 Chesterman, ‘Peacebuilding’; Pugh ‘Local Agency’; Donais, Peacebuilding and Local Ownership.

8 Stephenson and Zanotti, Peacebuilding through Community-Based NGOs, 3.

9 Richmond, ‘Critical Agency’.

10 Mac Ginty, ‘Everyday Peace’, 551.

11 Arthur, Special Relationships; Hayward, ‘Reiterating National Identities’; Byrne, Economic Assistance; Guelke, ‘The United States’.

12 As well as the traditional bibliographic and journal article searches utilizing academic search engines including ProQuest, LexisNexus, Refseek, Google Scholar and the Social Science Research Network. The extensive publications repositories of the Political Collection of the Linenhall Library, Belfast, the British Library Catalogues and Collections and the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council (available online at www.community-relations.org.uk/services/publications/), the ARK Northern Ireland Qualitative Archive (available online at www.ark.ac.uk/qual/conflict/), the ARK Social Policy Research Database (available online at www.ark.ac.uk/orb/Socialdb.html) and the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) (available online at cain.ulst.ac.uk) were reviewed in order to capture documents published within a wider research and practice setting. Given the wide range of terms used to describe this field of work (community relations, good relations, social cohesion, community cohesion, relationship-building, peacebuilding, inter-communal contact work, among others), multiple searches using different terms and phrases were conducted to ensure the appropriate documentation was identified and located.

13 For more information on the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service, see www.niassembly.gov.uk/assembly-business/research-and-information-service-raise/.

14 This study was undertaken in March–April 2012, and thus utilized the detail of the 2011–12 Annual Core Funding Programme administered by the NICRC. In this time period, 26 organizations from across Northern Ireland were recipients of ‘Core Funding’ which contributes towards the salary and running costs of organizations which are considered to be of strategic importance in promoting community relations work in the region. See more at www.community-relations.org.uk/funding-posts/media-grant-scheme/#sthash.QqFj5kGZ.dpuf.

15 Richmond and Carey, Subcontracting Peace; Paffenholz, Civil Society and Peacebuilding; van Tongeren et al., People Building Peace II.

16 Lederach, Building Sustainable Peace, 39.

17 Ibid., 43.

18 Paffenholz, ‘International Peacebuilding Goes Local’.

19 Paffenholz, Civil Society and Peacebuilding, 43.

20 Ibid., 48.

21 Howard Ross, Action Evaluation; Galama and van Tongeren, Towards Better Peacebuilding Practice; Austin et al., Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment; Church and Shouldice, Evaluation of Conflict Resolution Interventions; CDA, Reflecting on Peace Practice; Campbell, ‘When Process Matters'.

22 Weiss, ‘Nothing as Practical’.

23 Connell and Kubisch, Applying a Theory, 2.

24 Menkhaus, Impact Assessment, 5.

25 Verkoren, The Owl and the Dove, 21.

26 Anderson and Olsen, Confronting War, 10.

27 Paffenholz, Civil Society and Peacebuilding, 58.

28 Byrne et al., Attitudes to Peace Walls.

29 Hansson et al., Integrated Education.

30 Nolan, Peace Monitoring.

31 Bryan and Stevenson, ‘Flagging Peace’; McDowell et al., ‘Spacing Commemorative Related Violence’.

32 Nolan, Peace Monitoring, 143.

33 Buchanan, ‘Transforming Conflict in Northern Ireland’.

34 International Fund for Ireland, Annual Report, 5; Deloitte, External Review, 20.

35 Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, Annual Report.

36 Power, Building Peace in Northern Ireland, 10.

37 Evans and Tonge, ‘Unionist Party Competition’; Clancy, Peace without Consensus; Jenkins, ‘When Politics and Social Theory Converge’.

38 OFMDFM, A Shared Future, 65.

39 OFMDFM, Programme for Cohesion.

40 Todd and Ruane, From ‘A Shared Future’; Platform for Change, Cohesion Policy Challenged; Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, Towards a Shared Society?; Knox, ‘Cohesion, Sharing’.

41 OFMDFM, Together.

42 OFMDFM, A Shared Future, 52; OFMDFM, Programme for Cohesion, 8; OFMDFM, Together, 43.

43 Kelly, Progressing Good Relations.

44 Wright, Northern Ireland; Darby, Scorpions in a Bottle; Cochrane and Dunn, People Power?; Porter, The Elusive Quest; Hewstone et al., Can Contact Promote Better Relations?; Clancy and Nagle, Shared Society or Benign Apartheid?

45 See note 12 above.

46 Lampen, Building the Peace.

47 Ibid., ii.

48 Wilson, What Works for Reconciliation?

49 Ibid., 5.

50 Atlantic Philanthropies, 2008 Annual Report; Atlantic Philanthropies, Giving while Living; SEUPB, Annual Report 2012; Community Foundation Northern Ireland, Realising Potential.

51 International Fund for Ireland, Effective Peacebuilding; Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Summary of Good Practice; Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Model for Peacebuilding.

52 OFMDFM, Programme for Cohesion.

53 See, for example, the Special EU Programmes Body quarterly newsletter, available online at www.seupb.eu/NewsAndEvents/youreu/yourEUarchive.aspx.

54 See, for example, Atlantic Philanthropies, available online at www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/rhr-northern-ireland; SEUPB Project Case Studies, available online at www.seupb.eu/media/Project_Case_Studies.aspx.

55 Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, Towards a Shared Society?, 65–70.

56 Fitzduff, Community Conflict Skills.

57 WEA, Us and Them.

58 Naylor, Moving beyond Sectarianism; Naylor, Who We Are; Williams et al., Creating Community.

59 The Boys’ Brigade in Northern Ireland, Investing in Our Future; Potter and Lynagh, Joined-Up; CCEA, Living.Learning.Together.

60 Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, What Can We Do?; Morrow and Wilson, Ways Out of Conflict.

61 O’Hagan, Stories in Conflict; Healing through Remembering, Conversation Guide.

62 Hamilton, Working Relationships.

63 Mika, Community Based Restorative Justice.

64 Gallagher et al., ‘Education through Schools’; Education and Training Inspectorate, A Final Evaluation.

65 Byrne, ‘Interface Violence in East Belfast’; Byrne, Evaluation of Belfast City Council Bonfire Management Programme 2007; Byrne, Evaluation of Belfast City Council's Bonfire Management Programme 2008; Byrne, Evaluation of Belfast City Council's Bonfire Management Programme 2011; Byrne and O’Riordan, Review of the Belfast City Council's Bonfire Management Programme; Jarman et al., Local Accommodation.

66 Institute for Conflict Research, Belfast Citizenship Education Programme.

67 Jarman, Working at the Interface; Goldie and Ruddy, Crossing the Line.

68 Community Foundation Northern Ireland, Communities in Transitions Programme.

69 Lundy and McGovern ‘Community-Based Approaches’.

70 Rural Community Network, Rural Community Estates Programme.

71 Evaluator A has conducted between 50 and 60 evaluations over a 15-year period. Evaluator B has conducted between 20 and 30 evaluations over a 15-year period. Evaluator C has conducted 20–30 evaluations over a 20-year period. Evaluator D has conducted between 40 and 50 evaluations over a 10-year period. With the exception of Evaluator D, all evaluators have also conducted additional evaluations either in other cognate fields (including community development and health and social care) or in other peacebuilding contexts outside of Northern Ireland. All interviews were conducted between 14–18 Oct. 2015 and were subject to Ethical Approval by the appropriate University Ethics Committee.

72 Interview with Evaluator A, Belfast, 13 Oct. 2015.

73 Interview with Evaluator B, 15 Oct. 2015.

74 Richmond, ‘Critical Agency’, 420.

75 Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, Core Funding Programme 2014–2015.

76 Interview with Evaluator B, Belfast, 15 Oct. 2015.

77 Interview with Evaluator D, Belfast, 17 Oct. 2015.

78 Mac Ginty, ‘Routine Peace’, 301.

79 Mac Ginty, ‘Hybrid Peace’, 409.

80 See Atlantic Philanthropies, Letter from the President; International Fund for Ireland, Community Transformation.

81 Lederach, Building Sustainable Peace, xvi.

82 Ibid., 87.

83 Ibid., 94.

84 Smyth and Darby, ‘Does Research Make Any Difference?’, 36.

85 Mac Ginty and Richmond, ‘Local Turn in Peace Building’.

86 Lederach et al., Reflective Peacebuilding, 51.