Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction: Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland
- 2 Understanding the Role of Non-aligned Civil Society in Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland: Towards a Fresh Approach
- 3 The Role of Civil Society in Promoting Peace in Northern Ireland
- 4 The Contribution of Integrated Schools to Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland
- 5 Providing a Prophetic Voice? Churches and Peacebuilding, 1968–2005
- 6 ‘Peace Women’, Gender and Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland: From Reconciliation and Political Inclusion to Human Rights and Human Security
- 7 Encumbered by Data: Understanding Politically Motivated Former Prisoners and the Transition to Peace in Northern Ireland
- 8 Loyalism and Peacebuilding in the 2000s
- 9 Civil Society, the State and Conflict Transformation in the Nationalist Community
- 10 Examining the Peacebuilding Policy Framework of the Irish and British Governments
- 11 Building Peace and Crossing Borders: The North/South Dimension of Reconciliation
- 12 Peace Dividends: The Role of External Aid in Peacebuilding
- Index
9 - Civil Society, the State and Conflict Transformation in the Nationalist Community
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction: Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland
- 2 Understanding the Role of Non-aligned Civil Society in Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland: Towards a Fresh Approach
- 3 The Role of Civil Society in Promoting Peace in Northern Ireland
- 4 The Contribution of Integrated Schools to Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland
- 5 Providing a Prophetic Voice? Churches and Peacebuilding, 1968–2005
- 6 ‘Peace Women’, Gender and Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland: From Reconciliation and Political Inclusion to Human Rights and Human Security
- 7 Encumbered by Data: Understanding Politically Motivated Former Prisoners and the Transition to Peace in Northern Ireland
- 8 Loyalism and Peacebuilding in the 2000s
- 9 Civil Society, the State and Conflict Transformation in the Nationalist Community
- 10 Examining the Peacebuilding Policy Framework of the Irish and British Governments
- 11 Building Peace and Crossing Borders: The North/South Dimension of Reconciliation
- 12 Peace Dividends: The Role of External Aid in Peacebuilding
- Index
Summary
A violence from the past?
Serious rioting during the 2010 loyal order marching season prompted a predictable debate about Northern Ireland's political future in general, and the condition of the nationalist community in particular. Whilst there was a broad consensus that the disturbances, however severe, did not signal a return to the ‘bad old days of the Troubles’, there was little agreement about their underlying causes and significance. International media coverage, for example, evinced surprise at a turn of events that challenged a widely accepted ‘international ideology of Northern Ireland’ as a radically changed and stable region.
For some, the violence could simply be condemned and dismissed as ‘recreational rioting’ by bored teenagers: using the trope of anti-social behaviour, they blamed feckless parents and a feral youth out of control. Leading politicians from the DUP and Sinn Féin, whilst pursuing their own, distinct agenda, largely agreed with the PSNI's analysis that ‘sinister elements’ were at work behind the scenes. In the wake of the transfer of policing and justice powers to Stormont, the politicians claimed that dissident republicans opposed to ‘dialogue, negotiation and accommodation’ had orchestrated the fighting and were manipulating young people, thereby handing on ‘the baton of hatred … to another generation’.
Other commentators, however, suggested that the causes of the violence were more fundamental, being located in a continuing and unresolved sectarian conflict and segregated ways of living.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Building Peace in Northern Ireland , pp. 154 - 171Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2011