The conflict in Northern Ireland is one of contradictory identities based upon, among other things, differing political aspirations and religious affiliations, leading to communal identity defining itself along these lines. The result of this has been the creation of an oppositional identity in which the two communities generally classify themselves according to who they are not, rather than who they are. In The Journey Towards Reconciliation, John Paul Lederach describes this as a three-stage process. During the first stage, those involved ‘begin to see in another person, not the sameness [they] share, but the differences between [them] that [they] identify as negative. [They] attach to those differences a negative judgement, a projection that this person is a threat to [them] and is wrong’. This separation from the ‘other’ in turn leads to feelings of superiority, which finally prompts a process of dehumanization and a belief that morally they stand above the other group. Marc Gopin has summed up this experience, commenting: ‘It is typical of conflict-generation thinking to formulate one's identity in opposition to another's identity, to form one's self as part of an ingroup verses the outgroup’. In Northern Ireland this has resulted in the development of boundaries which are challenging to cross, both psychologically and, during times of heightened violence and tension, physically.

Religion plays a large role in the creation of these boundaries, providing a means of defining cultural and political as well as religious values and beliefs, producing ‘a popular culture which invokes religion as a boundary marker between the two communities’. In the 2001 Census, 85.5 per cent of the population readily identified themselves with a religious denomination and the Protestant and Catholic Churches are still viewed as the largest institutions of civil society. Indeed, as David Stevens points out, ‘the churches are present in every community in Northern Ireland. Much of the voluntary effort in this society is focused around churches and they contribute enormously to social capital’.