Northern Ireland

Monica McWilliams and Kate Fearon provide a detailed analysis of the implementation of the Belfast Agreement, highlighting various delays and problems and how the sides have dealt with them.

Dermot Nesbitt assesses the Belfast Agreement as a significant attempt to deal with issues that affect all situations of intergroup conflict, ranging from the problem of conflicting national identities to sequencing and fulfilling commitments made.

Quintin Oliver, who played a role in civil society initiatives in three different phases of the Northern Ireland peace process, examines civil society’s role in each phase. He argues that in the first phase of preparing for peace civil society must undertake both advocacy and mobilisation in order to foster a climate for peace and to ensure that civil society’s voice is heard in the formal negotiations. In the formal negotiation phase civil society can play a direct role at the negotiation table, raise public knowledge and apply pressure on the negotiating parties if talks stall or collapse. In the implementation and consolidation phase, civil society must help by fostering a sense of ownership of the process at the grassroots.

Mark Durkan provides a detailed account of the long negotiating process that led to the Belfast Agreement, including the formats and tactics and how it was all brought together at the end.