After the Good Friday Agreement

Bibliographic Data

ID20077047
AuthorsGraham Spencer (University of Portsmouth, corresponding author)
Year2008
Pages180-205
Publication date2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueState of Loyalism in Northern Ireland (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9780230582255_8
OpenAlexW2504514917
ISBN9780230582255
LanguageEN
Citations received11

Once the Agreement had been signed by the respective parties, a referendum was conducted to reveal the strength of public support for the settlement. For Sinn Fein, legitimising the referendum meant meeting with the Republican grassroots at a specially convened ardfheis in Dublin to change the party’s constitution, in order to allow part representatives to take seats in a Northern Ireland Assembly (overwhelmingly endorsed) (Bew and Gillespie 1999: 363). Advanced publicity for the referendum, which took place in May, was supported by a British government campaign which emphasised the positives of the Agreement, while playing down the negatives. As part of this campaign, the British stressed how ‘The message is to be reinforced and the public need to be in no doubt about how a deal will improve every aspect of their quality of life’. To successfully convey this image, the government recommended that ‘key messages be repeated at every opportunity’, and that important figures who gave consent to the Agreement should be used in order to promote ‘message credibility among those they represent’. Significantly, the government’s propaganda blurb instructed how ‘serious consideration needs to be given to the timing and content of any messages, because it could be seen as “big government” imposing its view ... For that and reasons of propriety, the focus should be on selling the concept of an agreed future. The central message will be “It’s Your Choice”. Initially that choice will be posed as being between the failure of the past and the future towards which we are making progress. Once an agreement is in place, the message will change to encouraging people to vote for this future’ (McCartney 2001: 224–6)

Business · Constitution · Credibility · Grassroots · Payment · Political science · Public relations · Publicity · Referendum · Irish and British Studies · Law · Public Administration

Tools

Open DOILibgen