The Politics of the Past,1998–2008

Bibliographic Data

ID23718540
AuthorsCillian Mcgrattan (0000-0002-3835-5654, University College Dublin, corresponding author)
Year2010
Pages156-180
Publication date2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueNorthern Ireland 1968-2008 (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9780230277045_7
OpenAlexW2497469754
ISBN9780230277045
LanguageEN
References cited10

This chapter looks at the politics of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and argues that the faltering attempts to establish devolution in Northern Ireland were a product of the ways in which contemporary political developments are saturated with the politics of the past. This chapter explores how the legacies of the conflict continued to influence post-Agreement politics in the North. The underlying question is the extent to which it is possible to speak of peace and transition in a society that is still characterised by sectarian division at the social and geographic levels and political entrenchment and polarisation at the level of elite politics. The chapter examines the episodic attempts to establish a power-sharing government at Stormont and the similarly sporadic attempts by the Northern Ireland Office and the Northern Ireland Assembly to establish mechanisms for dealing with the legacies of the Troubles. Although these mechanisms have created financial and medical assistance for victims, the debate over the meaning of the conflict reveals an underlying trend concerning the ability of the past to influence the present. Thus, while governmental initiatives may appear to deal with the past in a piecemeal fashion, in fact, the divisions over power-sharing and the meaning of the Troubles simply reflect the fact that the contributory causes of the conflict — namely, antagonistic policy objectives and different, communally-based experiences of the violence — continue to shape contemporary politics. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Devolution (biology) · Elite · Government (linguistics) · Meaning (existential) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Irish and British Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Peacebuilding and International Security