Expert perspective: the academic
A decade on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, is Northern Ireland enjoying a new era of peace and prosperity or is it as divided as ever? Dr Gordon Gillespie, from the Institute of Irish Studies at Queens University Belfast, examines just how much progress - if any - has been made.
Anyone visiting Northern Ireland at the moment is likely to be impressed by the amount of development taking place: city, town and infrastructure improvements can be seen right across the area. In Belfast, the impressive new Victoria Square shopping complex in the city centre, with a range of upmarket stores, has opened to widespread approval. In the last few years, house prices have soared – with increases in some areas, such as Newry on the border with the Republic of Ireland, seeing some of the steepest rises in the United Kingdom as a whole. Unemployment was at a record low of less than 4% in late 2007 and, although it has since increased to more than 4%, it remains very low in historical terms. Northern Ireland is booming – and not in the way we had come to think of the word during the course of the Troubles.
The lives and lifestyles of many of Northern Ireland’s citizens have undoubtedly improved over the past decade, with a reduction (though not a complete absence) in paramilitary activity; and a local administration involving the two largest unionist and two largest nationalist parties topped by (outgoing) First Minister Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein. In general, although it has been criticised for not bringing forward enough legislation, the Executive is perceived to be working reasonably well. The North-South Ministerial Council, which deals with selected areas of government – such as food safety – on an all-Ireland basis and which has traditionally been an area of concern for unionists (who felt it might be a long-tem means of forcing Northern Ireland into the Republic), has also been operating with remarkably little controversy.
Fragile future?
It would be wrong to suggest, however, that everything was rosy, particularly in the deprived urban working class areas which were often at the forefront of the conflict. Residential segregation in general still continues to be a significant factor. More ‘peace lines’ separating Protestant and Catholic communities at interface areas have been built since the Agreement. In April 2007, the government estimated there were 34 walls or fences and 11 gates separating Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland.
Efforts to begin removing some of these walls are, at best, still at a very early stage. Even where peace lines do not exist, wall murals and flags are often clear markers of territory. It is not uncommon to see loyalist or republican flags flying in areas where new houses are being built – clearly a reminder of just who ‘owns’ the area. The public housing body, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, has begun to establish specifically integrated housing developments, although given NIHE’s limited budget, this remains comparatively small scale in comparison to the size of the issue.
Enduring legacy
The legacy of the Troubles also remains divisive – unlike, for example, in South Africa, there was no clear winner in the Northern Ireland conflict and it is therefore important for the various protagonists to establish a narrative which authenticates and justifies their view of the conflict and their actions in it. In practical terms this can be seen, for example, in the large number of memorials to paramilitary members killed in the Troubles (a small percentage of the overall number who died). These memorials, often erected illegally, also serve to further demarcate territory.
This issue also appears in significant discussions, such as the location of a new sports stadium for Northern Ireland. At present, the main proposal is for a new stadium to be built at the former Maze Prison – site of the H-Blocks and 1981 republican hunger strike. The plan calls for one of the prison buildings to be maintained and used as a Conflict Transformation Centre. Whether the stadium could remain a ‘neutral space’ given the past history of the site and the buildings to be retained continues to be a source of controversy.
Difficult questions
The question of victims of the conflict also remains a vexed one. Although an official definition of the term ‘victim’ exists, at grass-roots level there continues to be a significant amount of debate as to exactly who this should apply to. Related to this is the question of whether there should be a ‘Troubles memorial.’ The question of whether, for example, all those who died in the Troubles should be named on a memorial remains highly contentious as it would include a number of cases where a victim and his or her killer could appear on the same memorial.
The conflict may be over, but the legacy of the Troubles is very much alive and well. By one estimate, the contemporary Northern Ireland conflict lasted nearly 40 years. To expect the difficulties associated with it to disappear merely because political leaders signed up to a deal would be optimistic in the extreme.
By Dr Gordon Gillespie, Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University Belfast
April 9 2008
Dr Gillespie is the author of The Historical Dictionary of the Northern Ireland Conflict (Scarecrow Press, 2008) and the forthcoming Years of Darkness: The Troubles Remembered (Gill and Macmillan, 2008)
