The Irish border was the thread that ran throughout the Agreement signed on Good Friday 1998 – it was there in the prime negotiating role of the British and Irish governments, in the casting line between ‘unionist’ and ‘nationalist’, and in the three strands of institutionalised cooperation between politicians divided over and by the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. But where should we metaphorically place the border in the task of building peace? As the well-respected public official who has played a major part in north/south cooperation since 1998 notes in the interview extract quoted above, not only is the cross-border dimension crucial to resolving conflict, it also offers a fresh vision of the post-Agreement landscape. This is the premise from which we will examine the nature of cross-border cooperation on the island of Ireland, specifically as it has been connected to the goals of peace and reconciliation.

Peacebuilding has been defined as ‘[a] process that establishes peace and prevents violence from continuing or re-emerging by addressing the root causes and the consequences of conflict.’ In this chapter we consider the role of cross-border cooperation as means of realising the goal of building peace.