Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction to Revised Edition
- Introduction
- Achieving Transformational Change
- The Resolution of Armed Conflict: Internationalization and its Lessons, Particularly in Northern Ireland
- Some Reflections on Successful Negotiation in South Africa
- The Secrets of the Oslo Channels: Lessons from Norwegian Peace Facilitation in the Middle East, Central America and the Balkans
- The Awakening: Irish-America's Key Role in the Irish Peace Process
- ‘Give Us Another MacBride Campaign’: An Irish-American Contribution to Peaceful Change in Northern Ireland
- Towards Peace in Northern Ireland
- Neither Orange March nor Irish Jig: Finding Compromise in Northern Ireland
- Mountain-climbing Irish-style: The Hidden Challenges of the Peace Process
- The Good Friday Agreement: A Vision for a New Order in Northern Ireland
- Hillsborough to Belfast: Is It the Final Lap?
- Defining Republicanism: Shifting Discourses of New Nationalism and Post-republicanism
- Conflict, Memory and Reconciliation
- Keeping Going: Beyond Good Friday
- Religion and Identity in Northern Ireland
- Getting to Know the ‘Other’: Inter-church Groups and Peace-building in Northern Ireland
- Enduring Problems: The Belfast Agreement and a Disagreed Belfast
- Appendices: Key Recommendations of
- 1 The Sunningdale Agreement (December 1973)
- 2 The Anglo-Irish (Hillsborough) Agreement (November 1985)
- 3 The Opsahl Commission (June 1993)
- 4 The Downing Street Joint Declaration (December 1993)
- 5 The Framework Document (1995)
- 6 The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement (April 1998)
- 7 The Report of the Northern Ireland Victims Commission (Sir Kenneth Bloom.eld, 1998)
- 8 The Patten Report (1999)
- 9 Review of the Parades Commission (Sir George Quigley, 2002)
- Index
- Images
The Awakening: Irish-America's Key Role in the Irish Peace Process
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction to Revised Edition
- Introduction
- Achieving Transformational Change
- The Resolution of Armed Conflict: Internationalization and its Lessons, Particularly in Northern Ireland
- Some Reflections on Successful Negotiation in South Africa
- The Secrets of the Oslo Channels: Lessons from Norwegian Peace Facilitation in the Middle East, Central America and the Balkans
- The Awakening: Irish-America's Key Role in the Irish Peace Process
- ‘Give Us Another MacBride Campaign’: An Irish-American Contribution to Peaceful Change in Northern Ireland
- Towards Peace in Northern Ireland
- Neither Orange March nor Irish Jig: Finding Compromise in Northern Ireland
- Mountain-climbing Irish-style: The Hidden Challenges of the Peace Process
- The Good Friday Agreement: A Vision for a New Order in Northern Ireland
- Hillsborough to Belfast: Is It the Final Lap?
- Defining Republicanism: Shifting Discourses of New Nationalism and Post-republicanism
- Conflict, Memory and Reconciliation
- Keeping Going: Beyond Good Friday
- Religion and Identity in Northern Ireland
- Getting to Know the ‘Other’: Inter-church Groups and Peace-building in Northern Ireland
- Enduring Problems: The Belfast Agreement and a Disagreed Belfast
- Appendices: Key Recommendations of
- 1 The Sunningdale Agreement (December 1973)
- 2 The Anglo-Irish (Hillsborough) Agreement (November 1985)
- 3 The Opsahl Commission (June 1993)
- 4 The Downing Street Joint Declaration (December 1993)
- 5 The Framework Document (1995)
- 6 The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement (April 1998)
- 7 The Report of the Northern Ireland Victims Commission (Sir Kenneth Bloom.eld, 1998)
- 8 The Patten Report (1999)
- 9 Review of the Parades Commission (Sir George Quigley, 2002)
- Index
- Images
Summary
Political stalemate is likely to continue … the conflict in Ireland is being managed reasonably well … the British, Irish, the unionists and the nationalists in Northern Ireland all seem to have become accustomed to the present level of violence … real change must await a new generation.
It would be hard to find a more incorrect summing up of the situation in Northern Ireland, just months before the peace process began to bear fruit. Yet it is not surprising that, even at the highest levels of the US government, there was considerable cynicism about any prospects for movement in Northern Ireland. On the surface, in 1993, attitudes in Northern Ireland appeared as frozen as ever. But underneath the surface, a subtle warming process had begun.
The end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism were epoch-making events, not just for the world's superpowers, but also for citizens of smaller countries where long-term conflicts raged. It is no coincidence that great strides were made in major trouble-spots after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In South Africa, the Middle East and Northern Ireland the end of the Cold War signalled an opportunity to advance long-dormant peace plans. In Northern Ireland, in particular, one of the most important changes was that the United States was suddenly able to view the conflict in a different light. In over 200 years there had been very few major international issues that the British and the Americans disagreed on. As long as the Cold War continued, Britain's vital role as the major strategic partner of the US in Europe meant that the Northern Ireland issue would also be considered by Washington an internal affair for the British to deal with. The end of the Cold War, however, allowed a new flexibility in the relationship. Amid signs of changing times in Northern Ireland, the opportunity at last presented itself to Irish-Americans of helping to create a major new initiative on Ireland that a US president could take part in. The ‘special relationship’ of 200 years was at last going to be challenged.
Irish-America: The Disillusioned Decades
At the beginning of the 1990s Irish-America was uniquely positioned to help create a new dynamic.
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- The Long Road to Peace in Northern IrelandPeace Lectures from the Institute of Irish Studies at Liverpool University, pp. 67 - 77Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2007