Religion and Conflict Case Study Series Northern Ireland: Religion in War and Peace August 2013 © Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/classroom Abstract This case study examines the complex and multifaceted role of religion in the conflict in Northern Ireland between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists. The core text of the case study looks at the struggle through the lens of five primary questions: What are the historical origins of the conflict in Northern Ireland? How did domestic forces drive the conflict and its ne- gotiated resolution? How important were international religious and political forces? What role did socioeconomic factors play? How did religion intersect with these other factors in driving outcomes? Alongside this core text, the case study features a timeline of key events, a guide to relevant political, nongov- ernmental, and religious organizations, and a list of topical publications for further reading on the subject. About this Case Study This case study was crafted under the editorial direction of Eric Patterson, visit- ing assistant professor in the Department of Government and associate director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. This case study was made possible through the support of the Henry Luce Foundation and the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs. 2 BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CASE STUDY — NORTHERN IRELAND Contents Introduction 4 Historical Background 5 Domestic Factors 7 International Factors 8 Socioeconomic Factors 9 Conclusion 11 Resources Key Events 12 Political Organizations 13 Nongovernmental Organizations 14 Religious Groups 15 Further Reading 17 Discussion Questions 19 BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CASE STUDY — NORTHERN IRELAND 3 Introduction At first glance, the conflict in Northern Ireland during the conflict had some political and moral authority but also had late twentieth century pitted Catholics against Protestants in to contend with political, economic, paramilitary, and oth- a violent sectarian struggle. But the role of religion was, in er local elites concerned about maintaining and extending fact, much more nuanced. The conflict was not a religious their influence. While faith communities and their leaders war; most religious leaders on both sides consistently op- contributed to the successful completion of the 1998 Belfast posed violence; the political views of many leaders and all of Agreement (commonly known as the Good Friday Agree- the major parties were grounded in economic and political ment) that put an end to major hostilities, domestic, inter- calculations; and religious doctrine was never really at stake. national, and deeper socioeconomic forces played a more de- Instead, religion served primarily as a marker of national cisive role. The Northern Ireland case demonstrates not only identity. Protestant Ulster unionists sought to maintain the how religious identity can exacerbate a conflict, but also how status of Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom, religious actors can use their authority to promote reconcili- and Catholic Irish nationalists wanted to unite it with the ation in practice. Republic of Ireland. Religious leaders on both sides of the City Hall, Belfast 4 BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CASE STUDY — NORTHERN IRELAND Historical Background The Troubles in Northern Ireland stretched from the late lution. To be Protestant signals likely descent from the 1960s through the Belfast Agreement of 1998. During colonial English and Scottish settlers. that span, over 3,000 civilians, paramilitaries, police of- ficers, British soldiers, and British and Irish officials were The colonial conquests rendered Irish Catholics non-citi- killed, with over 50,000 people seriously wounded (the zens: Catholics were not formally emancipated in the Unit- equivalent in the US population would be a half million ed Kingdom until 1829. The rise of Irish nationalism and casualties). Rather than a full-scale war, the Troubles were unrest in the nineteenth century led to failed home rule ef- a low-intensity conflict of large proportions, a blend of forts, the Easter Rising of 1916, and unrest that continued rioting, paramilitary attacks, guerrilla warfare, insurgent into 1923. The British partition of Ireland in 1920 divided terrorism, and military and police operations. The ma- that part of historic Ulster that had been most successful- jority of deaths took place at the hands of paramilitary ly incorporated into the United Kingdom (what became groups, especially the Provisional Irish Republican Army Northern Ireland) from the rest of Ireland, which became (IRA)—nationalist and overwhelmingly Catholic—and independent as the Irish Free State (later the Republic of the Ulster Defense Association and the Ulster Volun- Ireland). Fearful that they would one day be betrayed by teer Force—unionist and overwhelmingly Protestant— Britain and that Irish nationalists were intent on forcibly though the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabu- reunifying Ireland, Ulster Unionists ran a systematically lary were involved in about 11 percent of deaths. Even discriminatory regime from 1921 until the British govern- after the Good Friday Agreement, stable power sharing ment suspended the Northern Ireland parliament in 1972. between Irish nationalists and Ulster unionists was slow Even after World War Two, Catholics faced discrimination, to come. Finally, in 2005, the IRA destroyed its remaining especially in obtaining government employment and access substantial weapons cache under the watchful eyes of two to housing, but also in the private sector. clergymen and an international monitoring commission, and in 2007, under First Minister Rev. Dr. Ian Paisley and With the growth of a Catholic middle class in North- Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinnes (his coequal) ern Ireland throughout the 1950s, calls for equal rights a power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly resumed its from both Catholic Church leaders and secular activists institutional existence. grew into a highly organized civil rights campaign led by the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association (NICRA). A The roots of the Troubles stretch back to the late seven- series of high-profile events, especially the 1972 Bloody teenth and eighteenth centuries, when successive English Sunday killing of 14 civil rights demonstrators by the and British conquests and reconquests of Ireland stripped British military in Derry, escalated the conflict, which pit- the native Irish and old English Catholics of ownership ted the IRA against Protestant militias, ultimately result- of the land and replaced them with English and Scottish ing in over 3,000 deaths—most of them civilians. settlers. Today, to be Catholic in Ireland usually signals descent from the native Gaelic Irish or the old English The leadership of the Catholic Church in Ireland was Catholics who persisted after the sixteenth century revo- sympathetic to the nationalist cause but was not the driv- BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CASE STUDY — NORTHERN IRELAND 5 ing force behind it. During these years of violence and time, Protestant cleric Rev. Roy Magee was meeting with reprisal killings, Church leaders on both sides struggled unionist paramilitaries to secure a ceasefire to match the to prevent their communities from spiraling even further IRA declaration, which came in October 1994. Unionist into chaos. paramilitary leader Gusty Spence offered “abject and true remorse” to the families of victims when announcing that At a number of critical junctures in the Troubles, religious ceasefire. individuals provided important calls for dialogue between political parties, the British government, and militant or- When the Good Friday Agreement was eventually signed ganizations, but were rarely key protagonists in the con- in 1998, churches were among the most vocal support- flict or the primary leaders in the peace. For instance, ers, calling it “a way out of the darkness of the last 30 the initial meetings between Sinn Féin leader Gerry Ad- years” and “another opportunity to make and build ams, the leading face of militant Irish nationalism and peace.” When the IRA destroyed its weapons in 2005, republicanism, and John Hume, the head of the non- it was two clerics who witnessed the event, Fr. Reid violent nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party from Clonard and Rev. Harold Good of the Methodist (SDLP) in early 1988, took place at Clonard Monastery Church. Their testimony, intended to “create universal with the facilitation of Rev. Alex Reid. These negotiations confidence” that the IRA weapons were gone for good, would eventually lead to an IRA ceasefire in 1994, which was a fitting final role for two veterans of Northern Irish marked a crucial phase in ending the conflict. At a similar peacemaking.1 6 BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CASE STUDY — NORTHERN IRELAND Domestic Factors Religious identity was an important dividing line in the tionalist paramilitary group) prisoners went on hunger Northern Ireland conflict, but a simplistic framing of strikes to protest their treatment in custody. Religious the Troubles as a Catholic-Protestant war also misses leaders disapproved of the method of hunger striking, diversity