UCD Seminar

Breaking the Patterns of Conflict: The Irish State, the British Dimension and the Northern Ireland Conflict

Institute for British-Irish Studies
School of Politics & International Relations
University College Dublin
Theatre R, Newman (Arts) Building
Belfield, Dublin 4

Friday, 12 March 2010

This conference was initiated to build on findings from the ‘Breaking Patterns’ research project, which aims to assess how British and Irish policy promoted and instigated change in the patterns of conflict in Northern Ireland.

The project documents key turning points in British and Irish relations and strategy towards Northern Ireland since the 1960s, through a series of 'witness seminars' and long interviews which are taped, transcribed and deposited in the UCD Archives department.

The conference was designed to situate the results in comparative perspective.
The project is funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

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PROGRAMME

I. The British-Irish Process

Negotiating Settlements (10:00 - 11:15)

(1) Developing intergovernmental approaches: evidence from the politicians
Susan McDermott, University College Dublin

(2) Institutional change and conflict regulation: the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985) and the mechanisms of change in Northern Ireland
Jennifer Todd, University College Dublin

**********Tea/Coffee**********

Post Settlement (11:45 - 1:00)

(3) Adapting consociation to Northern Ireland
John Coakley, University College Dublin

(4) Sri Lanka after the end of the war
Stanley Samarasinghe, Tulane University

**********Lunch Break**********

II. After Peace: Parties, Paramilitaries and Populations - Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective (2:00 - 4:30)

(5) Loyalists: Including the 'Awkwards'
Michael Anderson, University College Dublin

(6) Civil society in Northern Ireland changing the narrative in the interests of peace-building
Avila Kilmurray, Community Foundation for Northern Ireland

**********Tea/Coffee**********

(7) The spectre of history: Northern nationalism and the peace process
Cillian McGrattan, University College Dublin

(8) New Sinn Fein and old ('dissident') republicanism: Ideological and demographic trends
Jonathan Tonge, University of Liverpool