British Nationalism and the Northern Ireland ‘Peace Process’

The bulk of historical and social scientific writing on the Northern Ireland conflict has portrayed the conflict there as part of the ‘Irish national question’, i.e. the problematical relationship between state and nation on the island of Ireland. This frame has also shaped the understanding of the current ‘peace process’ associated with the paramilitary ceasefires of 1994. The fate of the ‘peace process’ has been associated conventionally with the willingness, or reluctance, of Irish nationalists, and unionists to a lesser extent, to eschew violence and negotiate a democratic settlement. The dominant strand in academic writing has followed official discourse in the UK in portraying the conflict as ‘internal’ to Northern Ireland (or Ireland) (Whyte, 1990). Obstacles to a settlement derive, in this view, from communal attachments to (Irish) nationalism and ethnic Protestantism. Additionally, British media representations frequently offer a highly selective portrayal of the conflict as a struggle between the British state and the IRA — a portrayal which suits both parties. It presents the British state as merely upholding the rule of law against terrorism while exaggerating the role of the IRA.