Strategies from the ivory tower
Peace or War? Understanding the Peace Process in Northern Ireland
Edited by Chris Gilligan and Jon Tonge
Published by Ashgate
Price £35
This is a useful first-year undergraduate collection of essays
which discuss some of the themes surrounding the Peace Process;
the real or perceived changes in Unionist and Republican
thinking, social and economic issues, security strategies and so
on.
In addition, one or two of the essays demonstrate very well how
the British have attempted to exploit the notion of identity as a
means of conflict management. For example, the chapter on
education points out that initiatives for mixed schooling to
combat cultural intolerance, such as the much-vaunted Education
for Mutual Understanding programme, are in reality merely a means
by which attention can be deflected away from the real causes of
conflict: ``when the problem...is defined as a cultural one, as a
clash of two competing identities, the solution is sought in
education. However, when the problem is defined
structurally...many people argued that the solution was to be
found in institutional reform or constitutional change. It is the
change in focus from structural inequalities to personal
perception which has allowed the proposed educational initiatives
to predominate.''
The chapter on gender as a theme of the process is also
illuminating. The conflict is, of course, no more about gender
than it is about religion but, as this essay suggests, the
enthusiasm with which British establishment and media greeted the
creation of the Women's Coalition (which also disguised their
virtually non-existent mandate) would have had us all believe
that certain individuals, by virtue of possession of a particular
anatomical feature, are the cause of it all.
Again, instead of blaming government or institutions, we can
blame testosterone. The problem lies with men and their
incorrigible maleness. It is men who have failed, not the system.
Get some fragrant, conciliatory, peace-loving women in, encourage
them to spout meaningless platitudes about tolerance and
understanding, avoid mentioning the border, and thereby solve the
problem.
However, the bizarre conclusion drawn by several of the essays
and the editorial framework is that in challenging and seeking to
remove those very structural inequalities and injustices
identified within the book - and thereby burying the tribal
theory once and for all - Sinn Fein, by entering into electoral
politics and this peace process, has somehow relinquished its
republican ideals. This ignores the fact that the conflation of
civil rights with national self-determination has existed within
republicanism since 1798 and pursuing the former does not - as
this book suggests without explaining on what logical,
philosophical, sociological or any other grounds how this is so -
mean giving up the latter.
Why or how does insisting on equality and justice for
nationalists within the six county statelet - and then doing what
is necessary to achieve that - mean acquiescence or recognition
of that statelet?
Further, the book resolutely refuses to engage in any discussion
of alternative strategies; it merely restricts itself to
insisting that armed struggle is old-fashioned and futile and
politics a sell-out. What would you do then? is not considered
by either the editors or contributors as a valid question. But
then taking refuge in ideologically pure ivory towers and doing
nothing except criticising is not a new phenomenon amongst those
who cherish the idea of British withdrawal, as I know many of
these individuals do; it is simply the easiest option and it
won't bring about a United Ireland.
By Fern Lane
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