Reconciliation in Northern Ireland : Religious and Ethno-Nationalist Explanations of the Conflict
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Learning Outcomes
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Be able to evaluate ethno-national interpretations of the conflict
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Be able to evaluate religious interpretations of the conflict
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To be familiar with the different ways that religion intersects with social and political
relationships
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To be able to critically assess, and substantiate with evidence, to what extent ethnonationalism or religion might be a cause of conflict in Northern Ireland
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Key Texts
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Ruane and Todd, 1996, Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland, chapters 5-7
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McGarry and O’Leary, 1995, Explaining Northern Ireland, chapters 5-7
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Claire Mitchell, 2006, Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland
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Liechty and Clegg, 2001, Moving Beyond Sectarianism, chapter 3
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Steve Bruce, 2007, Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland
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Ethno-Nationalism
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Conflict about the blending of ethnic and national identity, in opposition to each other
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McGarry and O’Leary, who favour ethno-nationalist interpretations of the conflict, downplay
its religious aspects. For them, religion is nothing more than an ‘ethnic marker.’
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The conflict is therefore a dispute about two contested national identities – unionism vs.
nationalism.
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Ethno-Nationalism
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Ethno-Nationalist identities may have a number of components (cultural, religious, language,
etc)
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Fundamentally, national identification and the border matters
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Ethno-Nationalism
Ethno-Nationalist explanations have become amongst the most common in the academic literature
on Northern Ireland. Most of these explanations tend to downplay the role of religion.
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But does religion matter?
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Partially. Religion is the basis of separate social structures that keep communities apart
(Whyte 1991)
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Partially. The churches work together with the political parties and the two states to keep
people divided and maintain their power (Fulton 1991)
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Does Religion Matter?
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Partially. Religion is an important source of identity even for Protestants who do not go to
church (Wright 1973)
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Partially. Religion is important for fundamentalists and evangelicals; this has a wider impact
on the Protestant community (Bruce 1986, 2007).
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Does Religion Matter?
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Partially. Religion has helped to entrench sectarianism; and Christians have not done enough
to insure that their churches are more than ‘chaplains to the tribe.’ (Leichty and Clegg 2001)
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Yes. Religion is important in complex ways that are often not realized; it provides meaning
and substance to ‘ethno-national’ identities (Mitchell 2006).
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Religion as an Ethnic Marker (McGarry & O’Leary)
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Religion is just a label to distinguish members of one ethnonationalist group from another
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Church attendance and traditional morality have declined since the 1960s; whilst the conflict
has escalated
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No correlation between the areas most affected by conflict and the intensity of religious
conviction (i.e. most religious – rural Protestants – are the least violent)
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McGarry & O’Leary
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McGarry and O’Leary are looking for explicit political battles over doctrine or correlations
between high levels of religious devotion and political extremism. These are seldom present.
Does this make their argument watertight?
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This analysis ignores how religion may actually provide the meanings of ethno-national
identities rather than just mark them out.
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Whyte: Religion & Social Segregation
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Segregation by religion in education
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High levels of endogamy (marriage within one’s religious group)
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High levels of residential segregation
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Fulton: Religion & Political Power
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Religion has acted as an agent in historical struggles for political power
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The institutional churches have worked with politicians and states to build and maintain two
dominant ‘historical blocs’ in Ireland
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Churches tried to keep their control through influencing political policy and maintaining their
grip on the education system
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This analysis assumes that powerful institutional actors have direct control over human
actions.
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Wright: Religion as Ideology
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Religious ideas inform Protestants’ everyday understandings of social relationships and
perceptions of Catholics.
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The more segregation between communities, the less information each has of the other.
Knowledge comes from socialized teachings, ideas, theories, mythologies – which are often
religious in nature
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Wright: Religion as Ideology
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Religious ideas overlap with political and economic divisions and this makes them even more
important
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Religion can operate as ideology even for those who are not committed believers
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Bruce on Paisleyism
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Bruce (1986) ‘The Northern Ireland conflict is a religious conflict’ (249)
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evangelicalism is the ‘core’ of Protestant ethnic identity
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this is what explains Ian Paisley’s career (leader and founder of both the Free Presbyterian
Church and the Democratic Unionist Party)
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even Protestants who don’t share Paisley’s evangelicalism respect evangelical religion
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Bruce on Paisleyism
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Bruce (2007) ‘The Northern Ireland conflict is a religious conflict’ (246).
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Religion provides Paisley with fortitude, hope, clarity of purpose; provides DUP with
cohesion
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‘you know where you are with the Doc.’ (supporters may not be evangelical, but they see
him as constant, reliable, trustworthy. This can be linked in part to his evangelicalism)
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But the DUP’s recent triumphs are largely secular
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Liechty & Clegg:
Sectarianism as a System
The conflict caused/perpetuated by a complex system of sectarianism
Definition of sectarianism: “a system of attitudes, actions, beliefs, and structures at personal,
communal, and institutional levels which always involves religion, and typically involves a negative
mixing of religion and politics. [It] … arises as a distorted expression of positive, human needs
especially for belonging, identity, and the free expression of difference and is expressed in
destructive patterns of relating: hardening the boundaries between groups, overlooking others,
belittling, dehumanising, or demonising others, justifying or collaborating in the domination of
others, [and] physically or verbally intimidating or attacking others.” 102-103
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Claire Mitchell: Religion &: Identity
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religion derives social and political significance from five overlapping dimensions
1) relationship between the churches and socio-political power (i.e. relationships with nationalist
and unionist politicians)
2) role of religion as the dominant ethnic marker (maintained through segregated education,
marriage, housing patterns and social networks)
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Claire Mitchell: Religion & Identity
3) religion’s role in the construction of communities (esp. Catholicism, the role of the Catholic
Church in organising social life and the importance of ritual)
4) religion’s role in the construction of ideologies (esp. Protestantism, concepts such as liberty, the
‘honest Ulsterman’, and anti-Catholicism)
5) relationship between theology and politics (esp. for fundamentalists/evangelicals)
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Discussion
To what extent ethno-nationalism or religion might be a cause of conflict in Northern Ireland?
Think about the organisation in which you work. Is it dealing with ethnic, national or religious
differences? If it is, are these effective ways of approaching reconciliation in Northern Ireland? If it is
not, why do you think it is not?
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Dynamics of Conflict (Ruane & Todd)
Conflict explained in terms of a ‘system of relationships’ and a ‘dynamic of power’ …
The dynamic of power: (shifts in this over time; British-Irish states, Protestants-Catholics)
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Think About It …
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How does Ruane and Todd’s approach differ from external and/or internal approaches?
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Where do the following explanations ‘fit in?’:Colonialism
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Economic
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Ethno-National
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Religious