This thesis considers the political thought that has been threaded throughout the history of loyalist paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland since the outbreak of the modern troubles in the mid-1960s - a political voice that would often speak in more radical tones than anything else emanating from within a fractured Ulster unionism since the collapse of Stormont in 1972. The overview is grounded upon the historical experiences of the various political fi'onts associated with the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association and will provide an original and gauged interpretation of the reasons for their comparative lack of success despite considerable promotion and encouragement from external parties. There will be particular focus throughout on the effect of Protestant public antipathy to loyalist paramilitary organisations and to their standard modus operandi regarding both targeting and criminal endeavour.

Using the methods of strategic analysis, this work evaluates the British government's approach towards the conflict in Northern Ireland, starting with London's first intervention in 1969, and ending with the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. The British government's aim throughout the period was to achieve the containment of the conflict. In the years 1969-71, it was believed that this aim could be realised by maintaining the existing constitutional structures of Home Rule and Unionist majority rule. The outcomes of this strategy, however, were wholly negative. From 1972, the government's aim translated into the objective of creating political stability through a system of government to which both sides would consent, thus establishing a mutual veto on what was seen as the 'political solution'. It followed that the most important factor to determine London's strategy was the imperative of facilitating political agreement. However, traditional ideas continued to interfere with the conditioning of the strategic instruments, so that London's effectiveness as a political facilitator turned out to be limited. As a consequence, there were two attempts to circumvent the logic of the mutual veto: the notion of producing stability by making Direct Rule from London semi-permanent (1976-79), and the idea of easing the operation of Direct Rule through an inter-governmental framework, resulting in the Anglo- Irish Agreement of 1985. Although both attempts were failures in that they could not achieve what the British government had intended, they nevertheless conditioned the form of agreement that was reached in 1998. The Belfast Agreement made it possible for the British government to realise its objective, yet in allowing some parties to maintain the threat of violence as a means with which to obtain concessions, it suffers from an asymmetry that furthers instability and might well turn out to make the achievement of containment impossible

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Since the first paramilitary ceasefires in 1994 the peace and political processes in Northern Ireland have addressed several politically sensitive issues such as policing, paramilitary decommissioning, and power sharing. However, one issue that has been absent from both processes is that of the peace walls. These physical lines of demarcation were constructed by the British government from 1969 in response to sectarian violence and disorder. No peace walls have ever been removed, and they continue to dominate the landscapes of Loyalist and Republican working class communities. However, for the first time in recent history, Northern Ireland's elected representatives, through the recently devolved Ministry of Justice, have policy responsibility. for the peace walls. To date, there has been no locally developed policy framework or strategy on the peace walls, nor does it appear that peace walls are even on the NI Executive's agenda. There is no evidence to suggest that the physical barriers will simply disappear and so public policy decisions will, at some point, have to be taken in relation to the future of these walls. Mindful of this reality, this dissertation seeks to place the issue of peace walls into the narrative of the Northern Ireland conflict and the subsequent peace and political processes through the lens of public policy theory and practice. Using Belfast's peace walls as a case study, the thesis applies Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach to explore the problems, policies and politics that surround the issue of peace walls, while also considering the necessary conditions required to generate a window of opportunity to place peace walls onto the decision-making agenda of the NI Executive. As the research shows, for a window of opportunity to emerge there needs to be collective agreement at the micro level between Loyalist and Republican communities that peace walls are a problem that require some form of government intervention. Furthermore, there needs to be a willingness to take ownership of the operational delivery and implementation of a policy process for the peace walls at the meso level involving local government and private investors with local knowledge, expertise and innovation driving the process. And finally, at the macro level there also needs to be a moratorium on the construction and strengthening of peace walls, along with and a cross party consensus on the need to develop a policy framework that provides communities and local government with the confidence and political legitimacy to participate in a policy process on peace walls.

This research examines the role played by Irish security forces along the border with Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1978. Security policy posed particular problems for the southern state. By cooperating with the RUC and British Army against republicans, there was a risk of re-igniting latent republican sentiment in a state with a nationalist ethos at its core. Meanwhile, the IRA had the expressed aim of taking over the southern state and in many ways presented as great a threat to the southern state as it did to Northern Ireland. The implications of this dilemma are central to the study. There has been consistent criticism of the Irish security response to violence during this period from the media, British security sources and political figures. This remains one of the least researched 'legacy' issues associated with the troubles which this thesis now addresses. Using sources from official archives in Dublin and London, newspaper archives, the reports of official inquiries as well as other published sources the thesis reveals some significant findings. First, the notion that all cross border violence resulted from lax security south of the border is erroneous. Second, considerable new information on cross border security cooperation emerges from the archives, showing that cooperation was better in some parts of the border than others. There is evidence of discrete unofficial cooperation taking place in some areas but not in others. Third, archive material supports the view that successive Irish governments privately favoured such discrete cooperation. FOUlth, there was considerable animosity between republican groups and the Irish security forces. However, action against republicans was not necessarily accompanied by security cooperation with UK forces. Overt cooperation with British security forces risked destabilising the southern state. Chapters follow a consistent pattern of evidence and are structured according to a strict template. They examine first, the nature of political relations within the Republic of Ireland and with its neighbour; second, the state of the Irish security forces; and third, the general security situation along the border. By examining the political background the thesis demonstrates that the Irish state was essentially "weak" in socio political terms and placed primary emphasis on domestic security. The state was also weak in material terms with the Gardai and Irish Army both poorly organised and equipped. The security forces were, therefore, primarily tasked with ensuring domestic stability and this meant the focus of their actions was on combating the republican threat. Other threats, notably from loyalists, were downplayed. In border areas at stages during the early 1970s, the thesis confirms that republican sentiment was strong and it is shown that this created considerable friction with the Irish security forces. Levels of violence were also high along the border with significant numbers of casualties. This violence emphasised to decision makers in Dublin that there was a possibility of conflict spreading southward. Contrary to some suggestions, the thesis argues that levels of sympathy for republican activists within the security institutions of the southern state were low. While some individuals did collude with republican activists, such incidents were the exception not the rule. Overall, the thesis demonstrates that the Irish state took substantial action to deal with the IRA within the boundaries of the twenty six counties with the role of the Special Criminal Court particularly significant in this regard. Nevertheless, both security and political leaders were unsure as to whether the Irish state could survive the instability associated with overt cooperation with the British security forces.

During the Troubles period, texts produced in, or with a focus on, Northern Ireland have often been necessarily concerned with the violence of the Troubles, but this thesis will argue that there is a paucity of texts that investigate the role of women in the conflict. Approaching this problem as a Creative Writing doctorate, this project contends that a reimagining of the role of women in the Troubles narrative can be achieved through researching and writing a novel, So It Is. Following the National Association of Writers in Education's benchmark statement, in which it was stated that Creative Writing research comprises "both research into content and research into form" (NAWE, 2008, emphasis in original), the thesis will investigate content by defining and interrogating the Troubles narrative, as formed up to this point, and the role of women in those narratives, before discussing form through the narrative structures and strategies employed in the writing of the creative text, So It Is. This research into both content and form supports the main focus of the critical-creative project: the novel, So It Is, which was published on 14th June 2012 by Myriad Editions. Described by The Financial Times as a "confident debut novel" So It Is invites us to "speculate on the link between two female characters" (Evans, 2012), with the narrative being split into a coming-of-age story focused on a young female protagonist, Aoife Brennan, growing up in Belfast and a thriller narrative centred on a female paramilitary, Cassie. Presenting the process and context of writing, through the critical exegesis, and the creative text, this Creative Writing thesis comprises a cohesive practice-based doctorate that reimagines the role of women in the Troubles narrative

This thesis considers British government policy in Northern Ireland during the Labour administration of 1974 to 1979. Utilising a distinctively historical methodology which draws from a wide range of archival sources, it challenges a number dominant narratives about the British government policy and the Northern Ireland conflict more generally. It incorporates political, security and economic affairs. During these crucial years the Sunningdale Agreement collapsed following a loyalist general strike, the Labour government considered a wide range of constitutional options for Northern Ireland, dialogue was held with militant republicans during the Provisional IRA's 1975 ceasefire and security policy was transformed with the end of detention without trial and the advent of police primacy. Violence levels declined significantly as both the British government and the Provisional IRA came to see the conflict as a lasting one, adjusting their strategies. This thesis also considers relations between the British government political parties in Great Britain and Ireland, both North and South. Existing accounts are found to be over-reliant on contemporary perceptions in all these areas and a more nuanced analysis is offered in place of this, taking into account the parameters within which ministers and officials operated.

Northern Ireland suffered a thirty year conflict known as 'the Troubles.' Although there is relative peace now, the society is embroiled in the residual effects of violence. This study looks at the narratives of former combatants in Northern Ireland. It also explores Maruna and McAdams claim that people create their identity by the narratives they tell. The study includes interviews with representatives from the four groups of combatants who were engaged in the conflict, Republicans (who want a united Ireland), Loyalists (who want to remain British), Police and Army. The narratives focus on what the lives of the combatants were like while active members of the organizations they were involved with, and how they finally came to the decision to 'put down the gun.' The study explores what their lives are like now and their expectations and hopes for the future. The study highlights how many of the issues that my respondents had to deal with were similar, such as security issues, a warrior identity, siress on families and social bonds. Although some of the participants were involved in horrific acts of violence, they all portrayed themselves as 'good' people with good intensions who were caught in abnormal times. The use of humor as a coping technique by all participants is also explored. Although gallows hurnor is entrenched in the collective e societal interaction of Northern Ireland, very little mention of it is made in studies about the conflict. The study concludes by showing how former combatants can play a valuable part in peace building if we are prepared to learn from their stories