Community based restorative justice organisations developed in Northern Ireland as response to a specific community problem of paramilitary punishment beatings. They have grown to become critical components not only within the communities in which they practice but also in establishing relationships between community and State in a transitional post-conflict Northern Ireland. Community based restorative justice organisations only developed in a Loyalist community context in paramilitary constituencies associated with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). This thesis contributes to knowledge as the first research study of restorative practices being implemented in a Loyalist community associated with the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). In addition, this thesis also considers community based restorative justice being introduced to a community not in response to a specific issue of paramilitary punishment attacks but as a conduit in developing alternative and deepened experiences of justice within a community context. This study connects with an extensive European Union funded research project involving research sites in member states including Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Norway, Serbia and Northern Ireland. This is a qualitative research study of a Loyalist community in South Belfast. Participants were selected using snowball sampling techniques to include a broad spectrum of participants with knowledge not only of the research site but also community based restorative justice. The individuals chosen for this research include restorative practitioners, residents of the research site, politicians, clergy, statutory sector employees, police officers and members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Throughout the thesis it will be demonstrated that restorative practices when permitted the space to operate on an equitable basis without subservience to statutory regulations can enable a community to respond to harm and conflict more effectively than the traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution to which the community has become accustomed. However, it will be argued that the capacity for community based restorative practices to actualise it's potential is inhibited by the impact of system and pseudo-system factors.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:701058 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | McCready, Philip |
| Publisher | Ulster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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