PART ONE - CONFLICT IN NORTHERN IRELAND RESOURCES AND SOURCES

Summary

Donald Harman Akenson, God's Peoples: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel and Ulster (1992). Mainly historical analyses showing the theological and biblical foundations of the Ulster Protestant's attachment to the land, and understanding of the Catholic Other.

John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary, Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images (1995).

Detailed analyses with chapters five, six and seven devoted to the role of religion.

Patrick Grant, ‘Northern Ireland: Religion and the Peace Process’ (2004) an essay in a collection on religion and peacemaking. This chapter is realistic about the negative role of religion in Northern Ireland but also highlights the contribution of the Churches towards peace and reconciliation.

Clair Mitchell, ‘Behind the Ethnic Marker: Religion and Social Identification in Northern Ireland’ (2005). Religion may be a ‘badge of ethnic difference’ (citing McGarry and O'Leary) but it is also ‘the main signifier’ of difference, which invites the question, ‘what meaning does this have’? Mitchell, a sociologist of religion, presents data from in-depth interviews with 35 individuals. Her aim was to allow each interviewee to tell their stories against the backdrop of recent anti-Good Friday Agreement demonstrations, then to tease out ‘their subjective definitions of faith, what role it played in their life and political ideas’. She also used participant observation, attending religious events, community and social activities in 2000 and 2001.