Northern Ireland Literature

Knox Knox

by Catherine Harper

This is an adult short story, published online in The Dublin Quarterly, and part of a longitudinal autoethnographic novel project reflecting on domestic aspects of the Northern Irish Troubles.
This section was completed at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland during a research sabbatical there in September 2011.

Knox Knox. The Dublin Quarterly 16:September-November 2011. Knox Knox. The Dublin Quarterly 16:September-November 2011.

The Cloths of Heaven

by Geraldine Nesbitt

Time and Memory in Jennifer Johnston's Novels: 'A Past That Does Not Pass by'

by Yulia Pushkarevskaya Naughton

Nordic Irish Studies Vol. 6, (2007), pp. 73-87

On the Borderlines of Abjection and Jouissance: The North as an Abject in Jennifer Johnston's 'The Gingerbread Woman'

by Yulia Pushkarevskaya Naughton

Irish University Review: a Journal of Irish Studies September 16, 2011

In recent years, Jennifer Johnston's fiction has received significant critical attention, which has changed the... more In recent years, Jennifer Johnston's fiction has received significant critical attention, which has changed the perspective on her work. Literary scholars have undertaken new readings of her novels in the light of postcolonial and poststructuralist theories. This article will engage with this growing critical dialogue by applying Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection to one of Johnston's later texts, The Gingerbread Woman (2000). The novel explores the major concerns in Johnston’s work – female identity, Irish politics, the maternal, and Self-Other relations – yet, it continues to be underdiscussed in criticism.

The Gingerbread Woman presents an ambiguous narrative of abjection that troubles both personal and national borders. At the intersection of these borders, Johnston's novel positions a narrative of the North, which surfaces as a hated and polluting object, or an 'abject', in Kristevian terms. Through the process of abjection, in which the North occupies a key position, Johnston's protagonists come to a reconciliation with their private pasts, while also resolving the tension in the self-narratives of the two Irelands that they represent – north and south of the border. What is revealed in this process is the ambiguity of abjection itself, which verges on jouissance, and hence the permeability of borders and boundaries.

“Home Thoughts from Abroad: Diasporas and Peace-Building in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka”, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (Washington DC), vol. 32, Issue 8, 2009, pp. 681-704; with Feargal Cochrane and Bahar Baser.

by Ashok Swain

A Dialogical-Republican Revival: Respect-worthy Constitutionalism in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Southern Philippines

by Edsel Tupaz

'Unionist Derry is Ulster's Panama': The Northern Ireland Labour Party and the Civil Rights Issue

by Aaron Edwards

Debates over the nature, significance and legacy of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement tend to stress its... more Debates over the nature, significance and legacy of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement tend to stress its Catholic and irredentist character. This article takes a different approach by examining the role of those activists from a Protestant and socialist background who played important roles in agitating for redress of socio-economic and political grievances. In particular, the article focuses on the involvement of individual members of the bi-confessional Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It considers the NILP's relationship to other civil rights bodies, such as the Campaign for Social Justice and the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster, and asks how its approach differed. Drawing on extensive empirical research - including previously untapped archival sources and oral histories - the article also sets out to challenge the orthodox public and academic interpretation of the civil rights movement as ostensibly anti-partitionist in political orientation or devoid of significant Protestant and socialist participation. The central argument is that the NILP remained ill-equipped to become the political vanguard of the radical street politics, not because it was tethered to a narrow non-sectarian agenda but because it was deeply wedded to the process and fundamentals of British parliamentary democracy.

Age Discrimination in Employment: Comparative Lessons

by Rory O'Connell

Rory O'Connell and Julie McBride, Age Discrimination in Employment: comparative Lessons (Changing Ageing Partnership, Belfast, 2010)

This research report for the Changing Aging Partnership examines Northern Ireland's age discrimination laws in a... more This research report for the Changing Aging Partnership examines Northern Ireland's age discrimination laws in a comparative focus. It notes in particular that the Northern Irish approach to age discrimination is increasingly unusual. In particular the report notes that, among the comparators examined (Britain, Ireland and Canada), NI's approach to positive action is very narrow.

Response to the Northern Ireland Consultation Paper on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland

by Rory O'Connell

This is a response to the Northern Ireland Office consultation paper on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. The... more This is a response to the Northern Ireland Office consultation paper on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. The response focuses on the right to equality and democratic rights.

Budgeting for Social Housing in Northern Ireland: A Human Rights Analysis

by Rory O'Connell

QUB Budget Analysis Project. Co-authors: Colin Harvey, Aoife Nolan, Rory O'Connell, Mira Dutschke, Eoin Rooney

Adequate housing is a human right, essential to human dignity, security and well-being. Disturbingly, however, there... more Adequate housing is a human right, essential to human dignity, security and well-being. Disturbingly, however, there is strong evidence to suggest that many in Northern Ireland do not enjoy this right. Over the first decade of this century, a time of optimism and prosperity for many, waiting lists for social housing increased as did levels of homelessness. House prices soared and then crashed as recession struck. In this context, the funding of social housing becomes crucial in realising the right to adequate housing. This case study examines the funding of social housing in Northern Ireland from a human rights perspective.

Militia – the Critical Mass in Asymmetric Conflicts

by Peter Almos Kiss

Manuscript of article submitted to "Contemporary Military Challenges," a quartelry peer-reviewed journal of the Slovenian Armed Forces.

In asymmetric conflicts the state can prevail only if its security forces can carry the fight to the non-state... more In asymmetric conflicts the state can prevail only if its security forces can carry the fight to the non-state belligerent and at the same time maintain permanent dominance over the affected regions. This requires manpower in very large numbers. The best way to obtain the necessary numbers is to raise local self defense volunteer forces. Through brief case studies (Northern Ireland, Punjab, Basra) the author analyzes the organization and employment of militias and shows the advantages and risks involved.

2010: Jennings, M and Baldwin, A. ‘“Filling out the Forms was a Nightmare”: Project Evaluation and the Reflective Practitioner in Community Theatre in Contemporary Northern Ireland’, Music and Arts in Action, 2:2, 72-89

by Matt Jennings

Co-authored with Baldwin, A.

Since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, large sums have been invested in community theatre projects in Northern... more Since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, large sums have been invested in community theatre projects in Northern Ireland, in the interests of conflict transformation and peace building. While this injection of funds has resulted in an unprecedented level of applied theatre activity, opportunities to maximise learning from this activity are being missed. It is generally assumed that project evaluation is undertaken at least partly to assess the degree of success of projects against important social objectives, with a view to learning what works, what does not, and what might work in the future. However, three ethnographic case studies of organisations delivering applied theatre projects in Northern Ireland indicate that current processes used to evaluate such projects are both flawed and inadequate for this purpose. Practitioners report that the administrative work involved in applying for and justifying funding is onerous, burdensome, and occurs at the expense of artistic activity. This is a very real concern when the time and effort devoted to ‘filling out the forms’ does not ultimately result in useful evaluative information. There are strong disincentives for organisations to report honestly on their experiences of difficulties, or undesirable impacts of projects, and this problem is not transcended by the use of external evaluators. Current evaluation processes provide little opportunity to capture unexpected benefits of projects, and small but significant successes which occur in the context of over-ambitious objectives. Little or no attempt is made to assess long-term impacts of projects on communities. Finally, official evaluation mechanisms fail to capture the reflective practice and dialogic analysis of practitioners, which would richly inform future projects. The authors argue that there is a need for clearer lines of communication, and more opportunities for mutual learning, among stakeholders involved in community development. In particular, greater involvement of the higher education sector in partnership with government and non-government agencies could yield significant benefits in terms of optimizing learning from applied theatre project evaluations.

New Order: Political Change and the Protestant Orange Tradition in Northern Ireland

by Jocelyn Evans

With Bob Jeffery, Jon Tonge and James McAuley, forthcoming in British Journal of Politics and International Relations

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA) led to a major realignment in Unionist politics in Northern Ireland. The Ulster... more The 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA) led to a major realignment in Unionist politics in Northern Ireland. The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), hitherto the dominant force within the Protestant-British tradition, was usurped in electoral popularity by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). In its post-GFA rise, the DUP garnered majority support from members of the Orange Order, the largest organisation in Protestant civil society. Drawing upon the first membership survey of the Orange Order, this article examines the demographic and attitudinal bases of support for Unionist political parties amongst its members, and tests whether the locus of support for the DUP is evenly distributed, or instead biased towards particular age groups, social classes or Protestant denominations within the Order, as well as assessing whether attitudinal variations may be influential in determining party loyalties.

Irish Republican Politics and Violence Before the Peace Process, 1968–1994

by Marc Mulholland