Trinity College Dublin Reconciliation in Northern Ireland Religious and Ethno-Nationalist Explanations of the Conflict

Trinity College Dublin

Reconciliation in Northern Ireland

Religious and Ethno-Nationalist Explanations of the Conflict


Learning Outcomes

• Be able to evaluate ethno-national interpretations of the conflict

• Be able to evaluate religious interpretations of the conflict

• To be familiar with the different ways that religion intersects with social and political relationships

• To be able to critically assess, and substantiate with evidence, to what extent ethno-nationalism or religion might be a cause of conflict in Northern Ireland


Key Texts• Ruane and Todd, 1996, Dynamics of Conflict in

Northern Ireland, chapters 5-7• McGarry and O’Leary, 1995, Explaining Northern

Ireland, chapters 5-7• Claire Mitchell, 2006, Religion, Identity and Politics in

Northern Ireland• Liechty and Clegg, 2001, Moving Beyond

Sectarianism, chapter 3• Steve Bruce, 2007, Paisley: Religion and Politics in

Northern Ireland


Ethno-Nationalism

• Conflict about the blending of ethnic and national identity, in opposition to each other

• 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.’

• The conflict is therefore a dispute about two contested national identities – unionism vs. nationalism.


Ethno-Nationalism

• Ethno-Nationalist identities may have a number of components (cultural, religious, language, etc)

• Fundamentally, national identification and the border matters


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.


But does religion matter?

• Partially. Religion is the basis of separate social structures that keep communities apart (Whyte 1991)

• Partially. The churches work together with the political parties and the two states to keep people divided and maintain their power (Fulton 1991)


Does Religion Matter?

• Partially. Religion is an important source of identity even for Protestants who do not go to church (Wright 1973)

• Partially. Religion is important for fundamentalists and evangelicals; this has a wider impact on the Protestant community (Bruce 1986, 2007).


Does Religion Matter?

• 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)

• Yes. Religion is important in complex ways that are often not realized; it provides meaning and substance to ‘ethno-national’ identities (Mitchell 2006).


Religion as an Ethnic Marker (McGarry & O’Leary)

• Religion is just a label to distinguish members of one ethnonationalist group from another

• Church attendance and traditional morality have declined since the 1960s; whilst the conflict has escalated

• 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)


McGarry & O’Leary

• 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?

• This analysis ignores how religion may actually provide the meanings of ethno-national identities rather than just mark them out.


Whyte: Religion & Social Segregation

• Segregation by religion in education

• High levels of endogamy (marriage within one’s religious group)

• High levels of residential segregation


Fulton: Religion & Political Power

• Religion has acted as an agent in historical struggles for political power

• The institutional churches have worked with politicians and states to build and maintain two dominant ‘historical blocs’ in Ireland

• Churches tried to keep their control through influencing political policy and maintaining their grip on the education system

• This analysis assumes that powerful institutional actors have direct control over human actions.


Wright: Religion as Ideology

• Religious ideas inform Protestants’ everyday understandings of social relationships and perceptions of Catholics.

• 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


Wright: Religion as Ideology

• Religious ideas overlap with political and economic divisions and this makes them even more important

• Religion can operate as ideology even for those who are not committed believers


Bruce on Paisleyism

• Bruce (1986) ‘The Northern Ireland conflict is a religious conflict’ (249)

• evangelicalism is the ‘core’ of Protestant ethnic identity

• this is what explains Ian Paisley’s career (leader and founder of both the Free Presbyterian Church and the Democratic Unionist Party)

• even Protestants who don’t share Paisley’s evangelicalism respect evangelical religion


Bruce on Paisleyism

• Bruce (2007) ‘The Northern Ireland conflict is a religious conflict’ (246).

• Religion provides Paisley with fortitude, hope, clarity of purpose; provides DUP with cohesion

• ‘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)

• But the DUP’s recent triumphs are largely secular


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


Claire Mitchell: Religion &: Identity

• 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)


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)


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?


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)


The System of Relationships


Think About It …

• How does Ruane and Todd’s approach differ from external and/or internal approaches?

• Where do the following explanations ‘fit in?’:– Colonialism– Economic– Ethno-National– Religious

Documents

Trinity College Dublin Reconciliation in Northern Ireland Religious and Ethno-Nationalist Explanations of the Conflict