Coulter, Colin and Shirlow, Peter
(2019)
From the ‘Long War’
to the ‘Long Peace’:
An introduction to
the special edition.
Capital and Class, 43 (1).
pp. 3-21.
ISSN 0309-8168
Abstract
In this introduction, we set out to provide the appropriate historical context for
the nine essays that follow. The article documents all of the tortuous course that
the Northern Irish peace process has taken over the last two decades, but its
principal focus falls on the period in which the previously unlikely pairing of
Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party agreed to share power at Stormont.
While the coalition partners were often at odds over ethno-national issues such
flags and parades, they frequently found common cause when it came to the
introduction of distinctly neoliberal social and economic strategies. The decade in
which the two parties shared office seemed to offer the prospect, finally, of stable
government in Northern Ireland. At the beginning of 2017, however, the tensions
between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionists became insurmountable and
led to the Stormont institutions being mothballed for a fifth time. Although often
attributed to the introduction of a controversial green energy scheme in the six
counties, the collapse of the power sharing executive owes its origins rather more
to seismic political developments elsewhere in the United Kingdom. The outcome
of the Brexit referendum has meant that Northern Ireland is now at the centre of a
political storm that threatens/promises to usher in an era of radical constitutional
change for the region.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
long war; long peace; introduction; special edition; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
11949 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0309816818818084 |
| Depositing User: |
Colin Coulter
|
| Date Deposited: |
02 Dec 2019 15:56 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Capital and Class |
| Publisher: |
Sage |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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