European Union and Northern Ireland conflict

1. Theory and practice of conflict resolution – Vilniaus Universitetas – University of Pavia
MATTIA FERRARI
Northen Ireland Conflict
Studies about the conflict case and the role of European
Union in the peace process

2. Conflict Origins : the island division
• Tribes and clans shared the same
destiny till the modern age
• In 1536 England began the new invasion
of Ireland, with a deep colonization of the
north part

3. Conflict Origins : the island division /2
• In 1801 Ireland is included in the “United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”
with the Union Act

4. Conflict Origins : the island division /3
• The colonization produced political, religious
and cultural differences between the north and
the south part so that British government had
the idea to separate the administration of the
Ulster
• But in 1922 the Anglo-Irish Treaty ended the
war for independence and produced the
creation of the Free Irish State, without the
inclusion of Ulster part (6 Counties) in the north
(opt-out option)

5. Conflict Origins : the island division

6. Conflict Set-up and escalation
• In Northern Ireland began a period of
discriminations and the abolition of proportional
representation in 1929.
• The reaction was the creation of paramilitary
dissident groups from the official IRA (Irish
Republican Army) and the constant use of
violence with brutal mass assassinations
operated by both side of the conflict through
the 70‟s and 80‟s of last century.

7. Conflict Escalation : Bloody Sunday
In 1972, 13 unarmed people were killed by
British paratroops, while peacefully
demonstrating for civil rights

8. Conflict

9. Peace Process : the UK-Ireland tryout
Besides some talks between some conflict
protagonists, a real peace process starts in 1985
– 1985 : Anglo-Irish Agreement - failed
– 1994 :
– August, 31 : IRA declare the end of military operation,
broken in 1996, resumed in 1997
– October, 13 : ceasefire proclaimed by protestant
paramilitary formations
– 1998 :
– April, 10 : Good Friday Agreement
– May, 22 : 71% confirm the agreement by referendum
– June, 25 : first elections won by UUP and SDLP
– August, 15 : Real IRA starts terroristic operations
– December, 10: John Hume, SDLP leader, and David
Trimble, UUP leader receive the nobel Price

10. Peace Process : the UK-Ireland tryout /2
– 1999 :
– December : after 20 months the newly domestic power
sharing parliament takes power from London
– 2000 :
– February, 11 : for the first time the assembly is suspended
due to the unaccomplished disarmament of IRA
– 2001 -> 2003 :
– Due to „twin track policy‟ of IRA and Sinn Fein, several
suspension measures are taken by the British Government
and the new elections are won by extreme Catholic (SF) and
Protestant parties (DUP)
– 2005:
– April, 6 : Gerry Adams, SF president, asks to IRA a definitive
ceasefire for a democratic evolution of the conflict.
– July, 28 : IRA stops all armed operations and order a full
decommissioning

11. Nationalism? GB and Ireland sport teams
• In Great Britain each of the 4 parts has its own
national team competing for most of the
international sport events
• In some sports like Rugby (since 1875) Ireland
play with one only national team. For this
cases was written a new national anthem
“Irelands Calls” and designed a symbol:

12. Peace Process : Conflict Transformation
– During the different stages of the conflict
several events modified the scenario:
– CONTEXT : EU Development and the end of Cold
War. But without forget in recent times the
balkanization process
– ACTORS : Changes in Sinn Fein vision, divisions
among Unionists, British government changes (f.e. the
role of Tony Blair)
– ISSUES : after the good Friday agreements the
main issue in agenda was to achieve the requests
necessary for preserve the self-shared-government
and to reconcile the legitimacy of the two cultural
traditions

13. Peace Process : the EU influence
– The integration process within the EU
helped in the NI conflict transformation
(GB and Ireland are both members of EEC since 1973)
• The EU‟s self-ascribed role towards a settlement
in Northern Ireland since that time has followed
this vein by supporting the peaceful expression
of British and Irish identities rather than
reconstructing them or creating alternatives.
• This nation-based approach is encapsulated in
the 1998 Good Friday Agreement between the
governments of the UK and Ireland and political
parties in Northern Ireland.

14. Peace Process : the EU influence /2
– EC functioned as new example of political
model, particularly for the discharge of
interstate borders and the develop of
international cooperation
– Enter in EC helped Ireland to reduce the
economy dependency from Great Britain.
This helped to balance the dialogue
between the 2 Countries.

15. Peace Process : the EU influence /3
– In Habermas‟ words, the EU saw as a
“postnationale Konstellation„ that try to
ensure principles of democracy, free market
and a better social redistribution, is a good
incentive to sustain the pacification
processes
“ The gradual disappearance [...] of the Border as a barrier in the
economic and many other fields [...] would, in time, tend to promote
a common desire to remove the political barrier ”
Sean Lemass, prime minister of Ireland, 1962

16. Peace Process : the EU influence /4
– There are at lest 3 empirical reasons for a
leading role of EU in the conflict:
1. Single European Market (SEM)
2. The regional and Regional and Cohesion Policy
(1988, included more money for border crossing
projects)
3. Special Support Programme for Peace and
Reconciliation (1994)
• Without forger that the EU Commission should
play a role of guardian of the EU Integration

17. The EU programs “Peace” I & II
– It represented EU commitment to helping
alleviate ethnic conflict in two of its member
states. How? By spending more than 1
billion Euro in selected areas for :
• Alleviate social exclusion
• Decrease the economic deprivation that
contributed to paramilitary violence in Northern
Ireland
• Improve the cross-border development (with the
integration of the Interreg Program)

18. The eligible areas of Peace Programs

19. The EU influence in Belfast Agreements
The Good Friday agreements has 2 principal
aspects in common with EU agreements:
– Human rights respect
– Development of institution mechanism for improving
regional, interregional and transnational cooperation
“One of the striking things about the Belfast Agreement is that, to
anyone who knows the European Union, one immediately
recognizes that it was written by people who also know the EU and
have worked its systems quite extensively”
R. O‟Donnell, 1999

20. The EU influence in Belfast Agreements /2
In the agreement chapter: “Rights, Safeguards And
Equality Of Opportunity” Great Britain accepted to
include in the Northern Ireland law all the European
Human Right declaration, and to guarantee full access
of the courts at the EU inspectors.
The same EU declaration is used as guarantee for a fair
representation of the different communities.
[Talking about Birtish and Irish Government] “ to use their influence with the
two communities in Northern Ireland to bring about a political system with
an equitable sharing of government responsibilities, which would
accommodate the identities of the two traditions, so upholding the ideals
and the concept of tolerance vis-à-vis minorities practiced in the two
countries and in other EC Member States.” - Dr Garret FitzGerald, 1984

21. The EU influence in Belfast Agreements /3
2 new institutions were created that can be used
as example of classical Conflict Transformation
theories:
– North-South Ministerial Council
– British-Irish Council
This new institutions, with the British-Irish Inter-
governmental Conference, has been subjected
to the influence of European Institutions

22. A crucial node in the Belfast Agreements
The Good Friday agreements contains a fundamental
commitment to constitutional and institutional change to :
– in the case of Ireland: modify (if not remove) the direct
claim over the territory of Northern Ireland in Articles 2
and 3
– in the case of the UK: allow for future change in the
constitutional status of Northern Ireland.
“I believe that in the context of a new Europe in which sovereignty has changed
its meaning and whose very existence is a proclamation that the
independent nation state is out of date, it should be easier for us to resolve
our differences” (Hume, leader of the SDLP, 1994)

23. Conclusions
• Since the early 1990s the EU is not viewed simply as
an economic organization. EU can play an active role
in conflict resolution, especially by reconstructing the
economy of the conflict zones, but also by promoting
cross-border cooperation activities that are endemic of
the EU nature: “united in diversity”.
• In NI the number of politic episodes of violence
increased in the last years (1998-2002), even if
terroristic attacks and victims are constantly reducing
(83 bomb attacks and 167 gunfire in 2005 Vs 349 and
335 in 2001).
• There‟s a new phenomenon of racism to be
considered, due to recent immigration process

24. An open question…
• Is the EU intervention applicable to other
conflict areas? f.e. Palestine, Cyprus, Kosovo?
The Baltic crisis in the 1990‟s showed f.e. a
politically weak EU…

25. Bibliography
– Hayward, Katie. Reiterating National Identities - The European
Union Conception of Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland
– Tannam, Etaim. The European Commission‟s Evolving Role in
Conflict Resolution - The Case of Northern Ireland 1989–2005
– Ropers, Robert. From Resolution to Transformation: The Role
of Dialogue Projects
– Bloomfield, David. Towards Complementarity in Conflict
Management: Resolution and Settlement in Northern Ireland
– Hugh, Miall. Conflict Transformation: A Multi-Dimensional Task
– Wikipedia - www.wikipedia.org
– United Nation - www.un.org
– CAIN Web Service - http://www.cain.ulst.ac.uk/

26. Filmography
– Comerford, Joe. High Boot Benny, 1993
– Levinson, Barry. An Everlasting Piece, 2000
– Loane, Terry. Mickybo & Me, 2004
– Loach, Ken. The Wind That Shakes the Barley, 2006
– Harkin, Margo. Hush a Bye Baby, 1990
– Jordan, Neil. Michael Collins, 1996
– Greengrass, Paul. Bloody Sunday, 2002