Northen Ireland ConflictStudies about the conflict case and the role of European

Union in the peace process

Theory and practice of conflict resolution – Vilniaus Universitetas – University of Pavia

MATTIA FERRARI

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

Conflict Origins : the island division /2

• In 1801 Ireland is included in the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” with the Union Act

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)

Conflict Origins : the island division

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.

Conflict Escalation : Bloody Sunday

In 1972, 13 unarmed people were killed by British paratroops, while peacefully demonstrating for civil rights

Conflict

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

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

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:

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

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.

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.

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

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

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)

The eligible areas of Peace Programs

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

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

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

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)

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

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…

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/

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