Making Peace in Northern Ireland : The Miracle of the Good Friday Agreement and the Creation of a Fair and Just Democracy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strozier, Charles.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Good Friday.

Northern Ireland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (318 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bradford : Ethics International Press Limited, 2025.

Summary:

This book examines the remarkable process that led to peace in Northern Ireland after decades of violence. That story lies in its granular history but equally in an appreciation of its psychological dynamics, especially the emergence in the social and political realm of what the author calls radical empathy. The leaders who made peace happen were all larger than life, figures out of some 19th Century opera strutting across the stage of history. But there was another hero in the mix, one often noted for his presence but not fully appreciated by scholarly observers for his contributions to the peace process: John Alderdice. The son of a moderate Presbyterian minister, a medical doctor, and a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Alderdice brought to the peace process his grasp of others, his generosity, and clarity of vision. The Northern Irish story is immensely complicated but in the end uplifting. They deserve the peace they have made for themselves. The story of the Troubles is horrifying, but the story of peacemaking is not just dramatic - it inspires hope. If the Irish can make peace, anyone can. That may be the most important lesson of this book. And that lesson is transferable.

Contents:

Intro

Preface

J. Bowyer Bell, Jr. 0F

Introduction

Northern Irish Nomenclature

Identity

Beginnings

Provos

Naming of the Troubles

Part 1

John Alderdice

Chapter 1 Presbyterian, Psychoanalyst, and Peacemaker

Preacher Father and Doting Mother

First Church

Alderdice Childhood

Religious Commitments

Education

Political Awakening

Connections with Ian Paisley

Joan Alderdice

The Making of a Psychoanalyst

Becoming a Psychoanalyst

Chapter 2 Staking the Center

The Third Force

The Birth of The Alliance Party

Alderdice as Party Leader

New Relevance of Alliance

Dangers

On the Uniqueness of Northern Ireland

Constitutional Principles

John Alderdice and John Hume

The Commitment to Nonviolence

Conclusion

Part 2

Dramatis Personae

Chapter 3 Ian Paisley as Fiery Fundamentalist

Family Background

Childhood

Paisley's Rhetorical and Theological Style

Manic Hatreds

Paisley and Violence

Paisley and Margaret Thatcher

Chapter 4 Gerry Adams: Violence in the Struggle for Justice

The Character of Gerry Adams

The Writings and Thought of Gerry Adams

Provo Leadership

Leadership of Sinn Fein

The Argument for Violence

The Hunger Strikes

Chapter 5 John Hume: The Prophet of Nonviolence

Ancestry

Abandoning the Priesthood

Derry Credit Union

Character

Political Attitudes

Political Leadership

Dangers and Stresses of Leadership

Political Philosophy

A Nationalist Politics of Nonviolence

The American Ideal

Shaping the Negotiations

The Embrace of Sinn Fein

Moving Toward Negotiation

Chapter 6 David Trimble: Reluctant Peacemaker

Responsible Leader, Problematic Personality

Into Loyalism.

From Vanguard to the UUP

Assuming Leadership of the UUP

Clinton and Trimble

Toward Peacemaking

Interlude Women in the Troubles

A Conservative Society

The Tragedy of Anne Maguire

Peace People

Reaction of IRA and Sinn Fein

Adams Responds

Subsequent History

Part 3

The Context of the Good Friday Agreement

Chapter 7 America Enters the Peace Process

Morrison Visas

Chuck Feeney

Bill Clinton

A New Day Dawns for Northern Ireland

Enter John Hume

The Decision to Grant the Visa

Uptick in Violence in Late 1993

Adams in America at Last

The New York Conference

Alderdice at the Conference

Chapter 8 Peace Becomes Imaginable

Europe and Northern Ireland

Moving Toward Peace

Unionist Intransigence and IRA/Sinn Fein Dynamism

British Attitudes

Historical Forces Converge

Enter the European Union

Talks About Talks

Appointment of Sir Ninian Stephen

Precedents for the Good Friday Negotiations

The Ceasefires of 1994

Effects of the Ceasefire in the United States

Effects of the Ceasefire in Northern Ireland and Great Britain

Effects of the Ceasefire in Ireland

Clinton, Again

Part 4

The Negotiations

Chapter 9 A Fraught Start to the Talks

The False Premise Behind Decommissioning

Include Sinn Fein?

Reactions to Canary Wharf Bombing

Exclusion of Sinn Fein

Women at the Table

Women's Coalition Agenda

Long-Term Impact of Women

Negotiations Begin

Sinn Fein Folly

Government Leaders Arrive

Questioning the Legitimacy of George Mitchell

Mitchell and Clinton

Mitchell in Northern Ireland

Mitchell in Charge

Chapter 10 The Phony Period

Background for the Talks

The Point

Ground Rules for the Talks

Leaks, the Press, and Communicating with the World

Chapter 11 The Indaba

Enter Mandela.

Political Context

Play Acting

The Indaba

Timing Is Everything

Chapter 12 A New Beginning

Trouble Outside the Talks

Serious Negotiation

Raw Feelings

Substantive Divisions

Political Narcissism

Violence in the Surround

Markethill Bombing

Return to the Table

New Crises

Renewed Violence

Mowlam to the Rescue

Chapter 13 The Frantic End

Overlapping Strands

Setting a Deadline

The Last Week

Mitchell's False Draft

Blair and Ahern Come to Belfast

Constant Meetings

Good Friday

Crucial Compromises

Adams Throws a Wrench Into the Process

Enter Clinton

Secret Deal

Trimble's Doubts

The Final Agreement

Part 5

Securing Peace

Chapter 14 The Dawning of a New Day: John Alderdice as Speaker

Ingenious Formulations

Much Left Out

The Referendums

Omagh Bomb

Unionist Ambivalence

Alderdice to Center Stage

Problems in Alliance

Uproar When the Assembly Convened

Assembly in Flux

Alderdice Protocols

Parliamentary Language

Psychoanalyst as Speaker

Chapter 15 Resolving Key Issues

Decommissioning

Police Reform

Obvious Need for Reform

Patten Recommendations

Mitchell, Again

9/11 Changes Everything

Indirect Effects

Lethargy and Despair

Independent Monitoring Commission

St. Andrews Agreement

The Final Report of the IMC

Devolution and The New Executive

The End of the Troubles

Chapter 16 Looking to the Future

The End of Violence

Violence No Longer Political

Psychological Distress

The Complications of Brexit

Alliance and Brexit

The Politics of Unification

Memory in the Ashes of History

A Note on Sources

Acknowledgements

About the Author.

Notes:

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Other Format:

Print version: Strozier, Charles Making Peace in Northern Ireland

ISBN:

9781837111190

OCLC:

1530385506