Political Science and Sociology Research Seminar: Encounters between peacemaking practice & conflict resolution theory in NI

Anna Tulin-Brett & Niall Ó Dochartaigh: Appropriating peace theory: encounters between peacemaking practice and conflict resolution theory in Northern Ireland.

Conflict resolution originated as an activist discipline, but theorists of peace and conflict transformation have had a more limited impact on peacemaking practice than initially hoped. The resultant ‘gap between theory and practice’ (Deutsch & Coleman 2000) has stimulated a vibrant research literature concerned to analyse that gap and to close it. This paper interrogates the relationship between theoretical approaches and theorists of peace and conflict transformation on the one hand and those directly involved in conflicts as peacemakers or as protagonists on the other, exploring how theorists and theories of conflict transformation were incorporated by key actors during a particularly violent phase of the Northern Ireland conflict. It examines this relationship through a comparative study of two theory-seeking engagements. The first is that of Public Servant and Chairman of the Community Relations Commission in Northern Ireland, Dr Maurice Hayes, in the application of the ‘controlled communication’ approach developed by peace theorist John Burton and the second is the case of secret intermediary Brendan Duddy who drew on his work with the Tavistock Institute to inform his practice as a mediator between the IRA and the British government. The paper concludes with a preliminary analysis of the intricate relationship between theorists and practitioners in times of conflict and argue that not only did these theoretical approaches reach local practitioners and policy makers who were focused on local conflict management, but the theories also reached key figures involved in high-level secret negotiations between key parties to the conflict.

Anna Tulin Brett is a PhD candidate on her final year at the School of Political Science and Sociology, NUIG. Her thesis looks at how specific models of peace theory have been appropriated and deployed by policy makers and practitioners working with peacemaking and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. Anna currently holds two Masters. One in International Cooperation and Crisis Management from Uppsala University, Sweden and one in Psychoanalytic Studies with the School of Psychology, Trinity College, Dublin.

Niall Ó Dochartaigh is Personal Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland Galway and Director of the new MA in Public Policy. He has published extensively on the Northern Ireland conflict, on peace negotiations and on territorial conflict. His publications include Civil Rights to Armalites, a study of the escalation of conflict in Northern Ireland, and Dynamics of Political Change in Ireland co-edited with Katy Hayward and Elizabeth Meehan. His new book, Deniable Contact: Back-channel Negotiation in the Northern Ireland Conflict was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press.

Registration

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