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This is the first book to comprehensively examine the shifts that have informed republican tradition and transformation from the beginning of the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland until the final stages of the peace process. Using a combination of empirical research and literature, the book addresses Northern Irish republican identity through the influences of imagination, history and Catholicism before it charts the processes of decision-making and management that shaped the transition from militarism to politics. Drawing from interview material from a wide range of actors and key players the book considers the challenges that political republicanism has worked to overcome and concludes that ongoing political development will require a less acute, more ambiguous communication of values based on pragmatism and compromise, rather than the continued articulation of principles and convictions that sustained the armed struggle.A unique work, is essential for students and researchers in Irish politics, conflict resolution, and security studies
About the author
Graham Spencer is Reader in Politics, Conflict and the Media at the University of Portsmouth, Distinguished Senior Research Fellow at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention, NUI, Maynooth, Ireland, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Dept of Politics, University of Liverpool. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has published widely on Northern Ireland. His research interests include conflict transformation, identity, religion and political strategy. His books include The Media and Peace (2005), Omagh: Voice of Loss (2005) and The State of Loyalism in Northern Ireland (2008).
