Drawing on over 150 interviews with former IRA, INLA, UVF and UFF prisoners, this is a major analysis of why Northern Ireland has seen a transition from war to peace. Most accounts of the peace process are "top-down," relying upon the views of political elites. This book is "bottom-up," analyzing the voices of those who actually "fought the war." What made them fight, why did they stop and what are the lessons for other conflict zones? Using unrivalled access to members of the armed groups, the book offering a critical appraisal of one-dimensional accounts of the onset of peace, grounded in "mutually hurting stalemate" and "ripeness," which downgrade the political and economic aspects of conflict. Military stalemate had been evident since the early 1970s and offers little in explaining the timing of the peace process. Moreover, republicans and loyalists based their ceasefires upon very different perceptions of transformation or victory. Based on a Leverhulme Trust project and written by an expert team, Abandoning Histroical Conflict? offers a new analysis, based on subtle interplays of military, political, economic and personal changes and experiences. Combined, these allowed combatants to move from violence to peace whilst retaining core ideological beliefs and maintaining long-term constitutional visions.  Former prisoners now act as ambassadors for peace in Northern Ireland. Knowledge of why and how combatants switched to peaceful methodologies amid widespread skepticism over prospects for peace is essential to our understanding of the management of global peace processes. Abandoning Histroical Conflict? is essential reading for policy-makers, academics, students and anyone with an interest in how war can become peace.

Abandoning historical conflict?: Former political prisoners and reconciliation in Northern Ireland

McAuley, James

Shirlow, Peter

Tonge, Jon

McGlynn, Catherine

Reference

Manchester University Press

The end of Ulster loyalism?

The end of Ulster loyalism? explores the dynamics and divisions within paramilitary groups since the mid-1970s. It communicates a history of transition and at times regression within the Ulster Volunteer Force, Ulster Defence Association, Loyalist Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando. It, despite contrary public opinion, details and explains the nature of Loyalist conflict transformation. A key model of transition that is relevant to arenas beyond Northern Ireland. However, it also details the internal and external impediments and violence from within regressive elements, the wreckers and spoilers, who aimed to undermine positive peace-building. The book also discusses the nature and extent of loyalist violence and provides a rarely heard Loyalist voice regarding State-led collusion. It locates Loyalist ideas and opinions that have been largely invisible and highlights how an extensive element of positive Loyalist renewal has been purposefully suppressed and unmentioned. In examining both positive and regressive loyalism this book creates a holistic and honest analysis of groups emerging, however awkwardly, out of violence and in so doing dispels taboo subjects and assertions. From violence to the location of Loyalist transition, through internal feuding and towards restorative justice, community leadership and mural re-imaging this book asserts a definite and roust examination of loyalism future. It is a key text for any student of politics, criminology, human geography and conflict and conflict transformation and is particularly relevant to the scholarship of pro-State groups who are infrequently considered in academic deliberations. A book of both hope and despair that emerges from a destabilising past and a yet-to-be-decided future.

History

Europe

The end of Ulster loyalism? explores the dynamics and divisions within paramilitary groups since the mid-1970s. It, despite contrary public opinion, details and explains the nature of Loyalist conflict transformation. A key model of transition that is relevant to arenas beyond Northern Ireland. The book also discusses the nature and extent of loyalist violence and provides a rarely heard voice regarding State-led collusion. It locates Loyalist ideas and opinions that have been largely invisible and highlights how an extensive element of positive Loyalist renewal has been purposefully suppressed and unmentioned. It is a key text for any student of politics, criminology, human geography and conflict and conflict transformation and is particularly relevant to the scholarship of pro-State groups who are infrequently considered in academic deliberations. A book of both hope and despair that emerges from a destabilising past and a yet-to-be-decided future.

Drawing on over 150 interviews with former IRA, INLA, UVF and UFF prisoners, this is a major analysis of why Northern Ireland has seen a transition from war to peace. Most accounts of the peace process are ‘top-down’, relying upon the views of political elites. This book is ‘bottom-up’, analysing the voices of those who actually ‘fought the war’. What made them fight, why did they stop and what are the lessons for other conflict zones? Using unrivalled access to members of the armed groups, the book, available for the first time in paperback, offers a critical appraisal of one-dimensional accounts of the onset of peace, grounded in ‘mutually hurting stalemate’ and ‘ripeness’, which downgrade the political and economic aspects of conflict. Military stalemate had been evident since the early 1970s and offers little in explaining the timing of the peace process. Moreover, republicans and loyalists based their ceasefires upon very different perceptions of transformation or victory. Based on a Leverhulme Trust project and written by an expert team, Abandoning Conflict offers a new analysis, based on subtle interplays of military, political, economic and personal changes and experiences.

Paris, Jerusalem and Belfast are cities that are shaped by political violence, death and the injustices caused by segregated living. But divided cities are becoming places within which policy makers and politicians project an image of normality despite the facts of social injustice, victimhood and harm. It is a commonly held view that the city of Belfast is emerging out of conflict and into a new era of tolerance and transformation. This book challenges this viewpoint. The authors pinpoint how international peace accords, such as the Belfast Agreement, are gradually eroded as conflict shifts into a stale and repetitive pattern of ethnically-divided competition over resources. This book offers a vivid portrait of how segregation, lived experience and fear are linked in a manner that undermines democratic accountability. The authors argue that the control of place remains the most important weapon in the politicisation of communities and the reproduction of political violence. Segregation provides the laboratory within which sectarianism continues to grow. Examining the implications of these social divisions, the authors draw upon a wide international literature and provide insights that will be useful to students of geography, planning, politics, sociology and peace studies.

Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City (Contemporary Irish Studies)

Science & Math

Pluto Press

Paris, Jerusalem and Belfast are cities that are shaped by political violence, death and the injustices caused by segregated living. But divided cities are becoming places within which policy makers and politicians project an image of normality despite the facts of social injustice, victimhood and harm. It is a commonly held view that the city of Belfast is emerging out of conflict and into a new era of tolerance and transformation. This book challenges this viewpoint. The authors pinpoint how international peace accords, such as the Belfast Agreement, are gradually eroded as conflict shifts into a stale and repetitive pattern of ethnically-divided competition over resources. This book offers a vivid portrait of how segregation, lived experience and fear are linked in a manner that undermines democratic accountability. The authors argue that the control of place remains the most important weapon in the politicisation of communities and the reproduction of political violence. Segregation provides the laboratory within which sectarianism continues to grow. Examining the implications of these social divisions, the authors draw upon a wide international literature and provide insights that will be useful to students of geography, planning, politics, sociology and peace studies.

Murtagh, Brendan

Beyond the Wire: Former Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland

This book provides the first detailed examination of the role played by former loyalist and republican prisoners in grass roots conflict transformation work in the Northern Ireland peace process. It challenges the assumed passivity of former prisoners and ex-combatants. Instead, it suggests that such individuals and the groups which they formed have been key agents of conflict transformation. They have provided leadership in challenging cultures of violence, developed practical methods of resolving inter-communal conflict and found ways for communities to explore their troubled past. In analysing this, the authors challenge the sterile demonisation of former prisoners and the processes that maintain their exclusion from normal civic and social life. The book is a constructive reminder of the need for full participation of both former combatants and victims in post-conflict transformation. It also lays out a new agenda for reconciliation which suggests that conflict transformation can and should begin ‘from the extremes’. The book will be of interest to students of criminology, peace and conflict studies, law and politics, geography and sociology as well as those with a particular interest in the Northern Ireland conflict.

McEvoy, Kieran

Key Concepts in Political Geography (Key Concepts in Human Geography)

Key Concepts in Political Geography is a new kind of textbook that forms part of an innovative set of companion texts for the Human Geography sub disciplines. Organized around 20 short essays, Key Concepts in Political Geography provides a cutting edge introduction to the central concepts that define contemporary research in political geography.

Politics & Social Sciences

Gallaher, Carolyn

Mountz, Alison

Gilmartin, Mary

Dahlman, Carl T.

Social Sciences

Sage Publications Ltd.

Key Concepts in Political Geography is a new kind of textbook that forms part of an innovative set of companion texts for the Human Geography sub disciplines. Organized around 20 short essays, Key Concepts in Political Geography provides a cutting edge introduction to the central concepts that define contemporary research in political geography.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shirlow, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shirlow, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shirlow, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Abandoning historical conflict?: Former political prisoners and reconciliation in Northern Ireland

The end of Ulster loyalism?

The end of Ulster loyalism?

Abandoning historical conflict?: Former political prisoners and reconciliation in Northern Ireland

Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City (Contemporary Irish Studies)

Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City (Contemporary Irish Studies)

Beyond the Wire: Former Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland

Beyond the Wire: Former Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland

Key Concepts in Political Geography (Key Concepts in Human Geography)

Key Concepts in Political Geography (Key Concepts in Human Geography)