Overview

The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 ended a protracted violent conflict in Northern Ireland and became an international reference point for peace-building. Negotiating a Settlement in Northern Ireland, 1969DS2019 traces the roots and out-workings of the Agreement, focussing on the British and Irish governments, their changing policy paradigms, and their extended negotiations, from the Sunningdale conference of 1973 to the St Andrews Agreement of 2006. It identifies three dimensions of change that paved the way for agreement: in the evolution of elite understanding of sovereignty, in the development of wide-ranging and complex modes of power-sharing, and in the interrelated emergence of substantial equality in the socio-economic, cultural, and political domains. The book combines wide-ranging analysis with unparalleled use of witness seminars and interviews where the most senior British and Irish politicians, civil servants, and advisors discuss the process of coming to agreement. In tracing the processes by which British and Irish perspectives converged to address the Northern Ireland conflict, the book provides a benchmark against which the ongoing impact of Brexit on the Good Friday Agreement can be assessed.

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9780198882824

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Reviews

A valuable, timely, and important book. Based on first-hand sources, the volume rightly stresses the long-term complexity of an extraordinary process. * Richard English, author of Does Terrorism Work? A History * This remarkable book combines historical archive, candid political interviews, and insightful scholarly analysis. Having had the foresight to gather recollections of those on all sides of Northern Ireland's long peace process in the wake of the 1998 Agreement, Coakley and Todd now bring this rich resource to deepen understanding of such negotiations and, indeed, of a painstakingly-crafted peace. * Katy Hayward, Queen's University Belfast * Coakley and Todd have delivered a first-class volume, a very impressive piece of work measured against any standard, coming out at a time when British-Irish relations, and the Northern Ireland institutions, are in a profound crisis because of Brexit. * John McGarry, Queens University Ontario * This is a wonderfully rich and insightful study of repeated efforts by the British and Irish governments to bring an end to violent conflict in Northern Ireland. It is both an original work of political analysis and a treasure trove of primary materials. No scholar can write in the future about the role of the two governments in peace-making in Northern Ireland without reference to this book. * Niall O Dochartaigh, Administration *

Author Information

John Coakley is a Fellow of the Geary Institute for Public Policy at University College Dublin. Recent publications include Nationalism, Ethnicity and the State: Making and Breaking Nations (Sage, 2012), Reforming Political Institutions: Ireland in Comparative Perspective (IPA, 2013), Breaking Patterns of Conflict: Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland Question (co-edited, Routledge, 2015), Non-Territorial Autonomy in Divided Societies: Comparative Perspectives (edited, Routledge, 2017) and Politics in the Republic of Ireland (co-edited, 6th ed., Routledge, 2018). Jennifer Todd is a Fellow of the Geary Institute for Public Policy at University College Dublin. She has been Fernand Braudel visiting Fellow at the European University Institute (2016) and is presently Fellow of the Political Studies Association of Ireland. She is co-author of the classic Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland (Cambridge, 1996), and recent publications include Identity Change after Conflict: Ethnicity, Boundaries and Belonging in the Two Irelands (Palgrave 2018), and jointly edited volumes on Ethnicity and Religion (Routledge, 2011); Breaking Pattens of Conflict (Routledge 2015).

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