Activities per year
Abstract
This paper explores one of the defining aspects of politics and identity in Northern Ireland: the control and utilization of public space, particularly urban public space. Ethnopolitical conflict consistently reveals itself through contestation over public space. The role of ritual events is important in the development of political identity and group cohesion. The symbolic landscape will be constructed through displays of identity by dominant groups and their ability to control that landscape by inhibiting displays by other groups. This will reveal itself through frequent contests over rituals and symbols. This paper looks at the role of ritual events in civic spaces in Belfast but particularly asks what role they might play in conflict transformation. The 1998 agreement offered political structures that provided for shared power after 30 years of violent conflict. At the same time, there was an increase in contestation over public space as political groups within the previously marginalized Catholic community demanded recognition within the public sphere and a rebalancing of the public space through changes to the previously dominant Protestant and Unionist expression of identity. The paper concludes by suggesting that in “shared space” a new civic identity that spans the political and ethnic divisions has started to develop in Belfast and that this might evolve despite an increased residential division throughout the urban area.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 565-573 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 4 |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2015 |
Keywords
- public space
- Conflict Transformation
- Northern Ireland
- ritual
- symbols
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Parades, Flags, Carnivals and Riots: Public Space, Contestation and Transformation in Northern Ireland'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Activities
-
When should you take down the flags? Managing conflicts over symbols in Northern Ireland
Bryan, D. (Keynote speaker)
16 Jun 2018Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
-
BAIS Conference Galway
Bryan, D. (Speaker)
25 Apr 2015Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
-
AHRC 'Culture, Conflict and Post-Conflict Symposium'
Bryan, D. (Invited speaker)
10 Sept 2014Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
-
Cupar Way or Cupar Street: Integration and Division Around a Belfast Wall
Bryan, D., Jul 2018, Ethnographies of Movement, Sociality and Space: Placemaking in the New Northern Ireland. Komarova, M. & Svasek, M. (eds.). Berghahn, p. 267-277 11 p. ( Material Mediations: People and Things in a World of Movement; vol. 8).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
-
The Material Value of Flags: Politics and Space in Northern Ireland
Bryan, D., 20 Mar 2018, In: Review of Irish Studies in Europe. 2, 1, p. 76-91 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile