Violence, Tolerance and Religious Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This chapter addresses the link between religion, violence and peace in Northern Ireland. It argues that religion is particularly suitable as a process to initiate the process of “othering” in which differences are drawn with out-groups that can foster intolerance and become violent. The chapter reviews the emergence of a largely U.S.-based literature on religious peace building. Most of the concerns of this literature, take their shape from the U.S. as a cultural, political and religious space. This chapter applies them in a European setting where there is a history of religious conflict and holy wars and in which religion has greater difficulty in establishing itself as neutral and above the fray. Our study relates to “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland. Religious peace building is described and analyzed together with its potential strengths and weaknesses. An analytical framework is developed to help understand how religion can be a site of reconciliation and peace in settings where, unlike in the U.S., religion is wrapped up in the conflict and has become part of the solution. The key to this analytical framework is the church-civil society-state relationship.