Avoidance Strategies in Northern Ireland

In this chapter, McCormick reports on the “Troubles” of Northern Ireland, violence that began in 1969. She emphasizes that the paramount strategy for managing this ethnic conflict, especially in the most violent areas, has been avoidance of the “other side.” Ethnographic data on Protestants of South Armagh reveal, however, that this taken-for-granted alternative to violence also contradicts reconciliatory logic. The point is that avoidance and violence are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and that avoidance, like violence, can be counter to conflict resolution.