ABSTRACT
Northern Ireland is a region that has a long history of social division-variously charac-
terized as ethnic, nationalist, sectarian, religious or some combination of these. This divide
is evidenced by a range of features, such as: high levels of residential segregation; a
segregated education system; differences in levels of socio-economic achievement, and
relative disadvantage; divided national loyalties; membership of the security forces; and
the existence of high levels of prejudice against the respective ‘other’. Some aspects of
the social divide helped to facilitate the outbreak of violent political conflict in the late
1960s, and during the conflict some aspects of the social divide helped to sustain the vio-
lence (Whyte, 1991). In the 1990s a peace process attempted to bring an end to violent
conflict. After slow and uneven progress an Agreement was reached in 1998, which led
to a new institutional framework for governing Northern Ireland.1 The Agreement, and the
peace process that led to it, were based on the principle of promoting a pluralist accom-
modation between the ‘two traditions’, or ‘two communities’, in Northern Ireland, and
on the island of Ireland (O’Leary, 1999).
