ABSTRACT
There are many questions to ask – and even more answers – about the conflict and the peace process in Northern Ireland. This contribution to the ever expanding literature on the issues is focused on two more specific and limited questions: first, who contributed most to the eventual resolution, and in particular the contribution of those of us in the academic and human rights communities; and secondly what lessons can usefully be drawn from our experiences. Indirectly, as is appropriate in this collection, it includes some reference to the part played by Kevin Boyle, and later the Boyle/Hadden partnership,1 as the civil rights movement degenerated into communal and armed conflict and eventually gave rise to the peace process and the current fragile political settlement.
