ABSTRACT
The search for a peaceful solution to the seemingly intractable problems in Northern Ireland has been ongoing since the time of the civil rights marches in the 1960s. The contemporary peace process can be dated back to the talks between Hume and Adams, the outcome of which was a peace initiative taken by the then Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds and used as a basis for talks with John Major, which resulted in the Downing Street Declaration of 15 December 1993. This was followed in 1994 by the IRA ceasefire and the subsequent Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) ceasefire. Despite the end of both, the former after 18 months and the latter unofficially, the term ‘peace process’ has remained. The process has been a combination of politics at the constitutional level and at the grassroots, with the latter being a groundswell of initiatives from individuals and community and women’s groups. An example of the latter development was the Opsahl Commission of 1992 which took soundings from a variety of interested parties regarding solutions to the problems of Northern Ireland (Pollak, 1993). However, constitutional politics have dominated the peace process. At that level, there is much lower female representation, ensuring that the influence of women has been muted.
