ABSTRACT
In the mid-1990s, a conflict transformation Irish cultural borderscape took shape through the EU’s provision of funding for cross-border, cross-community (Irish/Ulster British) partnerships, principally its peace programmes for Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland. This was conflict transformation in action. At the ‘low’ local community level, the Peace programmes invigorated the reconfiguration of the Irish border from barrier to bridge: a borderscape of opportunity for Irish/Ulster British contact, communication, and cooperation and a pause for reflection on commonality and diversity between the Irish and the Ulster British. The Irish cultural borderscape confirms that borderscapes can be reconfigured as Peace projects. However, ‘high’ state politics interfered, principally the UK’s withdrawal from the EU which undermined the ‘low’ borderscape conflict transformation initiative.
