The conflict in Northern Ireland

 

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Useful links

BBC Online has a good in-depth analysis of the peace process, the Search for Peace.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 1998 was awarded jointly to John Hume, leader of the SDLP:

and David Trimble, first minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party:

They helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement, which is the foundation of the current process towards peace in Northern Ireland.

See CNN's coverage of the Peace Prize or their in-depth report, "Healing an ancient rift: Northern Ireland's path to peace", with an interactive timeline of the conflict, an overview of the main players, etc.

Also take a look at the official website of Sinn Fein,
the political wing of the IRA.

Or, for the other side of the political divide, see the homepage of the Democratic Unionist Party, the party led for many years by intransigent unionist Ian Paisley:

(Notice the colors and symbols used by the two parties respectively).

When studying the conflict in Northern Ireland, there is no way you can avoid references to the history of the conflict. This conflict is a better illustration than most of the fact that history is never an objective science: what you consider to be the most important events in Irish history, and what you think they meant for the development of the conflict, depends on your point of view. Thus, it is appropriate that a good website on the topic such as the one produced by J Dana at the University of Texas has one page devoted to links about Irish Republican History and Information and one page to Irish Unionist History and Information.

The CAIN project (Conflict Archive on the INternet) - undertaken jointly by the University of Ulster, the Queen's University of Belfast and the Linen Hall Library, Belfast - has loads of useful information.

Confused by all the abbreviations, etc. used in the conflict? Here’s a Glossary of Irish terms from a newsgroup called Irish FAQ; or look at this well maintained site with lots of links relating to Irish politics and culture

Less scholarly pages:

Read about the celebration of Battle of Boyne Day (July 12) and lots of other things at the enthusiastic but slightly unorganized Irish studies pages of an opinionated gentleman named Conrad Bladey:

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For a look at some of the passion with which people all over the world express their opinions on the conflict, read some of the entries in the Northern Ireland Peace Book.

The British government’s official views on the situation in the province are expressed in this page of what they call Commonly Held Myths about Northern Ireland

Miscellaneous sites:

Royal Ulster Constabulary

Deaths due to the Troubles 1969-96

A very comprehensive Resource Guide for Political Information about Northern Ireland.

Required reading