Legacies of 1998: What Kind of Social Peace Has Developed in Northern Ireland? Social Attitudes, Inequalities, and Territorialities

Abstract

What kind of ‘social peace’ has developed in Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement of 1998? This chapter evaluates the impact of both deliberate efforts to deepen the peace process and unintended and untargeted events and policies, from the global economic crash of 2008 to UK government welfare reforms. While progress has been made in renovating city centres, developing shared spaces, and reducing large-scale political violence, the evidence reviewed suggests that the ‘peace dividend’ is unevenly distributed, with those largely working-class neighbourhoods most affected by the Troubles both hardest hit (e.g. by welfare cuts) and benefitting least from peace-building efforts (e.g. because of lack of community infrastructure, especially amongst Loyalist groups). This has had the effect of deepening inequalities which stoke the fires of sectarianism, reinforcing defensive cultural identities and inhibiting the development of intersecting identities central to building a sense of a shared future.