Dividing lines. How is multiculturalism playing out in Northern Ireland?

national | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Saturday February 09, 2008 20:25 by Pauline Hadaway - Belfast Salon paulinehadaway at btinternet dot com

7pm Tuesday 19 February at the Front Page, Donegall Street, Belfast BT1

As part of the Belfast Salon’s series of discussions around race, identity and multiculturalism, sociologist Chris Gilligan explores the rise and rise of identity politics in contemporary Northern Ireland. Chris Gilligan is a sociologist based at Aston University, in Birmingham. He has been widely cited for his work on attitudes towards ethnic minorities http://www.ark.ac.uk/publications/updates/update44.pdf in Northern Ireland and his work on conflict-related trauma http://www.epilogues.net/Perspectives.asp and the peace process

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Rows are breaking out between Nationalists and Unionists in response to ‘equality impact assessments’ being carried out at council offices across NI. Worried that the reviews would result in the removal of military plaques, pictures of the royal family, flags, emblems and other symbols of British identity, Unionist protesters are complaining of Republicans using equality legislation as a vehicle to “strip buildings across the province of their British identity.”

The term ‘identity’, attached to words such as ‘national, ‘ethnic’, ‘religious’ and ‘cultural, has taken a firm hold within NI political discussion as conflict between Irishness and Britishness is repositioned, away from territorial space and into the realms of subjective feeling. While terms like ‘identity’ and ‘tradition’ may seem at first to blur the hard edges of conflict between Nationalist and Unionist in Northern Ireland, have they simply reinforced division, while turning political reality on its head? For, whatever the hope that ‘the real border is in people’s hearts and minds’, surely an essential element of Unionist identity springs from the reality of living within UK borders.

Chris Gilligan is a sociologist based at Aston University, in Birmingham. He has been widely cited for his work on attitudes towards ethnic minorities http://www.ark.ac.uk/publications/updates/update44.pdf in Northern Ireland and his work on conflict-related trauma http://www.epilogues.net/Perspectives.asp and the peace process.We are delighted he has agreed to kick off the discussion. Hope you can make it along.