CSTPV was founded in August 1994: the same month that the Provisional IRA called its landmark ceasefire. By that point, the Troubles in Northern Ireland had lasted a quarter of a century; and consumed around 3,500 lives. Against such a backdrop, CSTPV took a close interest in the Northern Irish tragedy: it has been the case study on the doorstep.
Research has ranged both widely and deeply at the Centre. CSTPV scholars were amongst the first to contribute to the emergence of a body of serious analysis of the (so-called) ‘dissident’ Republican movements that arose to challenge the peace settlement. However, our scholarship has been more than just reactive to new trends: indeed, it has often taken (unusually) long views of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Finally, there has also been a notable sub-tradition of comparative analysis. No other divided society is quite like Northern Ireland, of course, but sensitive attempts to explore ‘family resemblances’ between divided societies can still yield rich insights. So, too, can the comparative analysis of why nationalist movements from the same geo-political neighbourhood of Western Europe can develop so very differently from each other: and encounter such very different responses from the states they seek to challenge.
There is a rich body of CSTPV scholarly work here that illuminates the Northern Irish conflict from sometimes unusual angles. As Northern Ireland faces an increasingly uncertain future, these pieces deserve a wide audience and readership.
Academic Outputs
Books
Tim Wilson, Frontiers of Violence, Oxford University Press 2010.
P. M. Currie and Max Taylor (eds), Dissident Irish Republicanism, Bloomsbury 2011.
Richard English, Armed Struggle, Pan Macmillan 2012.
Kieran McConaghy, Terrorism and the the State: Intra-State Dynamics and the Response to Non-State Political Violence, Palgrave 2017.
Nick Brooke, Terrorism and Nationalism in the United Kingdom:The Absence of Noise, Palgrave 2018.
Chapters
Richard English, Why Terrorist Campaigns do not End in Richard English (ed) Illusions of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism, British Academy Scholarship Online 2016.
Tim Wilson, The Strange Death of Loyalist Monaghan, 1912 – 1921 in Senia Paseta, Uncertain Futures: Essays about the Irish Past for Roy Foster, Oxford Scholarship Online 2016.
Richard English, Ireland and the Provisional IRA in Does Terrorism Work?, Oxford University Press 2019.
Tim Wilson, 30 March 1922 – The Craig-Collins pact ‘Peace is today declared’: conciliation committees and the 1920s troubles. In Gannon, D., & McGarry, F. (eds). Ireland 1922: Independence, partition, civil war. Royal Irish Academy, 2022.
Articles
Tim Wilson, ‘Almost frantic with joy’: The Nicholson Revival and the Belfast Troubles 1922 – 1923, Irish Studies in Britain, 2010.
Tim Wilson, Frank Wright Revisited, Irish Political Studies, 2011.
Tim Wilson, ‘The most terrible assassination that has yet stained the name of Belfast’: the McMahon murders in context Irish Historical Studies ,2015.
Amanda Hall, Peace at any cost? The necessity of the On the Runs Scheme to the endurance of peace in Northern Ireland, Irish Political Studies, 2018.
Amanda Hall, Incomplete Peace and Social Stagnation: Shortcomings of the Good Friday Agreement, Open Library of Humanities, 2018.
Patrick Finnegan, Explaining violent dissident Republican breakaway through deviant cohesion, Small Wars and Insurgencies, 2021
Madalen Beth Reid, Lessons from Beruit and Belfast: How Dysfunctional Democracy Undermines Consociational Settlements in Deeply Divided Societies, CSTPV Occasional Papers, 2021.
Kieran McConaghy, From soldiers to vigilantes: the Catholic Ex-Servicemen’s Association in Northern Ireland on the brink of civil war, Irish Political Studies, 39(4), 2024: 617-642.
Commentary
Nick Brooke, Across the Sea: Nationalisms in Comparative Analysis, Writing the Troubles.
Maria Dalton, “Who Else Have You Been Speaking To?” The Role of Interpersonal Relationships in “Troubles” Research, Writing the Troubles.
Patrick Finnegan, Remember the Northern Ireland Troubles… A Busy Time, Writing the Troubles.
Patrick Finnegan, A Further Note on Interviews: Interviewing the ‘Other’ and Influences on the Researcher, Writing the Troubles.
Amanda Hall, Uncertainty Exposes Instability: Making Sense of Recent Violence in Northern Ireland, CSTPV Blog.
Amanda Hall, “A New Beginning?”: Enduring Division in 2017 Northern Ireland Four Nations History.
Amanda Hall, Writing the “Troubles” in the Shadow of Brexit, Writing the Troubles.
Amanda Hall, Burning Peace? Eleventh Night Bonfires and the Legacy of the “Troubles”, Writing the Troubles.
Tim Wilson, Killing Strangers, How Political Violence became Modern, Writing the Troubles.
Media Commentary
Kieran McConaghy, The National, 2015.
Kieran McConaghy, The Herald, 2019.
Kieran McConaghy, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2019.
Kieran McConaghy, Global News, 2019.
Kieran McConaghy, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News Network, 2019.
Kieran McConaghy, The Times, 2020.
Maria Dalton, The Irish Times, 2018.
Northern Ireland and the Peace Process Podcast
10 April 2018 was the 20th anniversary of the signing of the ‘Good Friday’ Agreement, the historic peace deal that ended nearly 30 years of conflict, a period known as the ‘Troubles’, in Northern Ireland. We worked with Chrome360 Media on a Podcast series on Northern Ireland that traces the long history of the Northern Irish conflict, and explores how the peace process is bedding down 20 years on from the Good Friday Agreement.
Episode 1: Roots (Tim Wilson)
Episode 2: Towards Peace (Tim Wilson) (Kieran McConaghy)
Episode 3: Shaping the Conflict (Kieran McConaghy)
Episode 4: Witnesses (Peter Heathwood)
Episode 5: Witnesses (Shirley Moody)
Episode 6: Witnesses (Michael Culbert & Lee Lavis)
Episode 7: Witnesses (Colin Halliday)
Episode 8: Witnesses (Roger McCallum)