Background to the Research

• The conflict in NI is often portrayed as resulting from the inability of two separate cultures to accommodate each others traditions. In this book the authors argue that NI does not have two distinct cultures, rather it has two opposing groups that interpret a shared culture in many different ways.
  

Research Approach

• The book's findings are based on a series of in-depth interviews and observations of social interactions in the mainly Protestant rural community of Listymore and the Catholic 'urban village' of Ardoyne.
  

Main Findings

• Popular images of Irish history are based on ideas of invasion and siege, this is equally true for nationalists, for example in their imagery of the invasion of Ireland and for Ulster Protestants, for example in their vision of the Siege of Derry.
• The dramatisation of events like the Siege of Derry allows people to develop a common social identity. Events such as this carry the implication that participants and onlookers share this version of events and in so doing the 'group' sets itself apart/in opposition to those who do not agree with this version of events.
• The current situation in Ardoyne of violent attacks and riots re-enforces past narratives of invasion prevalent in Irish nationalist history. Therefore the metaphor of siege has become a reality for the residents of Ardoyne. Neighbouring Protestants recount remarkably similar experiences and attitudes to sectarian violence and the role of the police and army within their areas.
• Fundamentalism - a loyalist form of Christianity - appears to offer many individuals a solution to the sense of helplessness and uncertainty that they experience in their daily lives. This pattern of helplessness and salvation fits neatly with the siege metaphor, where the population is overrun and in need of rescue.
• The basic premise of the Royal Black Institution, of having to be chosen by God, is one of the most significant tenets of Protestant thought in Ulster. The Black Institution reflects a more general trend in Ulster Protestantism that Protestants have a close and exclusive relationship with God.
• The idea of being among the chosen can take the form of doing God's work or the belief that one is specifically elected for salvation by God - a belief held by many conservative Presbyterians.
• Many of the supposedly distinctive characteristics of ethnic identity in NI are borrowed from other aspects of identity such as social class, gender and geographical region. In this process, attributes such as accent, vocabulary, social habits or humour are ascribed as being specific to one tradition or the other. Yet people can be said to share a unity of diversity in which many aspects of their lives are basically similar, but differ according to the intent of the narrator, the situation and the other people involved in the interaction.

Conclusions

• Identity is not defined by some objective set of criteria, rather it is defined within the context of relationships, situations and 'worlds'. Ethnic identities arise not out of cultural differences but from the way that individuals interact. Certain individuals and organisations in the community act as curators of rituals and events
• It would appear from the evidence gathered in this book that policies that encourage interaction between schoolchildren of different ethnic backgrounds should be a fruitful means of encouraging reconciliation.
• Any movement towards reconciliation must take into account the extent to which both Catholics and Protestants experience and feel intimidated by paramilitaries, security forces or the 'other' tradition.
• There is a limit to the progress that can be made in schools and other social institutions in relation to the NI conflict, because people are in a continual process of creating their own identities in the worlds they create in their daily interactions. It is here that real change takes place and where it can be measured.