The Northern Ireland Conflict

(7.5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This module will give students an in-depth understanding of the recent conflict in Northern Ireland. Students will be introduced to a range of theoretical perspectives and concepts from across IR (such as nationalism, identity, peacebuilding, consociationalism, political violence and memory) to explain and understand aspects of the conflict era and post-conflict Northern Ireland. Students will gain an understanding of the social and political factors which gave rise to violence in the 1960s. They will study the trajectory of the conflict, examining the main protagonists in the violence as well as the key actors and processes that achieved the fragile peace of the 1990s. Students will discuss the aftermath of that conflict and contemporary efforts to deal with legacy issues. They will examine challenges to the current precarious peace. Crucially the module equips students with analytical skills and conceptual tools that they can apply to other cases and contexts in their wider studies.