“Stormont in Crisis”: Lessons of Resilience in the Perceived Fragility of Northern Ireland's Peace Process

Many outside the territory of Northern Ireland view its peace process as completed. It has been almost two decades since the 1998 Belfast Agreement, after all. But five years of anthropological research focused first in the rural city of Armagh and then in urban Belfast have revealed to me just how fragile— and unfinished— many Northern Irish people perceive their peace process to be. Local news reports focus on “trouble” of a sectarian nature, hosting experts to discuss the impact on the peace process and the local government in Stormont, while my interviewees struggled to suggest any positive changes since 1998—  apart from “not being shot at and killed.” Many expressed anxiety over the future, referring to problems or tensions just “below the surface.” Such tensions, they said, were revealed by the continuing debates, protests, and riots over commemorative parades every summer, and by the recent rise in what the police refer to as “dissident activity.” To illustrate the important role these views play, I analyze two case studies where the peace process was perceived to be in crisis: by paramilitary threats in 2010 before Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Dublin, Ireland, and by paramilitary action in 2015 when the fatal shooting of Kevin McGuigan was linked by police to the Irish Republican Army. Using interviews, document collection, and participant-observation, I reveal not only how deep the perception of a fragile peace is in Northern Ireland, but how this very anxiety may be the secret behind the Belfast Agreement’s resiliency.