NCJ Number
191652
Journal
Peace Review Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2001 Pages: 89-96
Date Published
March 2001
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the conflict transformation or peace-building phase in Northern Ireland and how the youth will determine the success or failure of the peace process in their reproducing or adapting the violence, politics, myths, and symbols of conflict.
Abstract
This article reviews how the young people of Northern Ireland were being influenced by the political discourse and security conditions of the peace-building process. It examined the decommissioning crisis as an event that interacts with the structural reality of continued direct, structural, and cultural violence in the ecologies of children and youth in Northern Ireland. Focus was placed on one sub-community in Northern Ireland, the Shankill area of Belfast. The Shankill school children interviewed live in one of the most deprived parts of Northern Ireland. Interviews with young people experiencing little violence showed a strong tendency towards distancing the conflict and the peace process. Peace process violence is seen as being confined to certain areas but the violence of the peace process might directly involve the young to a greater extent than the war had. The major challenge for peace builders is how to interpret and then enter the discourse of youth involved in and experiencing violence.