Sustainable Peace in Northern Ireland

Acknowledgements

Thank you to family, friends and colleagues for their encouragement and support.

Thank you to all the people who contributed to insightful and invaluable discussions about post-conflict peacebuilding including: Science and Nonduality, Somatic Experiencing International, The Monroe Institute and the International Body Psychotherapy Journal.

Thank you to Rachel Gristwood at Well Read Proofreading Services for timely feedback and professional guidance. “What a team!”

Thank you to Tony Mason and his colleagues at Peter Lang for making the publication of this book possible.

Preface

A chance conversation with a respected journalist and writer on Northern Ireland gave me the motivation to write about sustainable peace. It was spring 2023, and perfect timing for a new project. Within days, I noticed an opinion piece on Northern Ireland politics from a respected academic which triggered an inexplicable fury within me: I was reading language that incited hatred.

The first experience helped me to clarify my purpose for researching the notion of sustainable peace and meet the requirements for a book proposal. The second experience brought a single-minded energy and passion to research sustainable peace from both theoretical and practical perspectives, and to establish the conditions needed to achieve it.

My choice of Northern Ireland as the context for the book was based on the 2022 General Election when a republican party, Sinn Féin, won and their leader, Michelle O’Neill, became First Minister designate. This election win challenged the political status quo of unionist governments since 1921. It also represented a major political opportunity that opened up for the republican movement. A seismic shift in Northern Ireland’s politics had taken place and created an ideal context to take a closer look at the impact that political leaders have on peace processes.

During my research, each new track brought me back to the same place: leadership. I discovered that acts of leadership come in many guises, and they are not always the work of one person. Acts of leadership were observed from the managers of healthcare services, charities, community organisations and members of the public. It became clear that leadership behaviours are different from leadership roles, and this differentiation can be a major issue for people in positions of power and for the people they have been elected to serve. A relationship between leadership behaviours and sustainable peace emerged as a key research outcome which subsequently became a major theme in this book. Sustainable peace is served by leaders who are able to discern when a collaborative approach is more likely to achieve a positive political outcome, and when it is necessary to take a stand.

I have brought lived experience, professional expertise and substantial evidence together in this book, and hope it provides a thoughtful and insightful yet challenging read.

Sally Watson

Lancaster, February 2024