Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - News - Religious Difference and Conflict Conference

07 August 2012

Stranmillis University College, Belfast: 5-7 September 2012

September 2012 marks the centenary of the signing of the Ulster Covenant, a dramatic political gesture rooted in the distinctive religious culture of the province, which has had profound implications for the subsequent history of the island of Ireland. The extent and the ways in which the Northern Ireland conflict has been ‘religious’ continue to be extensively debated in both academic and practitioner circles. This discussion has entered a significant new phase in the last decade, as a consequence of the restoration of relative peace to Northern Ireland at the very time that, on a wider global canvas in the wake of 9/11, religious difference has loomed much larger as a perceived source of conflict and insecurity.

This conference is the culminating event in a research project ‘Protestant-Catholic Conflict: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Realities’, funded under the Research Councils UK ‘Global Uncertainties’ programme. It will include the presentation of research from the project itself – including particularly work on attitudes to religion in contemporary Northern Ireland and on the diverse histories of religious division in English cities. The conference programme will be designed to set this work in a wider context, both of Ireland itself, and of comparisons with Protestant-Catholic conflict and other kinds of division in which religion is implicated elsewhere in the UK and in other parts of the world. It is hoped that by enhancing understanding of the roots of ‘religious’ conflict, the conference will contribute to the development of strategies for reconciliation.

There is a small cost for attending the conference to cover administrative overheads and tea and coffee. It is £5 to attend the conference on Wednesday 5^th September or Friday 6^th September, £10 for Thursday 7^th or £15 to attend all three days. Alternatively there will be an evening session between 7.30-9pm on Wednesday 5^th September which will present the findings of the Northern Ireland research which is free to attend.

For further information on attending the conference, please contact Maureen Graham at the Institute for Conflict Research at 02890 742682 or m.graham@conflictresearch.org.uk. A detailed itinerary of the conference is available online at http://www.conflictresearch.org.uk/Resources/Documents/Stranmillis%20Conference%20-%20programme.pdf