•  
  •  
 

Abstract

This paper analyses the Democratic Unionist Party‟s (DUP) discourses about paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland. Drawing on narrative analysis of DUP discourses reported in Northern Ireland‟s largest unionist newspaper, the News Letter (1998–2006), it explores the relationship between the party‟s identity, its discourses about republican and loyalist paramilitaries, and the impact of these words on the DUP‟s electoral success and on the peace process. The paper argues that these discourses may haunt the progress of peace-building, not least because the DUP will find it hard to disentangle itself from a history of scepticism and nay-saying even as it takes a leading role in a devolved Executive designed by an Agreement it long-scorned.

Author Bio(s)

Amber Rankin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Providence College and is a Master of Letters degree candidate at the University of St. Andrews in International Security Studies. Her current research addresses paramilitarism in democratic contexts. Email: amber.rankin@gmail.com.

Gladys Ganiel is lecturer in Reconciliation Studies at the Belfast campus of the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin. She is the author of Evangelicalism and Conflict in Northern Ireland (Palgrave, 2008) and has published on the role of religion in politics, focusing on Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Email: gganiel@tcd.ie.

Keywords

Democratic Unionist Party‟s (DUP), News Letter (1998–2006), Northern Ireland, peacebuilding, peace process

Publication Date

8-2008

DOI

10.46743/1082-7307/2008.1091

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.