The Reconciliation pyramid; a narrative based framework looking at the big story

Metanarratives are the almost mythological vast accounts of a collective’s identity, which encompasses generations. They usually comprise of religious or mystical figures, which in turn promote values beliefs and symbols of a group (Flyvbjerg 1998). The groups’ identities are subsumed and defined by this metanarrative, therefore challenging metanarratives could contest the very identity of an individual or group, and here we see identity crisis and clash such as in Northern Ireland.

National narratives are interpretations of national history comprising of real events and the heroes or villains in them; these are told across time and generation. They derive their meaning from the metanarrative but are about concrete events. Auerbach (2009) suggests that these stories play an important role in any reconciliation process and although they are deeply embedded in a societies’ psyche, their story like structure makes them better able to legitimately incorporate the others version into their own.

The Reconciliation pyramid is a useful tool identifying the various stages which must be addressed as both parties move towards reconciling, the seven stages of the Reconciliation Pyramid are: Narrative Acquaintance; Narrative Acknowledgement; Expressing Empathy; Assumption of Responsibility; Readiness For Restitution; Asking and Granting Forgiveness and Narrative Integration (Auerbach 2009). All parties must go through, all of these stages together, to reach the top of the pyramid and attain peaceful conflict transformation. These stages are arranged in ascending hierarchy and usually (there may be exceptions) all parties will not move to a higher stage until they have passed through the preceding one, however completing one stage does not assure readiness to move to the next stage.

Summary

This poster describes the planned research exploring readiness for reconciliation in Northern Ireland. This research has three strands which will be drawn together to create the main body of work, they are:

What is reconciliation? There are varying academic accounts proposing what reconciliation is as a concept; this researcher will draw on the recognized and examined aspects of this concept and hope to build on this prior research using ‘The Reconciliation Pyramid’ (Auerbach, 2009).

Who tells the stories, which frame the continued animosity and violent flare ups in Northern Ireland? There are three intertwining yet contested narratives regarding Northern Ireland; told from three perspectives, what are the narratives and who identifies with them and is there any room for integration of these narratives?

Where can the participants be located on the Pyramid? The Pyramid will be used as a framework to investigate where on the Pyramid participants believe their respective communities can be placed. The Pyramid is a clear representation of phases adversaries pass on their way to reconciliation at its apex.

A qualitative approach will be taken, consisting of interviews with opinion formers such as: Community relations workers, Politicians and Journalists. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) will be employed to examine the data.

IntroductionReconciliation Reconciliation is a process; it is about building relationships and finding ways to come to terms with the past, by acknowledging, remembering and agreeing on the truth of the past; with a view to shared future (Hamber, 2009). Reconciliation may be over ambitious where there are no past relationships such as in Northern Ireland. Particularly when many numbers of years have passed and responsibility has been outsourced to these previous generations (Lederach & Lederach, 2010), however to begin to reconcile, these generations need to be given a voice through their ancestors and the truths in all their versions need to be told. This story telling requires requires an approach of acceptance and trust; this is a long and sticky process, groups will need to go through ‘cold’ steps of narrative acquaintance and acknowledgement, before reaching for ‘warm’ steps at the apex: empathy, apology, and ultimately narrative incorporation (Auerbach, 2009).

Historical clues to an identity conflictThe first English involvement in Ireland is reported to have begun as early as 1170 and struggles for control have wreaked bloody battles over the last 800 years, ultimately culminating in a division into two separate entities: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (Mulholland, 2002). This long history has created two separate national identities within Northern Ireland and has birthed a state with citizens embroiled in an identity conflict; a constant ‘them’ an ‘us’ state of affairs with little room for change in the sectarian approaches to administrating the territory (White, 2001; Bar-Tal, 2011).

Troubled NarrativesGiven that the conflict in Northern Ireland is complex it is unsurprising that there are many versions or narratives of events, for example the length of the conflict is highly contested some claiming it began in 1969 others with the plantation of Ulster in the 17thc and still others 1170; additionally there is not even agreement between the warring parties on who the ‘other’ is (White, 2001, Jarman, 2005). The contemporary conflict in Northern Ireland was played out during 30 years of violence from 1969-1998, the Troubles, as they are called, resulted in over 40,000 injuries; 3272 deaths, including 987 Catholic civilians and 538 Protestant civilians in Northern Ireland. On the British mainland the main causalities were civilian, included in these were high ranking politicians and members of royal family. The victims and their status are fluid and dependant on who is telling the story.It is argued that for Protestants the ‘them’ is Irish Catholics, an Irish Protestant versus Irish Catholic problem, this struggle, is within the auspices of a United Kingdom. However for the Irish paramilitaries the conflict is about both social identity and role identity, for them the other is the British state and its agents, for Republicans then the social identity dimension of the conflict is not Irish Catholics versus Irish Protestant but instead Irish nationalist versus the British government and its agents in Britain and in Ireland (Mulholland, 2002; Edwards, & McCrattan,2012). Consequently it is this identity clash which causes the on-going failure to bring real peace in Northern Ireland. Like other identity conflicts, both parties have deeply rooted narratives based on “victim and victimizer” each side feels the other has usurped their legitimate rights to express their national identity, therefore continued peace between the parties involved remains elusive. Bound up in these, feelings and narratives, is the inability of either side to successfully engage in reconciliation (Auerbach, 2009). It is these narratives this research seeks to examine with a view to understanding the potential for reconciliation.

Moving from official peace to reconciliation This conflict officially came to an end with an Irish republican army cease fire in 1994 and the signing of the Good Friday agreement in 1998; 15 years ago tomorrow. Since then there has been concerted efforts to bring about peace, with Millions of pounds invested in community programs and government initiatives.

However in Belfast alone there are 1500 sectarian incidents per year, there are 99 peace walls in Northern Ireland dividing communities along sectarian lines these are curving 40ft-high barriers dividing roads, communities and even public parks. The need for reconciliation between the communities in Northern Ireland is obvious but what lies beneath the obvious violent flare ups and sectarian division?

Candida Darling PhD Student;Political Psychology

MethodsParticipants 20 participants will be recruited for the research; representatives from the three parties involved will be approached. These will be opinion formers such as: Religious leaders, Community relations workers, Politicians and Journalists. I have had agreement from seven individuals thus far and hope to recruit more via snowball sampling. Procedure & AnalysisA phenomenological methodology is the most suitable approach to addressing this research question, this approach will enable the participants to explain how much they know of and how they feel about, the other side’s narrative. This is participant led approach is imperative in determining where the communities may lie on the reconciliation pyramid. The research objectives will be met by using a semi-structured interview technique (Kvale & Brinkman, 2009) conducted as a small scale study. These interviews will last approximately 60 minutes the interviews will be transcribed; then will undergo Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Langdridge 2004). Findings will be reported in light of empirical data, using procedures familiar to IPA and Thematic Analysis. These findings will be triangulated, member checked.

Beyond the obvious; an exploration of readiness for reconciliation in Northern Ireland

The Reconciliation pyramid

References Auerbach, J. (2009, April). The reconciliation pyramid—a narrative-based framework for analyzing identity conflicts. Political Psychology, 30, 291-318.Bar-Tal, D. (2011). Intergroup Conflicts and Their Resolution; a Social Psychological Perspective. New York: Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis group.Edwards,A & McCrattan,C. (2012). The Northern Ireland Conflict. Oxford: Oneworld.Flyvbjerg, B. (1998, June). Habermas and Foucault: Thinkers for Civil Society? The British Journal of Sociology, 49, 210-23.Hamber, B. (2009). Transforming Societies after Political Violence: Truth, Reconciliation, and Mental Health. London: Springer.Jarman, N. (2005). No Longer a Problem? Sectarian Violence in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Institute for Conflict Research.Kvale & Brinkman. (2009). Interviews; Learning the Craft of Qualitative of Research Interviewing. London: Sage publishing Ltd.Lederach J.P & Lederach A . (2010). When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys Through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation. Australia : University of Queensland Press Mulholland, M. (2002). Northern Ireland; a very Short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University press.White, R. (2001). Social And Role Identities and Political Violence; Identity as a Window On Violence In Northern Ireland . In J. &. Ashmore, Social Identity Intergroup Conflict and Conflict Reduction (pp. 133-149). Oxford: Oxford University press.In Northern Ireland . In J. &. Ashmore, Social Identity Intergroup Conflict and Conflict Reduction (pp. 133-149). Oxford: Oxford University press.

(Auerbach,2009)