Scottish Academics to Study Role of Religion in Northern Ireland

Leading academics at a Scottish university will lead a research project into the role of religion in the uncertain peace-process in Northern Ireland.
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Aberdeen University academics have been allotted £124,000 to conduct the research by the Economic and Social Research Council, Britain’s leading research funding and training agency in the field of economic and social concern.

Professor John Brewer, head of the research group, said, according to the Scotsman, that the research would focus on the role of religion and the churches in the peace process and explore ways of using religion as a means of gaining harmony in the divided community.

“Even though the fighting is not about religion, but about the legitimacy of the state, the church is the form through which the conflict is experienced,” he explained.

“Some churches and para-church organisations have tried to obstruct reconciliation, but some key churchmen and women have been hugely instrumental to the peace process,” he said.

The research will include interviews conducted over a two-year period with churches and para-church organisations, politicians and parliamentary groups, as well as peace activists.

According to the Scottish Herald, Northern Ireland will be used as a case study to explore the role of society in political transformation, and to look at the ways in which social conflict is experienced through religion.

“The research is intended to have policy relevance to these sorts of situations in ways that enable the church to be a positive agent for peace,” said Professor Brewer.

The research team includes the University of Aberdeen’s Professor Steve Bruce, head of the school of social sciences, and Dr Francis Teeney, honorary research fellow in sociology.