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uest The Postgraduate e-journal by Students in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast Issue 7. Autumn 2008 Special Issue of Conference Proceedings containing the papers presented by postgraduates at the: Mitchell Conference 2008. Queen’s University Belfast. Editor: Audra Mitchell. ISSN 1750-9696. Quest Issue 7 Autumn 2008 ISSN: 1750-9696 Contents: Page 1 Editors Introduction. Audra Mitchell Page 3 Notes on Contributors. Page 4 The Stories They Tell: Former Prisoner Ex Combatants on Putting Down Their Guns. Kathleen O’Neill Page 20 A Spiral of Peace: Competition, Monopoly and Diversification in the Market for Political Violence in Northern Ireland. John Paul Sawyer Page 54 A Politics of Forgiveness for Intractable Conflicts: The Role of Middle-Range, Religious Peacemakers in the Northern Ireland Conflict. Jason Klocek Page 77 Which Comes First? Identity, Politics and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Michelle Scanlon Page 97 Transforming Orientation – Conflict transformation and the Problem of Authenticity. Audra Mitchell Page 119 The Agreement, Liberal Nationalism, and the Legitimacy of Law Alex Schwartz Quest Issue 7 Autumn 2008 ISSN: 1750-9696 QUEST Special Edition – The Mitchell Conference Editorial: 2008 marked the ten year anniversary of the signing of the historic Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. This was considered a significant milestone, given the persistence of the ongoing conflict known as the Troubles for more than thirty years, and the seeming intractability of many of the issues underlying it. The Mitchell Conference – Moving Beyond Conflict was organized by the Queen’s University of Belfast to honour the efforts of Senator George Mitchell and his colleagues in negotiating and implementing the agreement, and to celebrate the achievements this entailed. There is indeed much to celebrate in this anniversary, given the marked decrease in sectarian violence in the years following, the disarming of many paramilitary groups and the recent efforts of polarized political parties to collaborate in a devolved government. However, the persistence of the new political context for a decade has also exposed a number of its difficulties, flaws, and contestable elements. Any celebration of the success of the Agreement and the new Northern Irish polity must take these into account. The young researchers who have contributed to this volume have done just that: by examining the underlying principles, assumptions and contributing factors to the formation and implementation of the Agreement, they provide a critical perspective on its achievements and future prospects. This is particularly crucial since criticism of the peace process has, in the past, been undertaken largely by stakeholders in the conflict and from the perspective of particular, often sectarian, interests. The emergence of critical voices within academia attests to a new openness towards disagreement that departs from these traditional divides. It is also noteworthy that, in addition to the appearance of critical perspectives, international attention to the Agreement and its implications has intensified over the last decade. This contribution provides a distinctively North American perspective on the subject; four of the contributors are American and one is Canadian. All have spent time in Northern Ireland, and three have lived in Belfast for extended periods of time. This perspective provides a different viewpoint on an issue and indeed a region that is often considered to be closed or inscrutable to ‘outsiders’. It also, however, reflects the status of Northern Ireland as one of the most 1 www.qub.ac.uk/quest