Piecemeal Peacebuilding and The Trajectory of Discourse: Linguistic Rights in Post- Conflict North of Ireland/Northern Ireland

Under a piecemeal approach, a peacebuilding process addresses issues in isolation rather than holistically. The merits of this approach can be seen in the North of Ireland/Northern Ireland (NI). It allowed momentum to be built and sustained in the peace-process as progress could be made on certain issues whilst other issues could be addressed at a more opportune time. Without total stagnation in the process, the possibility of a return to political violence was reduced. NI, however, also exposes the limitations of piecemeal peacebuilding as it has enabled a negative peace to manifest in the region due to the continuous delays in adequately addressing highly contentious– yet critical– issues. Language is one of these issues, with actors even diverging on when the “opportune time” to address language is/was. On the one hand, grassroots organizations (i.e. Conradh na Gaeilge) and grassroots movements (i.e. An Dream Dearg) have continuously advocated for the equal recognition of the Irish language and demanded the implementation of language legislation. The State, on the other, has not displayed the same sense of urgency; exemplified by the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act only being adopted in 2022– with it still awaiting implementation. This paper wishes to investigate this divergence further by examining the discourse of these actors regarding linguistic rights in NI. It will note whether actors conceptualise and frame linguistic rights within a human rights framework or a transitional justice framework as well as mapping the discourse trajectory of linguistic rights’ conceptualisation and framing since the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. In doing so, the paper will evaluate the impact of a piecemeal approach separating language from other issues like legacy, especially pertaining to the conceptualisation and framing of linguistic rights.