Civic identity and public space: Belfast since 1780

Disputes over parades, flags and similar issues have for several decades played a central part in the ongoing conflict of nationalist and unionist. Civic identity and public space, focussing on Belfast, and bringing together the work of a historian and two social scientists, offers a new perspective on these sometimes lethal conflicts. While both sides like to present their case in terms of non-negotiable, historically grounded rights, a survey of the way in which public space has been thought about and regulated over the past two centuries shows that little of what is claimed can be taken for granted. Far from being a timeless absolute, our modern idea of the public is the product of very specific changes during the nineteenth century in the character of urban living, and its regulation has been from the start a matter of contention and debate. During the twentieth century the establishment of a new Northern Ireland state, with Belfast as its capital, saw unionism and Protestantism achieve a near complete monopoly of public space. In more recent decades, this monopoly has broken down, partly as a result of political violence, but also through the influence of new ideas of human rights and of a more positive vision of political and cultural diversity. Today policy makers and politicians struggle to devise a strategy for the management of public space in a divided city, while endeavouring to promote a new sense of civic identity that will transcend long-standing sectarian and political divisions.