“The further away from the Agreement we get, the less familiarity and understanding there is about it – especially in Britain — and whatever increases knowledge about it is welcome”, says Gerald Angley, a Counsellor for Political Affairs at the Embassy for Ireland in London, explaining why the Irish Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade supported Agreement20, the conference which took place in Manchester this weekend (6-7 April).

Agreement20. Photo credit: Nick Harrison

Angley was struck, as was I, by the number of Irish Studies academics too young to have remembered the GFA, and the number from overseas – including Hungary, Hong Kong, France and Cincinnati – attending the conference. Dr Caroline Maginnis of the University of Salford, who was one of the originators of the Agreement20 “public engagement project”, along with Dr Maggie Scull and Dr George Legg of Kings College London, explained that the aim was to represent the widest and most diverse range of scholarship in Irish Studies as possible.

“The Good Friday Agreement needs to be a living, breathing document that people can debate,” she said. “We wanted to hear different voices, encourage emerging scholars, and explore arts and culture, women’s and LGBT issues.”

Agreement20. Photo credit: Nick Harrison

Agreement20 kicked off with a showing last Thursday evening of ‘In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America’, which I couldn’t attend; other elements of the project include an open access academic journal, a series of Irish Times articles last week (see @Agreement­_20 for details) by conference presenters and the assistance of Slugger O’Toole to upload all presentations to YouTube. The thirty plus sessions took place appropriately in the enviable, bright and modern Irish World Heritage Centre, built on a former brownfield site just outside central Manchester and opened in 2013.

In a stunning, eclectic, rhetorical and lyrical keynote, Dr Maire Braniff, Director of INCORE at Ulster University, started from a position of present moment pessimism but ended on a more hopeful note. She noted that the conference programme included only one paper on reconciliation (ironically, given by Dr Martin Chung of Hong Kong Baptist University, who had his first visit to Belfast last week).

She suggested the present crisis of paralysis in the political process might offer a liminal space, offering conditions for transformation; she challenged both politicians and academics to find a way to work through the paralysis. Time and space prohibit a detailed analysis of this very interesting conference – I enjoyed everything I was able to attend – but personal highlights included a forensic survey from historian Dr Thomas Hennessy of Canterbury Christ Church University of the journey from Sunningdale to the Good Friday Agreement, illustrating the subtle diplomatic shifts in position, principally by the British and Irish governments, Sinn Fein and the SDLP, which laid the groundwork for the GFA.

Agreement20. Photo credit: Nick Harrison

Amanda Hall and Maria Dalton (both of University of St Andrews) offered fine separate papers on the contribution of grassroots efforts and women to the peacebuilding process. I never in a thousand moons thought I could be spellbound by an academic paper on football – heck, I didn’t even know there was an Irish national team and a Northern Ireland team — but Sean Huddleston’s (University of the West of Scotland) and Dr Paul Breen’s (University of Westminster) paper on identity politics and the two teams was magic.

These, then, are some of the personal and rather undigested themes and reflections which echoed for me across the various sessions:

  • There was wide, respectful and constructive critique of the GFA; recognition of the huge achievements of the GFA made and at what effort. At the same time, it was only ever an unfinished work. The constructive ambiguity at its heart has had diminishing returns. Problems were deferred, and a blind eye was turned to the real nature of the conflict.
  • Part of that ambivalence has been about the role of the British state – was/is it insider and/or outsider, honest broker and/or protagonist.
  • There has been a lack of critical reflection in Britain, by politicians, the media and the public –about the conflict and the role of the British state.
  • There is general disappointment in the present generation of politicians in Northern Ireland, and some cynicism about their hubris and enthusiasm for commodifying the peace and selling it across the world – a luxury which has turned out to be presumptuous.
  • Women have played and are playing an unrecognised, unmeasurable but essential role in maintaining and building peace particularly in their homes and communities. The community sector, although challenged by funding issues, has made progress that is not echoed at the political level. It merits further support and encouragement.
  • Brexit has made a critical difference, reviving uncertainty and vulnerability in the political reality and cultural psyche – and creating many ironies. The DUP support for Brexit, noted Professor Hennessy, proves that turkeys do vote for Christmas.

The organisers of Agreement20 can feel very proud of the contribution they have made to the inevitable cacophony around GFA20 – a fine hors d’oeuvres for an enticing week ahead. And perhaps for an Agreement21?