Parading Anxieties: Drumcree, Sectarianism, and the Contested Production of Knowledge in Peace Process Era Northern Ireland

The conflict over the Drumcree parade that erupted less than a year after the IRA announced its landmark 1994 ceasefire acted as a lightning rod for the social anxieties being brought on by the acceleration of Northern Ireland’s peace process. This thesis argues that Drumcree provided a significant forum in which the public in Northern Ireland debated and contested the social, economic, and political changes being wrought by the process. It examines the public conversation about Drumcree to show that the mid-1990s saw Protestants and Catholics beginning to grapple with the changing power relationship between them that was a central characteristic of this period, identifying Drumcree as a space wherein the dynamic nature of the sectarian divide becomes visible to historians. It suggests that the perceived significance of the outcome of the dispute led participants on both sides to attempt to influence public perception of Drumcree through the production of knowledge about the conflict, and prompted those critical of the conflict to resist the imposition of these competing narratives.