Pluralist, purified or private : protestant identification and political change in Northern Ireland

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the responsiveness of national and religious identifications to political change amongst Protestants in Northern Ireland. I begin by theorising identification as a process of working out our ideas of self, others and place in which political change compels a rethinking of identity from the bottom up. I proceed to outline how the Good Friday agreement changes the political landscape from the perspective of the Protestant community. Then, based on a narrative analysis of interview data collected in 2000, I map three main directions of change amongst Protestants as people come to accept, reject or ignore political developments after the agreement. I conclude that Protestant identifications can open up and transform where people have had positive social experiences with the “other”, and feel that their future position in Northern Ireland is not tethered to communal membership. Conversely, identifications become more oppositional or private where people have had negative social experiences (or none at all) with the “other” and perceive that membership of the Protestant community, which they feel is losing out from change, will decide their fortunes in a new Northern Ireland.