In the last generation, Northern Ireland has undergone a tortuous but nonetheless remarkable process of social and political change. The intention of this particular collection of essays is to capture the complex and shifting realities of a society as it moves between what often felt like war to what increasingly feels like peace.

Northern Ireland after the troubles? brings together commentators from a range of academic backgrounds and political perspectives. The essays that open the collection focus upon those political divisions and disputes that are most readily associated with Northern Ireland. The remainder of the text, however, seeks to provide a rather broader focus than is conventionally found in books devoted to the region. In subsequent chapters, the reader will encounter essays concerned with cultural identities - class, gender, race - and cultural practices - sport, popular music, visual media - that are essential to the formation and understanding of Northern Irish society but have often been neglected in academic analyses of the six counties.

While the contributors to the text often approach issues from rather different angles, they share a common conviction of the need to challenge the self-serving simplifications and choreographed optimism that frequently define both official discourse and media commentary on Northern Ireland. Taken together, the essays gathered together here are, therefore, intended to offer a comprehensive and critical account of a troubled society in the throes of change. The book will be of importance to people concerned with the recent course of social and political transition in Northern Ireland as well as those interested in the process of transformation in divided societies more generally.