Paul Arthur Politics of the Troubles...Since the Good Friday Agreement

This lecture focuses on how Norhtern Irish politics have evolved since the Good Friday Agreement was achieved in 1998. Paul Arthur places the current politics of Northern Ireland in the larger context of the politics of the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, and the United States. He launches this talk by discussing the political situation at the current time, 2005, and this assumes some background from viewers. It would be helpful to watch the earlier set of Paul Arthur tapes to learn the history of the Troubles from 1968 to 2000. The issue he confronts is that the extreme parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (the party of Ian Paisley) and Sinn Fein (the party of the IRA), have come to dominate Northern Irish politics. Does this mean that the extremists have taken over, squeezing out the two centrist parties (the Ulster Unionist Party [UUP] and the Social Democratic and Labour Party [SDLP]) have been squeezed out and discounted.