Claims of labour market discrimination against Catholics run to the heart of the Northern Ireland conflict. This paper assesses British Government led moves to promote fair employment in the region. It argues that initial policies to promote labour market balance were weak and ineffectual but...

Despite the high degree of interest in inequality between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, public policy and academic debates alike have focused largely on men's employment and unemployment. The paper suggests a number of reasons for this and analyses the nature of gender...

Northern Ireland is caught between war and peace. On the one hand, there is a widespread desire for a permanent end to violence, but on the other hand big political divisions continue to keep unionism and nationalism apart. One issue that divides the two blocs is the role of the EU in Northern...

The Irish model of social partnership is considered distinctive as it is based on the principles of deliberative democracy more than adversarial bargaining. The deliberative features of the model are considered to be threefold. First, the negotiations to conclude national social agreements are...

This paper sets out to explain the factors behind Ireland.s exceptional period of economic growth from the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. It suggests that an unbending commitment to economic openness and an on-going effort to establish quality domestic institutions were the main drivers of the...

This article uses the theory of path dependency to explain the evolution of employment conflict resolution systems in Ireland and Sweden. It argues that the traditional 'voluntarist' conflict management path followed in Ireland has fragmented as a result of a series of internal developments that...