The Moral Emotions of Contentious Parades in Northern Ireland

• In Event: New Directions in the Study of Emotions and Violence

Abstract

How do riots begin? Even when social, political, and economic conditions are conducive for an ethnic riot, the violence rarely materializes out of thin air. There is almost always some spark that actually ignites the fighting. Although all types of actions can trigger violence, mass-participation, symbolic events are particularly prominent. Donald Horowitz (2001, 272) estimates that events of this type precipitate one-third to one-half of all ethnic riots. To successfully set off a riot, however, Horowitz (2001, 268) argues that such events must be “threatening or transgressive[:]… a blatant display of what ethnic strangers are not to be allowed to do with impunity.” In other words, they “must be anger producing” (Ibid.).

But where does this anger come from? How do collective actions come to be seen as so emotionally charged? This paper explores the role of moral emotions in the “narrative construction” (Polletta 1998) of both mobilization and countermobilization around symbolic events that trigger violence. It argues that participants understand their own actions and the actions of their opponents through a lens strongly colored by the intersection of morality, emotions, and identity.

The argument is supported by an empirical study of controversial parades by Protestant organizations in Northern Ireland. The parades, which Protestants see as celebrations of their culture and history and Catholics see as offensive and provocative, have a long history of polarizing Northern Ireland’s two ethnic communities and sparking violence between them. Drawing on eight months of fieldwork with parade participants and supporters, this paper demonstrates the moral-emotional dynamics at play in the contention surrounding parades. In particular, I analyze semi-structured interviews with 81 paraders and Protestant non-paraders and ethnographic observations at parades, parade practices, and related events. I argue that parade participants understand their own political actions in emotional terms, which, in their minds, depoliticizes the events. Their logic is that parading is emotional action, not political action, and therefore moral action. In contrast, parade participants understand the protest behavior of their Catholic opponents in political terms, despite the evident emotionality of the protests. Their logic here is that protesting parades is political action, not emotional, and therefore immoral action. Emotion thus plays an inverse role in the moral framing of parades and anti-parade protests.

The moral-emotional construction of parades in Protestant political discourse, I conclude, preserves participants’ self-image and collective identities as virtuous and uncorrupted by the nasty ethnic politics of Northern Ireland. Talking about parades emotionally is a way in which participants form, maintain, and express the vision of who they are and who they want to be. Conversely, talking about protests politically is a way to demonize opponents. This interaction of emotions, morality, and identity in the lived experience of contentious Northern Irish parades helps explain how they become so charged. It is a necessary part of the explanation for why a seemingly innocuous collective action so regularly triggers violence.

Author

• Jonathan Blake, RAND Corporation