When the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, those involved believed they had brought about peace in Northern Ireland. In 2007, the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein entered government together. Although the British and Irish governments believed the Peace Process was complete, this essay shows that peace-building work is still needed to heal the sectarian divisions within society.

Dr Maria Power is a Lecturer in Religion and Peacebuilding at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool. She is the author of From Ecumenism to Community Relations: Inter-church Relations in Northern Ireland 1980–2005, (Dublin, 2007) and editor of Building Peace in Northern Ireland, (Liverpool, 2011). She is currently writing a study of the Catholic Church during the conflict in Northern Ireland, focusing in particular on the work of Cardinal Cahal Daly, which will be published in 2016. Maria is also a trustee of Together for the Common Good and in her spare time works with life without parole prisoners in the United States.