ABSTRACT
It has become customary in recent years to represent the successes of the Northern Ireland peace process internationally as a model to be seriously considered by other conflict-ridden or transitional societies. A healthy academic scepticism about such claims (Guelke 2008; English 2009) has not prevented politicians and media commentators in particular from presenting the transformation in Northern Ireland as miraculous. If such an intransigent conflict as the long-lasting Irish one could be thus solved, why not other such conflicts?
