Beyond politicians and paramilitaries : an interpretative phenomenological analysis of agency and alienation in Ulster Loyalist communities

This thesis examines contemporary Ulster Loyalist communities through the interrelated experiences of alienation and agency, challenging understandings of Loyalism that foreground paramilitarism and party-politics. Almost thirty years after the Good Friday Agreement, persistent deprivation and dissatisfaction with the perceived ‘peace dividend’ raise questions about how peace is experienced within working-class communities most affected by Northern Ireland’s conflict. Drawing on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and in-depth interviews with individuals engaged in grassroots Loyalist community development, this study centres participants’ accounts of everyday life, work, and community. The findings demonstrate substantial diversity within contemporary Loyalist experience, shaped by class, gender, geography, and differing understandings of identity and community. Participants predominantly framed community challenges through concerns with material and social wellbeing, including infrastructural decline, lack of political representation, mental health and addiction crises, and weakening community confidence. These concerns situate Loyalist alienation within wider conditions of “late modernity” and working-class marginalisation. Alienation is conceptualised as a relational process encompassing experiences of abandonment, isolation, marginalisation, peripherality, and demonisation, particularly in relationships with political representatives, state institutions, and wider structures of power. Alongside alienation, participants demonstrated diverse forms of agency through grassroots initiatives addressing social deprivation, youth development, community infrastructure, gender inequality, and cross-community relations. This agency is shaped by Northern Ireland’s conflictual past, contemporary structural conditions, and aspirations for a better future. The thesis argues that contemporary Loyalist communities are best understood as diverse and fluid formations situated at the intersection of class inequality, post-conflict legacy, and late modern social change. By centring lived experience, the study contributes a more nuanced account of Loyalism and demonstrates the value of qualitative approaches to understanding post-conflict societies beyond established political and paramilitary frameworks.