Using sport as a means of achieving an inclusive Northern Irish society: The plan for a national multisport stadium

Constitutionally, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but geographically, it is part of Ireland. During the last thirty years of the twentieth century, it was the site of a latent yet deadly civil war between those who wanted the region to remain part of the United Kingdom and those campaigning for Irish reunification. As progress toward peace was not forthcoming and sport tended to divide rather than unite the two communities, at the beginning of this century the executive envisioned the construction of a national, multisport stadium. At the same time, the city of Belfast, which was badly affected by the warfare between the Catholic/nationalist and Protestant/unionist factions, also envisaged the construction of a stadium as a means of reviving its economy and tourism sector, as well as of renovating and revitalizing the associated infrastructure. However, rather than strengthening the case for a new high-standard stadium, these projects seem to have cancelled each other out, and no national multisport stadium has materialized or is likely to materialize in the foreseeable future. This paper aims to examine all of the reasons behind this failure and to contextualize it.