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National identity is a symbolically complex configuration, with shifts of emphasis and reprioritisations of content negotiated in contexts of power. This paper shows how they occur in one post-conflict situation – Northern Ireland – among some of the most extreme of national actors – evangelical Protestants. In-depth interviews reveal quite radical shifts in the content of their British identity and in their understanding of and relation to the Irish state, with implications for their future politics. The implications for understanding ethno-religious nationalism, nationality shifts and the future of Northern Ireland are drawn out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short paper raises one side of a pertinent contemporary debate — that religion is still an important influence in politics. Social science errs by imagining this is a transient phenomenon. The post-Enlightenment presumption that secular and sacred realms should and could be isolated, with political activity uncontrolled by scriptural prescription, was probably never feasible and certainly is not now in those countries where religion plays a large role in political and social life. This realisation seems to demand a reconsideration of theories of citizenship and the erstwhile national constitution of rights and obligations. Law and civic belonging will need to be re-constituted according to multi-faith rather than secular principles, even in countries like Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]