The Scholar: Bryce Akroyd

The Project: The Good Friday Agreement and the Path to Peace in Northern Ireland 

The Essential Question: “My project focuses on the efficacy of the Good Friday Agreement in ending centuries of religious and social warring between the Protestant and Catholic populations in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The essential questions were: “What were the Irish Troubles and how has this period of conflict shaped current dynamics in Northern Ireland and Great Britain?” and “How has the Good Friday agreement helped to put a lasting end to the conflict and why did it succeed where other treaties had failed?” 

Surprising Discovery: “The most surprising probably has to be the amount of oppression that the Catholics faced in cities in Northern Ireland, like Belfast. When you hear about the discrimination they faced, it feels so antiquated that it is hard to believe it was going on in the 1990s.“

Biggest Challenge: “The biggest challenge for me was trying to find an efficient way to summarize the history of Ireland without spending a lot of time talking about it. It’s a long and extensive history, and it wasn’t the main focus of my presentation, but it was very important to provide context to the issues that we’re going on at the time I think I found a healthy balance between providing a lot of history and context to the Irish troubles, without spending my entire project, explaining the entire complete history of Ireland.“

Tip for future scholars: “Honestly, pick a topic that you’re really passionate about and you don’t mind investing a lot of time into. When you start the project, it’s easy to pick the first topic that comes to your mind, but you really need to give it some thought and make sure that that’s what you want to spend your next three months working on and eventually writing a paper and presentation about.”