ABSTRACT
Northern Ireland (NI) has experienced thirty years of violent civil conflict, the boundaries of which are marked, although not entirely defined, by religious identification. In this way religion is an inherent part of social identification and community construction in NI. Although the violence has significantly decreased since the late 1990s, its legacy remains. Research evidences a complex relationship between religious and spiritual beliefs and mental wellbeing. However, there is a lack of research about how political conflict, in which religion plays a dominant role, may shape the impact of faith on mental health. Literature on religion, spirituality and social work practice suggests the need to examine the social and political processes that persist around this subject in social work practice (Henery 2003; O’Leary et al. 2013; Wong and Vinsky 2009). This examination is appropriate given the role of religion within the political conflict in NI (Brewer et al. 2010, 2011), the impact of the conflict upon social work practice (Campbell et al. 2013), the high incidence of mental ill health in NI (Ferry et al. 2011) and the apparent role of religion and spirituality within mental distress (Gilbert 2010; Koenig and Larson 2011).
