Dr. Joanne McEvoy:

The inspiration for the work was really in the post-Brexit moment when the discussion about the future seemed to grow legs and become heightened. It seemed there were voices and viewpoints that were crowded out and once we began to tap into this there was a feeling on the part of people that should this discussion go ahead and should there be a process of discussion, that it needs to proceed with caution. It needs to go slowly and to take into account how ordinary people feel on the ground and what they want to see as part of this discussion, other than a focus on institutions.

Much of my other work is on institutions and on power-sharing, so I quite agree with the deliberations about potential constitutional and institutional designs for the future. However, that misses a big part of what people want discussed. When we talk to people they also, in quite a positive way, saw the discussion as an opportunity, as even potentially transformational, that there is an opportunity to make a better society for everybody across the island but that could only be in a way in which these problems are identified and considered as part of the discussion. There is a fear that should the discussion proceed in a way that avoids or does not give space to ordinary people to express what they see as important and their values and priorities, we would be missing an opportunity.