This book sees the Good Friday Agreement which was signed on 10 April 1998 as representing a new departure for Northern Ireland, encapsulating the hopes and aspirations of the majority of its citizens for a more peaceful and promising future. It provides a trajectory for understanding the origins and subsequent development for several of the significant ?Gordian Knots? that have prevented Catholics and Protestants there from realizing this preferred future in both a historical and contemporary perspective. Such a future ought to consist, according to the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, ?in the realization of freedom, in the guaranteed right of each culture to move in mutual respect, each one freely running the risk of being different.? His writings helped to informed the ideas expressed in this book, particularly his understanding of ?true education? as that which ?incarnates the permanent search of people together for their becoming more fully human in the world in which they exist.?