In 1972, direct rule was imposed by the British Government, suspending the government and democracy in Northern Ireland. This situation is often described as “the absence of politics” but what it meant was that politics was carried out by other means. Donahoe argues that community development was a field of public engagement that worked to constructively fill the political vacuum. Community development arose in the face of overlapping destructive forces, referred to as the triple whammy: economic collapse, redevelopment, and the Troubles. As each of these forces contributed to distrust and alienation between communities, community development projects invested in people and neighborhoods within communities. It was a form of participatory politics that continues to challenge representative politics today.