Elliott was an historian of eighteenth-century Ireland when she became one of seven commissioners in the Opsahl Commission, an independent enquiry into the views of ordinary people in Northern Ireland about peace and reconciliation. The Commission’s fundamental premise was that the resolution of the conflict had to involve everyone in Northern Ireland: they had to take “ownership” of the process. The commissioners invited submissions from any group or persons and held confidential focus groups and private sessions in eleven different venues throughout Northern Ireland, as well as in school assemblies. The Commission became an essential, early stage in the peace process that led to the Good Friday Agreement. The experience allowed Elliott to reflect on lack of public understandings about democracy and political accountability, the embeddedness of a “dependency culture”, and the importance of historical memory. These were insights that she reflected upon in her aptly named book, When God Took Sides: Religion and Identity in Ireland – Unfinished Business (2009).