By Craig Murray On 26 May, the Imperial War Museum (IWM) will be opening its brand-new exhibition Northern Ireland: Living with the ‘Troubles’. Exhibiting the ‘Troubles’ is an important, yet difficult challenge. Perhaps more so for the Imperial War Museum (IWM than museums in Northern Ireland, where the contested histories of the conflict are... Continue Reading →
By Jim Donaghey- In memory of Henry McDonald (1965-2023) Question: What do an Egyptian mummy named Takabuti and a mannequin dressed in tatty old punk clothes have in common? Answer: They’re both displayed as ancient artefacts from long-dead cultures at Belfast’s Ulster Museum. (But only one of them gives me the creeps.) Figure 1: Belfast... Continue Reading →
By Tiffany Thompson - The 30 January 1972 saw one of the highest death tolls in any single day during the thirty years of the ‘Troubles’. What started as a peaceful protest against internment – the imprisonment of suspected paramilitaries without trial – ended with British paratroopers firing indiscriminately at unarmed civilians, killing fourteen, and... Continue Reading →
By Robbie Turner - The no-go areas were the barricaded self-governing urban districts, on both sides in the conflict, that sprung up in Belfast, Derry, and other towns during the years 1969 to 1972, of which so little has been written or indeed is known about. And yet when we look a little closer these... Continue Reading →
By Charitini (Hari) Ntini- In June 1985, twenty-two-year-old Martina Anderson was arrested in a flat in Glasgow along with four others by armed police officers. She was held and questioned for seven days before being flown to London for further interrogations. Within the next year, she was convicted of conspiring to cause explosions in England.[1]... Continue Reading →
By Luke Bradley - Recently, I saw the movie everybody’s talking about: Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast. As somebody born two years after the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, I am a part of the generation for whom, thankfully, cinema is the closest they will get to visualizing the ‘Troubles’. Of course, like any piece of historical fiction,... Continue Reading →
By Nolwenn Rousvoal- Parity of esteem was used as a conceptual tool in the early 1990s in Northern Ireland during the peace negotiation process in order to accommodate the aspirations of nationalists and unionists under the framework of “two traditions”. The idea behind this concept, which is enshrined in the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, was... Continue Reading →
By Roisín Higgins It was Christmas 1973 and a little girl drew a picture of the nativity. When her teacher asked ‘if the spiky shape above the stable was a star’, the girl replied, ‘Oh no, Miss – that’s the helicopter’. The child lived in the Creggan in Derry and her school was beside a... Continue Reading →
By Adam Fusco Five years after the United Kingdom voted to withdraw from the European Union, Brexit continues to shape the political imagination, particularly in places where the majority voted to Remain. In Northern Ireland its unintended offspring, the Northern Ireland Protocol, has come to dominate the political outlook, particularly within Unionism. For many Unionists,... Continue Reading →
By Aoife Duffy - Truth seeking when researching, investigating, and writing about the ‘Troubles’ presents many obstacles. In my book, Torture & Human Rights in Northern Ireland, about the 1971 security services operation that used torture on the ‘Hooded Men’, I argue that denial of security force abuses was the default UK government position.[i] Here,... Continue Reading →
Writing the 'Troubles' 