By Deirdre Canavan- Alternative narratives of the ‘Troubles’ are gaining increasing recognition, both in academic circles and in popular culture, particularly those that platform the gaps and absences in available histories. This denotes a broader desire to move away from the dominant accounts in order to gain a consciousness of the ‘Troubles’ that has hitherto... Continue Reading →
By Fearghus Roulston and Jack Crangle - Accent has always been a thorny issue for emigrants. It can be a marker of difference, as when you struggle to make yourself understood in conversation; it can be a marker of assimilation or of settlement, if you erase the traces of the past in your voice, soften... Continue Reading →
By Andrew G. McClelland The destruction of architectural heritage features prominently in the reporting of modern-day conflicts and their aftermaths. Whether deliberate targets, collateral damage, or part of the narrative of peacebuilding ‘post-conflict’ – the Mostar Bridge in Bosnia and Herzegovina being a prime example of the latter – the fate befalling places of cultural... Continue Reading →
By Stephen Hopkins- The boom in memoir-writing by protagonists of ‘the Troubles’ may no longer be as evident as it was in the decade after the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was signed, but it is still the case that political actors are tempted to commit their experiences and insights to print and publishers continue to believe... Continue Reading →
By Eileen Harrisson - I grew up by Bangor, Co Down and, after obtaining a Joint Honours BA in Italian and Art from Aberystwyth University in June 1975, I returned to Northern Ireland. The severity of the illness that had led to my father being invalided out of the RAF during World War II was... Continue Reading →
By Struan W. J Kennedy- Early on in any serious reading into loyalism, one is likely to encounter two negative perceptions operating in tandem. The first is under-representation, loyalists feel let down by both mainstream unionist politicians and mainstream media. Secondly are cases of misrepresentation, on the rare occasions when certain movements do receive coverage,... Continue Reading →
By Cahal McLaughlin- Introduction In 2004, I filmed three interviews back inside the Maze and Long Kesh prison site, which became Inside Stories: Voices from the Gaol. The participants were a former prison officer, a former republican prisoner, and a former loyalist prisoner - all of whom reflected upon their experiences inside the prison. This... Continue Reading →
By Cillian McGrattan- Following the extraordinary scenes at the funeral of the senior republican Bobby Storey at the end of June 2020, commentators, north and south of the border, offered numerous explanations. My intention here is not so much to compliment nor to critique those framings. Instead, I wish to offer a preliminary reading on... Continue Reading →
By Christopher Lawson- Two cranes, Samson and Goliath, loom over the skyline of Belfast, a testament to the city’s rich industrial heritage. Although their owner, Harland & Wolff, survived its latest brush with bankruptcy in 2019, the shipyard’s workforce is now counted in the tens rather than the tens of thousands. Belfast’s other internationally famous... Continue Reading →
By Simon Prince- When Dungannon Urban District Council met in May 1963, a crowd of women and children were outside protesting its unfair housing policies. One of the picketers had a placard with the slogan ‘If Our Religion Is Against Us Ship Us to Little Rock’. Nine months later, families living in an old military... Continue Reading →
