Museology of “The Troubles”: Reflections on an Emerging Public History Initiative

By Martin Duffy- Queen’s University recently hosted a lively Forum discussing the question, “Do we need a Museum of the Troubles and Peace?”[1] Devotees of this blog may well have read Dr Katie McClurkin’s thoughtful article, “A Sacred Mission: Envisioning a Troubles Museum” which deftly crystallizes the symbolic burden such a facility inherits in a...

FRAGMENTS: Remembering the Troubles in Stitch, Sound, and Word

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...

Writing Northern Nationalism: Paranoia and Nostalgia

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...

‘The end of British rule in the not too distant future?’: contested memories of Civil Rights

By Brian Hanley- The 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights movement has seen depressingly predictable arguments about who was, and who was not, involved in the early stages of that agitation. Claims by Sinn Féin’s Declan Kearney that republicans, including the IRA, were central to the genesis of civil rights provoked outrage from veterans as...