Full Description
If memory was simply about past events, public authorities would never put their ever-shrinking budgets at its service. Rather, memory is actually about the present moment, as Pierre Nora puts it: "Through the past, we venerate above all ourselves." This book examines how collective memory and material culture are used to support present political and ideological needs in contemporary society. Using the memorialization of the Troubles in contemporary Northern Ireland as a case study, this book investigates how non-state, often proscribed, organizations have filled a societal vacuum in the creation of public memorials. In particular, these groups have sifted through the past to propose "official" collective narratives of national identification, historical legitimation, and moral justifications for violence.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword by Hastings Donnan
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Memorials as Silent Extras or Scripted Actors?
Book Outline
Chapter 1. Collective Memory and the Politics of Memorialisation: a Theoretical Overview
Memory in the Social World: Collectiveness versus Individuality
The Shaping of Collective Memory: Present versus Past
Lieux de Mémoireas Conveyors of Social Memory
Politicised Remembering: the Nexus between Memory and Power
The Politics of War Memory and Commemoration
The Memory Makers and the Projection of Narratives about the Past
Methodological Framework
Database of Memorials
Survey of Local Population
Interviews
Commemorations
Chapter 2. The Armalite and the Paintbrush: a Brief History of Memorialization of the Troubles in Northern Ireland
Commemorating during the Troubles
Funerals and Communal Burials
Annual Commemorations
The Mural Painting Tradition in Northern Ireland
The Early Years
Armed Struggle and Party-political Murals
Post-ceasefire and Peace Process Murals
The 1998 Agreement and the 'Boom' of Permanent Memorialization
Post-Agreement Murals
Permanent Memorials
Memorials to Paramilitary Combatants
Memorials to Civilian Casualties
Memorials to Security Forces
Memorials in Government Buildings, Party Offices, Workplaces and Churches
Commemorative Banners and Memorial Bands
Memorial Publications, Commemorative Pamphlets and Oral History Projects
Memorial Prizes, Awards and Trophies
Post-conflict Commemorations
Peace or Cross-community Memorials
Chapter 3. The 'Landscape of Memorialization' in Belfast: Spatial and Temporal Reflections
'New' Cultural Geography and the Concept of Landscape as 'Text'
Belfast and the Ethnicization of Space
The Spatial Dimension of Memorialization
Memorials as Territorial Markers
Memorials as Aide-Mémoires
Memorials as Sacred Places
The Temporal Dimension of Memorialization
Memorials: End of the War or Continuation through Different Means?
Memorials: still here or never again?
Memorials as Identity 'Crutches'
Chapter 4. The 'Memory Makers' and the Projection of Narratives of the Troubles
Individual 'Stories' versus the Collective 'History' of the Troubles: the Power of the Narrative
Republican and Loyalist Memorials: the Projection of Opposing Narratives of The Troubles
Two Imagined Communities: Creating a Symbolic National Identification
Cherry-picking from History: Opposing Versions of a Shared Past
Ancestries of Resistance: Manufacturing Genealogies
Forgetting to Remember: Social Amnesia and Euphemization
Delegitimizing the Enemy: Demonization and Stigmatization
Talkative Dead Bodies: the Politics of Commemorations
Chapter 5. The Clonard Martyrs Memorial Garden: Constructing a Dominant Republican Narrative
The 1998 Agreement and the Prisoners' 'Issue': the Formation of Ex-prisoners' Groups
The Greater Clonard Ex-Prisoners' Association
Enlisting the 'Unsung Heroes' in the Republican Narrative: Local History and Memorial Projects
The Clonard Martyrs Memorial GardeN
Planning Permission and Relationship with Local Authorities
Funding, Building Materials and Manpower
Construction of a Successful Dominant Narrative: Iconography, Language and Historical Selection
Perpetuating Collective Memory: Periodic cCommemorations in Clonard
Chapter 6. The IRSP/INLA Teach Na Fáilte Memorial Committee: Constructing a Sectional Republican Narrative
The IRSP/INLA Teach Na Fáilte Memorial Committee
Reclaiming a Place in History for the INLA: the 1981 Hunger Strike
Advancing a Sectional Narrative of the Troubles: the Belfast Teach Na Fáilte's Memorial Programme
Unveiling ceremonies
Provisional Republican and Republican Socialist Commemorations
Opposing the Dominant Republican Narrative: Post-1998 Republican Socialist Rhetoric
Chapter 7. The 1913 UVF and the Myth of the Somme: Constructing a Loyalist 'Golden Age'
'Lest We Forget': Loyalist Landscape of Memorialization
'From the Battlefields of the Somme to the Barricades of the Shankill': Borrowing Legitimacy
Mainstream Unionism, Republicanism and the Modern UVF Narrative
Disraeli Street: an Iconic Cluster of Memory
Loyalist Commemorations in Memory of Paramilitary Casualties
Changing with the History Tune: the Evolution of the UVF Narrative
Chapter 8. The UDA Sandy Row Memorial Garden: Attempting a Narrative of Symbolic Accretion
'You Are now Entering Loyalist Sandy Row'
Tiptoeing through History in Search of Illustrious 'Forefathers'
The Sandy Row Memorial Garden: Attempting to Appropriate the Myth of the Somme
Lay Out and Iconography
Role of Families in the Memorial Process
Remembrance Day
'What the World Needs now Is Love, Sweet love': 2007 UDA Remembrance Sunday
'Awakening the Sleeping Giant': Macro and Micropolitics at Commemorations
Chapter 9. Dissecting Consensus: Memory Receivers and the Narrative's 'Hidden Transcript'
Paramilitary Groups and Local Communities: a Complex Relationship
Coexisting in Ambivalence: Memorials and Local Residents
Consultation and 'Ownership'
Cohabiting the Same Space
Reasons behind Memorialization
Social Memory
Territorialization
Historical Change
Politico-ideological Exercise
Chapter 10. The Memory of the Dead: Seeking Common Ground?
At Last, a Common Ground in Northern Ireland?
Appendix A: List of Memorials
Appendix B: Emblems and Flags
Bibliography
Index
