On June 27th 2012, the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and former IRA commander, Martin McGuinness shook hands with Queen Elizabeth II for the first time at an event in Hillsborough. For many the gesture symbolised the consolidation of Northern Ireland’s transition to peace, the meeting of cultures and traditions, and hope for the future. Only a few weeks later however violence spilled onto the streets of north and west Belfast following a series of commemorative parades, marking a summer of hostilities.
That summer of hostilities spread into a winter of protest, riot and discontent around flags and emblems which fed into a year of tensions and commemorative-related violence marked again by a summer of rioting and protest in 2013. Outwardly these examples present two very different pictures of the ‘new’ Northern Ireland; the former of a society moving forward and putting the past behind it and the latter apparently divided over and wedded to the past. Furthermore they revealed two very different ‘places’, the public handshake in the arena of public space; the rioting and fighting occurring in spaces distanced from the public sphere. But why does this juxtaposition exist?
This six month research project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by researchers at the University of Ulster and Queen’s University Belfast, explored the phenomenon of commemorative-related violence in Northern Ireland. It questioned why the performance or celebration of the past can sometimes lead to violence in specific places and examined what this might mean as Northern Ireland embarks upon a decade of commemorations leading up to the centenary of its birth in 1921.
The Place or Past Team include: Dr Sara McDowell, Dr Máire Braniff, Dr Cathy Gormley-Heenan, Dr Duncan Morrow and Dr Jonny Byrne (University of Ulster) with Dr Joanne Murphy (Queen’s University, Belfast).
Contact: Dr Sara McDowell sp.mcdowell@ulster.ac.uk
Place or Past? 