In exploring the complex relationship between violence and commemoration in post-conflict Northern Ireland the project had three key objectives. They were:
1) To document and map violence associated with commemorative activities since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998;
2) To consider the motivational agendas underpinning the distinct acts of celebrating the memory and the violence;
3) To explore ways in which public bodies especially educational institutions and community and voluntary organisations manage commemorative celebrations.
A triangulated research methodology was adopted to meet the objectives which comprised quantitative and qualitative approaches. In mapping the places where commemorative-related violence takes place the project consulted with PSNI statistics, media databases, Northern Ireland Census information and data from the Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Statistics Information Service. The project team created a dataset of commemorative-related violence documenting incidents between the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the end of 2012. A range of commemorative practices were considered such as the unveiling of commemorative monuments, memorials, murals and other art forms, commemorative parades and anniversary gatherings and commemorative bonfires. These practices and processes acknowledged and remembered not only Northern Ireland’s recent past but it’s more distant. This data was then fed into a Geographic Information System (GIS) which spatially mapped violent incidents and permitted the layering of a range of additional data (such as deprivation indices, religious composition of neighbourhoods, physical interfaces) to explore and analyse the specificity of place and the influence of ‘place’ on commemoration and violence. In contextualising this violence the project team conducted a series of semi-structured interviews and conducted a number of stakeholder events and focus groups with those responsible for managing, performing and responding to commemoration. We visually recorded images throughout the life of the project to chart commemorative practices (non-violent and violent).
Place or Past? 